Piercing, Cooking and Blowing

We were walking through the mall this afternoon (yes, we got out of our driveway!) and my daughter eyed a pair of Hannah Montana earrings.

“Mom! I want Hannah Montana earrings!”

“Well, you need to get your ears pierced first.” She has previously had no interest in this.

“Okay, let’s do it now!”

I was excited, but unsure. Was she really ready? Would she pull on them? Would she chicken out once we got to the Piercing Pagoda? But she was ready, apparently. Gung-ho all the way. The ladies working there offered to each do an ear so it would be over in one shot. C got a little nervous when they were closing in on either side of her, but she did great. A little crying of course, but she got over it quickly and was very happy with her new “pink flower princess earrings.”

What else have we been up to? Well, we made a krispie treat volcano. We wanted to make this Fruity Pebbles Christmas Tree, but didn’t have the right size cookie-cutters. So we made a few star-shaped krispie treats and they tasted GROSS. I ended up squishing all the leftover krispies together and I said, “Hey, this looks like a volcano!” So the kids went to town decorating it with frosting and red and black food coloring. Then we threw it away. {Sigh.}

Last week, L and I went to a glassblowing demonstration that was completely awesome. I had no idea just how incredible glassblowing was. (Sorry about the photo quality, these were taken with my phone because I forgot my real camera.) He starts with this little ball of molten lava-like glass:

Then he blows in the tube - that long metal rod is a tube - to get something like this:

He has to continually roll it back and forth, keeping it in motion so it doesn’t become uneven. At one point, he held it still to demonstrate what would happen and the glass dripped onto the concrete floor and burst into flames. The kids loved that!

After some work, he was ready to put a handle on his mug. His assistant brought over another glob of molten glass and dropped it onto the mug, pulling it up and shaping it into a handle. Pretty amazing.

At home, we searched for some glassblowing info online and found the Corning Museum of Glass site to have some excellent historical and scientific info. Some of my relatives have been there and told me it’s fantastic. It’s not far from my hometown, so we plan to visit next summer. Your kids might also enjoy this YouTube video on glassblowing.

We’re looking forward to seeing National Treasure: Book of Secrets this weekend. And by the way, I found this cool unit study for the first National Treasure movie. PHAT Daddy and I enjoyed watching National Treasure with L and found that it led to lots of questions and interest in American history.

To round out this hodgepodge of a post, check out these instructions for tie-dyeing tissue wrapping paper. Then give a shout-out to Fussypants who found out today she is having her 5th baby boy.