Day 47: Mad Scientists

We were still pretty much useless today. And it was gloriously nice to be useless for an entire weekend. Brad worked in the garage and the kids "helped" finishing a couple of bigger projects around the house, like splitting our yard in half so that Juno has her "own" yard and can dig and poop and do what dogs do and NOT jump over our worthless 3 foot tall fence in the back and chase the turkeys/cats/foxes/everything, and I stayed inside and played video games like the good little housewife I am. 

Juno's new yard mecca. Higher fence + freedom to dig and poop = happy dog and happy humans

Juno's path from the back door to her yard. Brad made a nice gate at the back door. 

Seriously though, in the world of colds, this one is a wicked one. Brad and I keep having contests on who can cough harder and break ribs. 

I did take a walk with the dog and my neighbor today. Color me productive. 

I did feel bad that I've basically ignore the kids all weekend so I pulled out a science kit that Calen got for his birthday and figured it was a great lazy indoory type day to do it. This one was the classic erupting volcano. I figured the box would come with a volcano mold, vinegar and baking soda and maybe some food coloring. You know, basic stuff. 

Well it came with plaster and paint and you build the volcano from scratch (with a mold). 

Okay, cool. So it'll be a little more involved. The kids will like that. 

My fault for not reading the instructions earlier in the day, because once we poured the plaster in the mold and waited 45 minutes for it to harden, it said to wait at least 1-2 days before painting and then you can do the experiment. 

Commence disappointed kids. Oops. 

Luckily we had two more boxes of science kits at the ready so I pulled out a crystal mining kit and the kids spent a good hour chopping away at this block of....something....hoping to find crystals inside. 

Except, the plastic butter knives the kit came with took 400 years to even expose a tiny piece of rock inside the block, and the kids started to lose interest. After an hour, I don't blame them. 

So I did what every good scientist does. 

I slammed that sucker down on the sidewalk and watched the block crumble into five or six chunks, exposing all the crystals. 

So there. 

The kids still had to carve the crystals out and then wash them in the sink and really did enjoy it. And it obviously took a lot longer than I thought the activity would so it was a win-win. 

Except for that block. It didn't win. 

Impenetrable brick of doom (please appreciate our volcano drying on the table)

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