Fizzy Fun

We're half way through summer, and what can I say but that I'm starting to run out of my "regular" ideas to keep the kids entertained.  Some days they do great at playing alone, and the next day I am needed EVERY. SINGLE. MINUTE. or so it feels.

I saw this idea on Pintrest a while back and decided to finally try it.  It's a twist on the classic baking soda and vinegar volcano idea.  Simple stuff.

Here's what you'll need:

A shallow pan (glass 9x13 or baking sheet works great)

Baking Soda

Vinegar

Small bowl or cup

Pipette or Medicine Dropper

Food Coloring (optional)

I purchased some pipettes off Amazon.com a few months back, for this very thing.  I'm a chemist at heart, so pardon my nerdiness.  But yeah!! They're cool, and only about $2 for a hundred pack.

Place 5 or so big spoonfuls of baking soda in the bottom of your pan.  Drop with 6-8 drops of food coloring in various places.  I used blue and green since that's all I had, but you could use any colors and turn this into a great little lesson on how colors mix to make new ones.

Fill a small cup or bowl with vinegar.  We ended up using about a half a cup of vinegar...the baking soda lasted A LOT longer than I thought it would.  

Suction up vinegar and squeeze it onto the baking soda and watch it fizz.  Make colored bubbles and have fun!  Even after all the baking soda has been moistened there was still enough dissolved to make the liquid fizz when you dropped more vinegar on it.  Not quite as dramatic but still very fun!

We spent a good chunk of time doing this, and could have refilled the vinegar multiple times, but I cut it off after a while even though Violet would have gladly played longer.  Even as I type this she is looking and the pictures and saying "I want to do it".  So we might be heading back out for a round two :)

Tape, Rattle, and Roll

It's another scorcher outside, several day in a row of highs in the nineties and eat index of 100+.  I'm running out of ideas of what to do with the kids, even taking them 3 blocks to the library seemed dangerously hot in the van with the AC blasting.

So I whipped out an extra roll of painters tape and got to work.  We have probably a half dozen of them around the house since we bought TWO huge packs when we painted our last house, and...well...I'm not a hug fan of taping things off so we didn't really use it.  Anyway, get yourself a roll of the wide stuff, any color, and find a surface that is somewhat tape resistant.  I chose the kitchen as to not sticky-up our newly refinished hardwood.

Start by creating roads from strips of tape. Rip and stick.  Or just roll the roll until it feels right!  We created quite the network of highways from the trash can to the fridge.  Pulled out a few road signs, emptied the car bin, and we were in business. 

We even used some of the roadways as boundaries for farms, and put the sheep, horse, dog, pig, and cat out to pasture.

It's messy, so I'll say they had fun!