Volcano : Decorating and Erupting

Oy, it took me longer to get to this post than I meant to. Ok, so when I left off in Volcano: Pt. 1 the volcano looked like this:

So the next day I took acrylic paint,

Now, one of the reasons I took the paint and decorated the volcano is that the clay cracked. If you don't want a cracked volcano, do not use this method- I would do paper mache- but I liked how it looked, so no biggie. So I used the orange acrylic to add trails of lava, and cover up some of the worst cracks. 

I then used the black and red paint to paint the layers on the inside of the volcano:

Then I wrote out the labels for the layers, glued them to sticks if I needed to, if not, I glued them directly to the volcano. 

To make the lava I did vinegar diluted in water with red food coloring. Then I used baking soda to make it erupt, which the kids LOVED. I ended up making it erupt around 5 times. Just as a note.. this is extremely messy, you've been warned. So now some pictures of the eruption (please ignore the unflattering pictures of me)..

It was an extremely popular program, I think this might be one we repeat in a couple years.

Making a 'see inside' volcano Pt. 1

Friday at CRRL Headquarters we have our monthly school-age (K-6) program and we've had to raise the cap (usually 40) because of the amount of interest in the program. So I decided I probably shouldn't put off making the volcano any longer. So I figured I would also show how I made it: warning this was a messy process.

I started with two long floral Styrofoam pieces that you should be able to find at your local craft store:

I cut it down to the size I needed. I'm using a pizza pan covered with aluminum foil :

The plastic bottle is a 20 oz soda bottle with the neck cut off. To cut the foam I used a mixture of kitchen knives. In order to keep the foam in place when I cut it, I inserted wooden dowels: 

Next I drew out my basic shape directly on the foam: 

Then I used a bread knife to get the volcano down to cone size! 

At this point I took a break to clean up all the Styrofoam pieces-- that took a while. I also used an old paint brush to brush off some of the loose pieces. After that I ran outside to some of the pine tree branches that fell during the late-season snow storm VA got last week. I cut off some small (I mean SMALL - no longer than 2 inches) branches so that the volcano could have trees - because volcano ash actually has a lot of nutrients so if it doesn't erupt often- plants begin to grow:

Then, I pulled out the modeling clay that we got. Now, if you are going to do this make sure you buy AIR DRYING clay. You DO NOT want to put Styrofoam in the oven.

For the next part you want to make sure you are wearing old clothes that you don't mind possibly getting stained. I used parchment paper on the counter, and a rolling pin to roll it out. I then realized I should have put parchment in between the clay and rolling pin cuz I might have ruined my rolling pin, luckily it was a $2.00 one! I then started attaching it to the foam by pushing it in. I also used it to keep the plastic bottle in place. After I finished with the clay I put the branches into it. 

I found it was very important to smooth over the areas where the clay meets. I also made sure it was not perfect because volcanoes aren't smooth. 

Next up, either working of the "lava" or adding paint so that the "inside" view has layers. 

Missouri Trip: Coming Home

While Superman and I had a wonderful time out in Missouri, we both were ready to come home. We left Missouri between 9 and 10 am their time (so add an hour for VA time). Partially because it was wintery mix-ing, but also because we were ready to come home. So we left and it rained pretty much the ENTIRE TRIP which was not fun. It really wasn't that bad until night fell while we were in West Virginia and it was still raining. That was not fun. However, Snickers again was very well behaved. Since she was SO well behaved during the trip we ordered a bag of dehydrated chicken feet for her since she loved them SO MUCH! So that was our trip home, a nice short one. Oh it took us like 14.5 hours. Which compared to the trip out was a breeze. :-) 

Missouri Trip: St. Louis Zoo

One of the things we always have to do when we go to St. Louis is go to the St. Louis Zoo. Now, I'll admit I haven't been to many other zoos. Actually I think I've only also been to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. but I think the St. Louis Zoo is the best out of the two. I'm sure there are people who will argue with me, but I'm pretty sure just one section of the St. Louis Zoo is the size of the ENTIRE National Zoo- at least it feels like it when we walk it. But I can also admit that one of the reasons I love the St. Louis Zoo is that they have a penguin house, and I collect Penguins. The first time I got to go the the St. Louis Zoo a penguin actually tried to escape the habitat right by my head- so I always say that penguin was either trying to give me a kiss or go home with me. I'm ok with either thought :-) However, this time I had a great camera!

Normally, I despise snakes but there was one in the Reptile House that I called "cute" which made Superman chuckle. It is this adorable green one with silver eyes. 

There is also a pretty awesome one of this frog:

So the Zoo was awesome. If you want to check out more pictures they are HERE. 

Missouri Trip : The Drive Out to MO

Superman and I drove out to St. Louis, MO this past week in order to attend a friend's wedding and, luckily, be out there for one of his brothers' birthday. We were very excited to be going out since we hadn't seen Superman's family in a while (ok I hadn't, he saw them last year but for a not great reason- a funeral). Anyway, I got off an hour early on Tuesday (cuz I go to work early) so we were able to get on the road around 7pm. Following our usual method we drove through the night to avoid rush hour traffic around the cities. Normally this trip takes between 13-14 hours. HOWEVER, this time a fairly massive, late season snow storm covered the majority of our normal route. To the point that about an hour and half to two hours into the trip I had to shake Superman awake because I could no longer see the road due to the super heavy snow that had appeared on Rt. 64. I say suddenly because one minute it was just rain then BOOM lightspeed style snow. Normally we (ok I) start singing Star Wars songs when hitting snow like this (ok, fine, that is all me). However, this time I started to panic. I think that it didn't help that truckers were flying past me like it was just rain-- so we took the next exit, found a gas station, filled up and switched places. When at the gas station I called my Mom so we could see how far out the storm covered. Unfortunately, the storm went all the way through the majority of the states we were going through. Because of that we  stuck with  our original driving plans and decided to continue on to take Rt. 81 south, through Tennessee, then to I think Rt. 40 to Rt. 24 , so on and so forth (we knew the storm was coming).However, if it had been the same on the radar in Tennessee we would have just dealt with it and gone the easier way.  This way was supposed to take 14 hours but it took 17 hours. This was because it still snowed/iced through the majority of Tennessee too! UGH. Luckily though, that was not nearly as bad as what we hit in VA. We thought that we might have to stop off in Blacksburg, VA to stay the night with my brother if it looked like it was going to be the same in Tennessee.  So the drive out was hellish. We have no desire to repeat that, so from now on we will do our best to plan our trips out to MO during the summer.

However, there were some highlights for the drive.
1) I got to start and got about a disc and a half into my next audio book: Starclimber (Matt Cruse #3) by Kenneth Oppel.
2) Snickers, who went with us, was THE BEST DOG EVER during the drive. She slept until it got bright, then she sat so that she could look in between the front seats and watch out the window. The only issue we had was she kept wanting to climb into the front seats for cuddles. No whining! It was AMAZING
3) During the drive through Tennessee every now and then we would have a short break in the clouds and I pushed my head against the window at a funny angle to stare at the stars. This made Superman laugh.. and maybe tease me a bit.

That was our drive to Missouri. Like I said, only during late Spring/Summer now! 

Our dog's not spoiled... we're just well trained..

As many of you know, Superman and I have a basset hound, Snickers, who is quite spoiled. She is used to sleeping on the bed with us so when we got a new bed frame from my Aunt's parents that was so high she was not able to get up on we decided to give her a step up. As a temporary fix we used a wooden shoe rack thing from Walmart that we already had. Well, this past week it broke so we knew our temporary fix needed to go away. So Superman went to Home Depot and got 2 eight foot lengths of 2x4s and he headed over to my parent's house where he and Dad went over the design idea and used Dad's table saw to cut the pieces to the correct size. Then Superman came home and put together a nice, sturdy footstool so that Snickers will be able to use to get up and down from our bed using a nails that my Grandfather was nice enough to give us! Those nails (he gave us a lot) will also come in handy as we work on finishing the basement and maybe make some raised garden beds for the backyard once we get that cleared.

This is Snickers, our almost 3 year old Basset Hound :) 

The awesome footstool Superman made! We have a bathroom rug covering it so Snickers has a better grip getting up and down from the bed. 

~Elphie~