...
I want to be a princess.
my reply:
oh really, and what will you do as a princess? (you must understand how shocking this was to me. we don't have much princess stuff, and we certainly don't place great emphasis on princess-ness with our girls).
I will dance. and after I'm Snow White (it changed sometime in there), I want to be...
a volcanologist.
when Addie gets focused on something, she's stuck on it. sometimes it lasts a few days. like the
what is a miracle mommy? question. her
all things animals kick isn't as prominent now, but there isn't a day that goes by that something animal related isn't discussed around our house.
but somehow she got stuck on volcanoes. I dont remember how or when except she eagerly discussed it with my brother when we were in Raleigh. he, being the always thinking brother that he is, told her that I could certainly build her a volcano that we could erupt. thankyouverymuch!
and then the discussion quickly turned to assuring her that it would be a pretend volcano and the pretend hot lava would not in fact be hot at all!
after watching volcanoes erupt on
mommy's computer and checking out a handful of books from the library on volcanoes...
hot lava talk soon moved to
most volcanoes happen in the ring of fire around the pacific ocean (no where near us!) when the pressure underground pushes the magma up and out causing the volcano to erupt hot lava and plumes of ash creating craters...
...
all of which can cause salamis, otherwise known as tsunamis!
so last week, I got up the
energy courage to gather the supplies and build this thing. storms were predicted for the afternoon, so I was counting on a long little girl afternoon nap.
because this was certainly one of the larger projects we'd attempted.
and so we proceeded to build a volcano.
I think when I built one in elementary school, I had a nifty little megaphone I'd gotten at some sports event which became the form for the volcano.
since we didnt have any of those lying around the house, we just used posterboard.
and then instead of making my own paper-mache (knowing the large volume of newspaper strips it required), i cheated with this...
best $4 i spent at w@lmart all day!
so we (i) cut the pieces, and we dipped them in water before placing them on the cardboard cone.
while we
patiently let the plaster dry so we could paint it, we watched volcano videos online and learned more about how volcanoes work.
but that didn't last too long!
this kid was giddy with excitement about building a volcano, but i've never seen her quite so serious as when it came time to paint it!
she made sure every bit of that volcano was covered with paint!
from top to bottom...
and all that serious painting paid off!
unfortunately her 3 year old mouth prevented us from erupting the volcano that night, but it served as a great reward for helping us pack and load the car the next day!
you think she was excited?
her first reaction was a little funny because even after all of that prep, i'm not sure she expected what happened when that food colored red vinegar hit the baking soda.
but it didnt take long for her fascination to return along with her reassurance to us that that pretend lava was in fact
not hot!
a week later, she's still going strong with this one. we've watched a few more videos and found a book for her to keep from the bookstore. every library book we checked out pertaining to volcanoes has been read multiple times.
i sure am thankful this big girl has her daddy's memory. it takes everything within me to keep up with her, but it's such a joy to witness her make new discoveries and learn knew things...and then want to share them with us and others!
what's next? musical instruments just in time for christmas!
