Volcano, Part 2

The explosion! Well, first we had to paint it. The girls did a great job. This afternoon was the grand finale...we poured vinegar into the top of the volcano and we got our red lava to bubble up to the top and pour out! Lola didn't like the smell of the vinegar, but she did enjoy the project as a whole!

Volcano, Part 1

Recently, Lola and I were chatting about volcanoes. She was fascinated by the fact that where her grandfather lives, Montreal, there is a dormant volcano. I told her how we used to find lava rocks as children. She wondered if they were still hot! Anyway, it gave us the idea to make a volcano from paper mache and have it "explode". I didn't realize at the time that it was really a 2-3 day project. Step 1 was making the base and the shape of the volcano. We used plastic cups and balled up newspaper glued to a box to make our shape. Then we poured some baking soda and a few drops of red food dye into the bottom of the volcano. After we waited a day for the glue to dry, we made the paper mache solution and shredded the newspaper. Lola covered it in paper mache, leaving a hole at the top for the "lava" to come out!

Baking Cookies

Lola has been asking to bake cookies for a long time. She is quite independent in the kitchen, wanting to do everything herself. I'm learning to be patient with that because I really want to nurture her love for cooking and baking. It's tough though!
Anyway, this time I let her do a lot more than I've allowed her to in the past. She is pretty competent, I was impressed! We made these great little vegan chocolate chip cookies from our favorite recipe. They were delicious!

Under the Sea!

Today was a great day to visit the aquarium....especially since it was a free admission day! yay! We checked out all kinds of sea creatures, from jellyfish to sharks. It's always a fun day there.

Melons...

Lola has been asking to plant cantaloupe for a long time. I decided today would be the day, but the problem was we had no prepared garden bed space left. The melon seeds required 4' spacing and we have a tiny, tiny yard. But I didn't want to let her down so we made a new garden space today. It wasn't easy to dig out the grass, but it's worth it to see if we're successful. I hope it's not too late in the season, though...I wish we would have started a month or two ago.
We worked all day and got it done. We even threw in a couple of corn seeds (kernels) to see what would happen! Next week, we need to get some peas going and our sweet potatoes.

Reptiles, oh my!

Today we went to the zoo with a friend to check out the insect house and the reptiles. We learned a bunch about snakes, spiders and bees! Too bad there were not a chrysalis to be found in the butterfly garden...we were too late for that.

Wanna sleepover?

Today, Lola made invitations to her friends for a pretend sleepover party. She can't wait for the day when this party will stop being the pretend party that she fantasizes about and become reality!! Anyway, on her invitation, she listed the items that she thought her friends should bring: slippers, sleeping bag and pajamas! So cute.