Bouncy Egg

How to Make and Egg Bounce!

Another request for science, but this time we didn't have time to mix and squirt and fizz. I'd seen this experiment ages ago on the internet but Olly found it in his science book. 

First we filled one glass with the dreaded vinegar (honestly my house constantly smells of the stuff!), and one glass with water. Then we dropped a raw egg into each:

Instantly you can notice a difference - the vinegar is on the left.

After a couple of house we noticed the shell literally shredding:

Now this is the boring bit - you need to leave it for 7 days!! Luckily we were going away for 4 so that wasn't to hard. Every day we were there we felt it and it was getting softer and softer.

Then on day 7 when we got home this is what we found:

It was really rubbery and squidgy.  So next came the test. You do need to be gentle, but it does actually bounce - even I was amazed!

Then as with all things in my house distruction becomes the goal! It didn't take very long, but a harder, higher drop and SPLAT!

It was funny how the egg inside was still a runny, messy, raw egg (smelling of vinegar!), but the shell was like plastic!

The Science Bit

The vinegar, which is an acid, reacts with the calcium carbonate  of the eggshell. The change makes the shell go soft then disappear. Its called decalcification.

You can apparently try this with a clean chicken bone as well which should turn so rubbery that you could tie it in a knot!

As always thank you for getting this far!

Stretchy Play dough

Stretchy Fun

If you like tactile things then this really is for you! And it is (like most the things I do soooo easy!)

You need two ingredients - Cornflour and Hair conditioner (I bought a really cheap non branded economy one!)

Mix equal quantities and then kneed until it all starts coming together and you are done!

You might want to add some colour - we didn't!

It smells lovely (depending on the conditioner!) 

Its pretty amazing stuff - you can stretch it for ever, but if you pull quickly it will snap!

Happy Stretching....

Fathers' Day

Long Time No See

We have had a lot going on recently and are in the process of moving house and area, so things are a little stressful to say the least! This is not to say that we haven't still been doing activities and I have still been catching a lot of it on camera, however I have not had time to put it all down, hence the lack of blogging.

Today, however I find myself at home with a sick child forced to sit on the sofa in front of endless kids films and decided it was a great time to catch up on some blog posting. So here we go with a quick one to start!

Something a bit different

We don't do as much for Fathers' day as Mothers' day (I guess that is my fault!) however we do always make some cards. Together with the boys (who really don't like drawing!) we decided to make a Fathers' day card in a different way this year.

We made the letters out of them!

They were so good at staying still most of the time.

The "Y" was the funniest and they really couldn't stop laughing!

I then put them into a photo editing app and the boys helped decided on the design - I am not the best photographer (in fact I admit I am pretty bad) but nevertheless we liked the outcome:

I will try not to leave it so long next time!

If you have manage to scroll all the way this far, thank you!

Plaster of Paris Egg

Easter Time!

I found this post that I hadn't posted so here you go!!

During Easter I had a few afternoons just with Olly so we decide to try making a "porcelain" egg for Easter!

This was so quick and so effective!

We filled a squeeze bottle with mixed plaster of paris then squeezed it into a blow in water balloon.

Then left it in a cup for literally about 15 mins - it feels hard...

Then we started to peal away the balloon - I loved this bit - a bit like pealing dried glue off your hands!

The finished egg was brilliant and so shiny it really did look like a real egg. Now if I had girls we would have spend ages lovingly paint this, but not with boys - they took it outside and smashed it!!

As always thanks for reading!

Lent Activities

Well, it seems an age since I have posted on here, but is actually only 4 weeks! We have been doing less crafty activities recently for one reason or another, manly recently due to the lack of rain and the boys being outside!

Having said that we are a couple of weeks into Lent and we have been following a series together from the maker of The Truth in the Tinsel that we followed during Advent.  The series is called A Sense of the Resurrection and is brilliant. There are only 12 activities and so we are doing 2 a week and pondering over what we have been doing. One of my favourite so far was washing each others feet - we all had a go!

I can take no credit for the activities but I thought I would share the most recent one that we have done as it was fun and tasty!

Resurrection Buns

Todays activity was about the last super and Jesus breaking the bread. I have seen these floating around the web for a couple of years then this weeks activity came up and it was about bread and tasting the bread so I though I would take the bull by the horns (As it were!) and go for it.

They are actually very easy and a nice way to tell the Easter story.

You need:

a tin of croissant dough

marshmallows

melted butter

cinnamon

sugar

The relevance of the ingredients is as follows:

The dough - This is the tomb where Jesus' body was put

Marshmallows - Jesus' dead body

cinnamon, sugar and butter - the spices and oil that they embalmed him in

Firstly lay out the croissant triangles. You then dip the marshmallows in the melted butter and roll them in a mix of sugar and cinnamon. 

You then wrap them in the dough and make sure it is all sealed.  We then painted the buns with butter and sprinkled sugar on the.

You then bake them in the oven - for about 15 mins until golden.

Once they have cooled, cut them open and.......

They are empty! Jesus is no longer in the tomb - it is empty because He has Risen!

The boys didn't like the cinnamon in them - I loved it!

As always thanks for getting to the end!

Wax Crayon Hearts

Wax Crayon Hearts

We have been very slack on the activity front recently, infact we haven't really done anything! I think we have all been getting over the craziness that was Christmas!

Having said that, we went away at half term and wanted to take some gifts so here is what we did:

This is really good fun, and you could do any shape, we just decided on hearts. You need some old wax crayons and some silicon moulds:

Firstly we broke up all the wax crayons - this is very destructive and so obviously and activity that the boys LOVE!!

Then you just fill the moulds with the bits:

You can have a lot of fun with colour combinations.

You the put them in a hot oven (mine was 250 degrees) for 10 mins. They come out all runny like this:

You then need to wait for them to completely cool and then take them out of the cases and enjoy!

I am seriously lacking in motivation at the moment for activities, but I will try and work up some enthusiasm over the next few weeks!

As always thank you for reading!

Hot Chocolate Spoons

Friday Treat Time

I have been wanting to try this out for a while, and I decided I would do it for the boys as a treat for after school.

I melted some chocolate and then let it set enough to get a full spoonful. Then I put some chococolate drops, fudge pieces and marshmallows on top before putting them in the fridge to set.

After about 30 mins they were ready to be served:

The milk was warm enough to melt the chocolate but not hot enough that you couldn't drink it!

It did actually turn to hot chocolate eventually , as long as you didn't eat too much of the chocolate first!

It was a tad sickly but good fun - I think they would have liked the spoons on their own!

Thank You!