Hiking and tarantulas

We are very fortunate to live close to a wonderful lake for hiking and swimming.  Earlier this summer during a naturalist guided boat tour of the lake, we discovered that one of the coves was named Tarantula Cove.  Then last week I heard from somewhere that the tarantulas were out and about at the lake now.

So when we entered the park, we asked the attendent about the tarantulas.  He told us several things about the spiders so when we were hiking we were on the lookout for them.  

photo from wikipedia

The park attendant told us that if we encountered a spider with a bald spot, it meant that the spider had been disturbed.  Apparently one line of defense for this spider is to kick off hairs on its abdomen, this apparently irritates their enemies. We did encounter a squashed spider on our hike but no live ones.  Other hikers we talked to did see the spiders. Today my boys were more interested in watching a large group of great danes play in the lake.  We still have a couple more weeks for tarantula spotting so I am sure we will try again.

I did find interesting tarantula facts at wikipedia, enchanted learning,  and national geographic.

Pumpkin Pie Tarts

The other day I was walking around Target without children which was a treat and I saw pumpkin pie pop tarts.  I was seriously tempted to buy these because I love all thing pumpkins, but I thought maybe I can make something like this at home.  Lucky for me the next day this recipe was posted by picky palate and saved me the trouble of having to create a recipe.  

Pumpkin Pie Tarts

Adapted from www.picky-palate.com

• 1 Cup canned pumpkin
• 1/4 Cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 Cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

• 2 8 in pie crusts
• Soft (spreadable) butter
• granulated sugar
• Tablespoons ground cinnamon
• Fall or Halloween themed cookie cutter
• Melted chocolate for drizzling (optional)

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  In a large bowl mix the pumpkin, sugar, heavy cream, egg, cinnamon and nutmeg until creamy and well combined.

2.  Place rolled out pie crust on a parchment sheet.  Cut out pumpkin or other fall/Halloween shapes.  Place parchment sheet and cut outs on baking sheets.  Spread butter on each cut out then sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.  Spoon about 2 Tablespoons of pumpkin pie filling around center of cut out leaving 1/4 inch border around edges.

3.  Bake for 25-30 minutes or until pie crust is golden brown on the edges and pumpkin pie is cooked through.  Let cool for 10 minutes on baking sheet then transfer to cooling rack.  Serve room temperature or chilled.  Drizzle with melted chocolate if desired before serving.

Notes:

The original recipe calls for 2 boxes of puff pastry.  I had one box in the freezer so I made some tarts with puff pastry and some with pie crust.  Both were good but I think I would make this recipe more often with pie crust because it is cheaper and I usually have the items on hand to make pie crusts. 

Tie-dyed milk

Supplies:

1. Pie pan or other shallow dish
2. Milk (2% or whole)
3. Food Coloring-several colors
4. Dish soap
5. Toothpicks

Experiment:

1. Fill pie pan with approximately 0.5 inches of milk
2. Add several drops of each color around the edge--
3. Dip toothpick into dish soap
4. Touch soapy end of toothpick to milk
5. Observe what happens
6. Repeat steps 3-5

Explanation

            When the soap tipped toothpick touches the surface of the milk the colors create beautiful patterns.   The scientific explanation is too complex for young children, but this doesn’t stop them for watching and enjoying the chemical reaction. 

Both of my children enjoyed this experiment.  My two year old was totally mesmerized by it.  I have repeated this experiment several different times now because it keeps my children occupied so I can get sometime done!  

Observations

Happy 4th of July!   Despite trying to think of a red, white, and blue science project, I could not.  June was an incredibly busy month for us and we are exhausted.  Unfortunately July is turning into another busy month.  Hopefully we can enjoy the lazy days of summer in August with many afternoons spent swimming in the lake!  

I saw these dinosaurs in the grocery store and decided that these would be our science project.   

To make this activity scientific, I thought we would graph their growth.

To make them grow, we placed in them into warm water.

After a couple of hours, we measured them and compared the new size to the starting size.

We started this project too late in the day so the boys had to wait until morning for the next measurement.  The dinosaurs grew a lot over night.  I have more of them so I will repeat this activity but start in the morning.

Soda Geyser

I had heard of this experiment before but I didn't realize it was so easy to do.  Over at Steve Spangler's website he sells a tube for dropping the mentos into the 2-L bottle, but it isn't necessary.  We were able  to create a small geyser that entertained both children and daddy with out it.

Any soda will work--I choose Coca Cola (recently in science camp we observed that dark soda produced a higher geyser) and orange soda (Bam's favorite color).  I was told by the teacher that only mint mentos work.   We didn't use a whole package of mentos per bottle.  I used about 8 for the Coca Cola experiment and Bam used 3 mentos.  You really have to drop the candy in quickly otherwise you get covered in sticky soda.

My husband was so impressed and surprised by the Coca Cola experiment that he forgot to take pictures.  We didn't tell him what was going to happen.  Here is the start of the orange soda geyser.  

Bam and Bob running through the sprinklers afterwards.  More fun than tanking a bath after this sticky experiment.

building electrical circuits

Last summer, Grandpa gave us this electrical circuit kit during one of his visits.  Over that weekend, Grandpa played with it a lot but Bam showed no interest in it until just recently.  Bam dug this kit out and is loving it.  The booklet has lots of different projects to build.  Our kit is similar to this one (not quite as many components, but I am sure that I will be buying more components soon): 

Our first project was Morse Code

Then we made a voice recorder--huge hit with both boys!!

Bam and Bob also liked the water and salt water tester

The recommended age for this toy is 8-13 years old.  I have been having Bam find the components in the box (each component type has a number or letter and number identifier) and then I help him place them on the labeled grid.  The boys and I have been swamped with morning and afternoon swim lessons and family obligations lately. One more crazy week and then the boys and I can do more exploring and other fun activities.  

Books about firefighting

Bam is VERY into all things related to fire engines; therefore, Bob knows a lot about fire engines although he doesn't show quite the same level of interest. In the last few months we have even discovered an author, Chris Demarest, who has written several books about fire fighting.  We first discovered this book: 

Then about a month ago at our library we found another one of his books:

In this book the fire engines are green which Bam had to question because city fire engines are either red, white or yellow.  So we started talking about how the US Forest Service has green fire engines.  Bob surprised me the other day when he saw this book and said "Hotshots."  On the inside cover of this book, it lists two other books--one about smokejumpers, and one about about coast guard rescues, Bob's other obsession.  So off we went to the library in search of these two books.  

After reading the smokejumpers book, Bam was determined to create a smoking jumping costume so we did while Bob was napping.  We had almost everything for it but I need to come up with a better parachute.  Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures.  

St Jude's Trike a Thon

This week we have been preparing for our St. Jude's trike a thon that I am hosting with a friend through our local mom's club.  The trike a thon fundraising program teaches young children about bike safety. We have had a lot of fun this week with the lesson plan.   

Each day we read one bike safety rule and colored the corresponding page in the coloring book.  

Bam wanted to see the lesson plan book while coloring so he could use the correct color for each object on the page.  Bob was just excited to be coloring.  

Once we had gone through the 4 lesson plans, we played the game.  

Before the bikes raced around the park, I had a local police officer come to re-enforce the bike safety rules.  All the kids loved having the police there.  

I really like this event and was impressed with St. Jude's program and attitude toward the fundraising aspect of the event.  Each child who raised $35 will receive a t-shirt.  I hope that we can do this event again next year.  

Butterfly release

Our nine butterflies were released into our backyard.  

The boys were eager to have them fly out of the "hatching" chamber. 

The butterflies were very excited when I moved them from our house to the backyard. When we opened the top, a couple of the butterflies flew out instantly--almost running into Bam and Bob.  By the end of the day all nine butterflies were free.

I did find this one in our yard later on.  

Learning about the butterfly life cycle has been fun.  The boys were very excited about the caterpillars.  Bam even took them to preschool to show his classmates.  The boys lost interest during the chrysalides stage, but were excited when the butterflies appeared.

Phase Change Experiment--Making Butter

I saw this idea somewhere a long time ago and today I had cream that needed to be used so we made butter (otherwise known as a phase change experiment)

I filled a jar about 3/4 of the way full with heavy cream---any container would work.  To make butter just shake the container.

As you can see Bam was not really into this experiment--Mom, do I really have to shake this--I want to play with my new toy!  Bob was too preoccupied playing in the sand box to even notice us.

After 15 minutes of shaking, mainly by me and grandma, butter was made.  This butter is really good, we have been eating a lot bread with fresh butter.

Bam and I also talked about other things that go through phase changes such as ice.

So we watched the ice melt.  Then Bam came up with his own experiment, re-freezing the water.  He was pretty excited about it.

Drawing Games

Recently I bought a large whiteboard because it was magnetic, but Bam and I have been having fun playing these drawing games while Bob is asleep.  These games start by me placing random dots on the board.  

CONNECT THE DOTS:

Connect the dots with straight lines--pretty simple idea yet Bam found this very entertaining.  I was surprised at how straight Bam's lines were--He really took his time drawing them. 

DOTS:

We started with dots randomly placed on the board then we took turns drawing straight lines between dots.  Interestedly Bam didn't add on to my lines most of the time.  He would start his own path.   The first several times we played we connected two neighboring dots with straight lines.   Later on we started using diagonals.  

Bam has taken an interest in creating interesting drawings and stories to go with them.

He loves sharing these stories with Bob as soon as he wakes up but doesn't like it when Bob touches  the white board and erases the lines.

Science Sunday: Nature Walk

Our weather has been unseasonably cool lately and I am still using the heater in the mornings.  Although I am not looking forward to the heat that will be here before I know it.  Today we decided to take advantage of the sun and go for a nature walk.    

We started off the nature walk by doing a "sink or float" experiment. 

 Bob started throwing rocks into the water.  

Then we switched to leafs and other items.  Verdict:  rocks and shells sink while leaves and sticks float.

Bam thought this place was the best for a quick rest plus there were a lot of rocks to throw into the lake.  

Here Bob is trying to use the kid binoculars.  Next time we need to bring the real binoculars.  There was an island with lot of birds on it, but I couldn't tell what they were.  

zoo trip

We haven't been to the zoo much this winter so we made a quick trip while the weather was good and before all the end of the year school field trips invaded the zoo.  

All lot of the animals were out on this trip.  The tortoises were very active. 

Bob loves these yellow frogs...

and giraffes.  

Ooey gooey--Science Sunday

The 1st ooey gooey science experiment was oobleck which has unusual physical characteristics. It is equal parts cornstach and water with food coloring.  

Although it looks like a liquid, it feels like a solid.  

Bam is rolling and squeeze it to make a ball or snake, but ....

as soon as he opens his hand it turns back into liquid.  Bob would not touch the stuff.  He was interested in watching and saying "yuck" and "icky." 

The 2nd ooey gooey science experiment was gluep.  I have seen so many different recipes, two of which I have tried.  For some reason I can not get this to work.  Today recipe is as follows:

1. dissolve 1 teaspoon of laundry borax in 6 tablespoons of water. You will need to stir this for a while to get it to dissolve. (If a tiny bit does not dissolve, that is OK.)
    
2. combine 1 tablespoon of water and 1 tablespoon of white glue. If you wish, you may color the mixture with a couple drops of food coloring. With a clean spoon, stir the mixture thoroughly until it is uniform.
    
3. Put 2 teaspoons of the borax solution into the glue mixture. Stir the mixture.
    
4. As you stir the mixture, it will stiffen into a soft lump. Then knead it in your hand for a couple minutes.

I followed the 4 easy steps, but the gluep was not elastic--it would break apart if stretched.   I even tried this recipe 3 times.