Allsorts

 I've always liked licorice allsorts, but it took me a while to realize that they were called that because they were "all sorts" of licorice.

As we finish our summer, we've been doing "allsorts" of things!

We made some really delicious ice cream.  I guess it was actually frozen yogurt, but it was lemon and cherry flavored with mini chocolate chips.

Mmmmmmm.  Maybe it was many chocolate chips!

We also have been making popsicles.  Our current favorite is nutella pops!  It's just nutella mixed with cool whip and milk and frozen, but it tastes exactly like it sounds!!

Continuing the yummy treats theme, Klenda whipped up two fabulous chocolate souffles for the feast of the Assumption!  They were also exactly as delicious as that sounds!

We also did a big water balloon fight (which I wish I had thought to get in pictures).

 We've been doing a lot of bird watching.  This is the time of year when lots of juvenile birds are out and about, and they are delightful and hilarious to watch!

We had a pair of juvenile cardinals,  some young grackles, and about three dozen sparrows mobbing our feeder.  A jay swooped in and everyone scattered except a juvenile sparrow who hopped at the jay and startled him off!

The picture is a red tailed hawk who hung out outside our dining room window.

The most fun has been the five hummingbirds at our feeders.  These tiny birds are very territorial, and one female is convinced she owns all three feeders.  She chases and chases, and the others swoop in to steal a sip while she is off chasing someone else!

I've been getting ready for my Chemistry class!

We've been doing a bit of redecorating.

Oob and Choclo fell in love with this fuzzy rug, and when asked where we should put it, they wanted it in the basement to lie on while they read comic books...

Mostly we've been working on giving the living room a steampunk theme.

We're not done yet (more pictures later) but it's coming along!

Kids In Snow!

Snow ice cream!  You take a bowl of fresh snow and mix in a can of condensed milk. Easy peasy and yum!

Ice Cream Day!

It has been too hot. By "too hot" I mean that at 7 am it's 84 degrees but feels like 90 because of the swamp like humidity. Days of triple digits... what to do? Haul out the little inflatable water park? Great, but you can only spend so much time there. How about declaring it to be Ice Cream Day?

Worked for us! We downloaded bunches of ice cream themed work sheets from Enchanted Learning: Venn diagrams, word searches, fractions, etc. We made fabulous construction paper ice cream cones. Zorg made a dish of paper ice cream that stretched nearly from floor to ceiling complete with sprinkles, syrups and a cherry on top. And of course we made actual ice cream: chocolate chocolate chip and strawberry blackberry. Plenty of science there!

One thing to look at: How does the ice cream get colder than the melting ice? Every time matter changes phases it either takes on or gives off energy. Another way of looking at that is to say that it takes energy for matter to change phase. You can lower the temperature of water to 32 degrees without freezing it (ice water is 32 degrees). You need to remove more heat (energy) to change the 32 degree water into ice (although the ice can still be 32 degrees, the heat/energy removed is in the phase change not the temperature). The reverse is also true: when you melt the ice with salt (around the ice cream freezer) the phase change absorbs energy and the temperature of the salty water drops (it won't refreeze because of the presence of the salt). Where does it get the energy from? From the heat in the ice cream makings. The heat is absorbed by the salt/ice reaction, the temperature drops and your ice cream freezes!

If your kids are too young to get that, you can do a fun experiment seeing whether ice cream melts faster in a plastic or metal spoon. Good chance to talk about specific heat and why some things feel colder than others at room temperature.

Ahh, sweet, slurpable science!!!!!