Taking the Kitchen Outside Part I

I know I've posted about volcanoes before. Truly, we go through so much vinegar and baking soda in this house... but then I read an article about trying different things mixed in with the baking soda. This mom tried bubble solution, dish soap, and even orange pop and chocolate milk. Well, I wanted to do volcanoes outside since it is finally nice, and I wanted to try this. We used 7-up instead of orange pop, we didn't have chocolate milk and I wasn't sure about doing that out in the sun.... though apparently the chocolate milk was really cool. Anyways... she had actual measurements so I had the boys do all the measuring in the kitchen then we put our cups on a tray and hauled them outside. We used 2 tbsp baking soda and 3/4 cup vinegar for each volcano.

Now, because the pop, bubbles, and dish soap do different things a smart mama would have labelled the cups with a dry erase marker so that for next time we can just play with the most epic volcano... but I didn't. So we will just have to try this again. 

Colourful Rabbits

We have borrowed this great book from the library several times: "White Rabbit's Color Book" by Alan Baker. Today we decided to CRAFT the book. Only glitch... Turns out I returned the book to the library yesterday. Thank goodness for YouTube because we found it on there (it was a dumb video, just a lady turning pages and I had to read it, but whatever). 

Here's the story: White Rabbit finds three pots of pain - red, yellow, and blue. First she climbs in the yellow. Then, all yellow now, she climbs in the red. She is surprised to turn orange! She has a shower, turns white again, and climbs back in the red. Now red, she climbs in the blue... Tada! Princess Purple Rabbit. She showers and starts all over again with the blue, then decides to return to the yellow but, oh no, she turns green. The story has a twist ending which we did not recreate with our craft... Mostly because I didn't print off enough rabbits. The shower runs out of water, she doesn't like being green, and all that is left is a little red paint. She jumps in, turns brown, and lives happily ever after. 

Here is what the boys made... Every time she had a shower we paused the movie and got a new white rabbit. The colours weren't perfect but I think it was still fun. 

I Heart Watermelon

I don't know what is not to like about watermelon. It is juicy, sweet, and pink.
And you can do this:

The boys wanted to eat the turtle and I had cut all the fruit off. In hindsight, I should have left his feet and head like little watermelon slices. The boys ate the turtle anyways.

Rhubarb Rocks My World

So my neighbour invited me to help myself to his very plentiful rhubarb. I was very happy. I have already made a straight rhubarb crisp, rhubarb-orange juice, and now this: 

I call it Rhuberry Crumble Bars. I am currently trying to convince myself that I don't need another piece. The boys devoured it in seconds. Jacob said it was so good it tasted like birthday cake. Daniel asked if he could also have it for lunch. (We had this for morning snack... Is that wrong?) 

Here is what you need to make yourself a delicious treat!

Preheat your oven to 350. Butter and flour an 8x11 pan.

Crumble Layer- melt 1/2 cup butter or hard margarine in small bowl and then add 3/4 cup brown sugar and 1/4tsp salt. Mix in 1 1/4 cup flour until crumbly texture. Put in fridge until ready to use. (I used part whole wheat flour)

Rhuberry Layer- In a medium bowl toss sliced strawberries and sliced rhubarb with 2 tbsps brown sugar and 1/3 cup white flour. I didn't measure the fruit. I just filled up my medium mixing bowl. 

Bar Layer- mix 3/4 cup room temp butter with 1 1/4 cup icing sugar until fluffy. (I used my stand mixer). Add 2 eggs already lightly beaten and 3/4 tsp vanilla. Add 1 cup flour, 3/4 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt. Spread in prepared pan.

Top batter with rhubarb/strawberry mixture. Top that with the crumble mix. Bake for 50 minutes.

Cool completely and dust with icing sugar.