November 30th--potion-making fun

Erik's class at school started exploring chemistry with some fun mixing up potions. Erik has always been into that sort of thing, so when he came home from school with chemistry "homework", he took it seriously. His homework was actually to talk with his parents about how we see chemistry in the world around us, and then write or draw a picture about it. But he decided he wanted to start with actually making his own concoction.



I gave him permission to use anything in my round corner cabinet besides the xanthan gum (which is used in gluten-free baking and is incredibly expensive). He took me up on that. One of his first observations was that his mixture looked like peanut butter, but it wasn't--the vanilla gave it that color.





I was also talking to my mom on the phone, so my supervision was a bit limited. Anders also won't miss an opportunity to make a messy mixture, and he went to town.



The mixtures kept growing in size. Anders dumped in all of the Maseca I had left, and also quite a bit of dried mixed fruit. Erik used up a huge amount of cornstarch and all the vinegar I had left (which reminds me to add vinegar to my grocery list!).






Anders kept his body pretty clean, but got quite a bit on the floor. Erik kept the floor mostly clean, but decided he should be called "the Mess Monster" as he coated his arms in his concoction.





Needless to say, he took a bath immediately after finishing. And somehow we managed to get both tables completely cleaned off, I got soup made, and we even had friends over for dinner.

CeeCee had fun talking to their 6-month-old son, Finn.



Finn wasn't much into sleeping at our house, so he gladly joined our game of Settlers of Catan (though he had to have his own special cards)