Seventeen and Science Smart

When Derek was in first grade he hit his eyebrow bone on the playground at school.
 

He ended up with a concussion and an MRI.  The doctor who did the MRI was in our ward so was very chatty with our timid six year old Derek.  He kept commenting on how big Derek’s brain was and how smart he was going to be.  

It turns out that doctor was right.  Derek is the smartest seventeen year old I’ve ever met.  His understanding of science and math blows me away.  In his spare time he reads Science Digest and during lunch one day he was found reading a medical dictionary for fun.  He came home that day and told me in great detail all about arteriosclerosis.  Later in the trimester, during English class, he was learning how to do research for a paper.  The teacher initially thought he was joking when she saw his topic but Derek followed through and surprised her with an in-depth, well researched and very informative paper on arteriosclerosis.  As he plans ahead for college and a future career he wavers between biomedical engineering, nuclear engineering and civil engineering.  That little picture of a big brain, his love for learning, and his ability to work hard leave us no doubt that Derek  will succeed in any of these.

When it came to planning a birthday party for Derek, science was the obvious choice.

Food:

I really had to stretch my mind back to elementary school science to come up with the menu and in the end Google did most of it.  Derek's favorites were the Periodic Table of {Sandwich} Elements and the Fruit Molecules.   

Experiments for all ages:

First, we poured the magic growing solution into cups and then we applied the gooey blue stuff. Insta Worms....just as advertised.  The kids figured out that if you squeezed the bottle really hard it would make a big fat worm and if you let it trickle into the solution you had scrawny thin worms.  

  I didn't want to stop the fun to get on to the rest of the party so I just let the kids play in it.  They spent about 45 minutes stretching, squishing, wondering, and reading up on the how and why of these scientific creatures.  The only reason they stopped was because they ran out of blue goo.  While we did our outdoor experiment they left some worms on the plates to see if they would dry and some in the solution.  The ones on the plates did not dry out until the next afternoon and the ones in the solution grew even fatter and they looked and felt like real worms with thicker ridge parts and pointy ends.

Our next experiment was similar to an episode of Myth-Busters.  Do Mentos dropped in Coke really create an Old Faithful sized fountain of carbonated goodness?  Yes, yes they do.

Well, not quite Old Faithful size but taller than Derek and that's a tall fountain!  We took the time after each fountain to taste and examine the Mentos holey, bumpy layers and some even drank some of them even tasted the Coke.   

Bret had the great idea of putting Mentos in his mouth and then drinking Coke.  

We couldn't stop laughing as he foamed at the mouth.   The rest of us didn't dare try it but asked him all kinds of detailed questions so we could share in the experience without gagging ourselves.

Gifts:

Nathan and Hyrum had fun picking gifts that they knew Derek would like.  A nail through his finger, a mini Rubik's cube and a mini claw made it to the checkout stand.  They were spot on!  He played with and loved them all.  Add the silly string that Bret and Erika gave to him and the party was complete.

Cake:

With Hyrum's help he proudly proved that he doesn't have any girlfriends.  

We all thought Sierra was his girlfriend but the candles never lie. 

Orange radioactive Sixlets came pouring out of the inside of the cake proving the caution warning on the outside to be valid.  With no protective gear on, Derek, Sierra and Daymia fought over the inner poison, declaring it their favorite.  The rest of us settled for the moist chocolate cake smothered in layers of orange flavored frosting.

The post party experiment:

Erika taught Levi how to braid Daymia's hair.  The hardest part for him was getting the tiny rubber band to wrap around the hair with his big manly hands. 

Not bad.  

His future daughters will appreciate his fingernail painting and hair braiding skills.