1. Candy Experiments

I wrote a post this week about sharing what you love with your kids, so they can know you better and what makes you unique (and so you don’t forget what you enjoy!).

Well I LOVE candy and I was a science major in college, so when I saw the link to science experiments with leftover Halloween candy I had to try them. The first experiment was “Color chromatography with M&Ms”.

“The word “chroma” means color and “graph” means to write or document.  So this experiment is documenting the true colors of our candy. We chose M&Ms as our test subject.  There are 6 colors of M&Ms – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and brown.  However, those dye colors are not listed as ingredients.  Instead, other colors are blended to make these 6 beautiful colors. But which colors are found in each?  That’s what candy chromatography is going to tell us!” -The Quirky Mommas

The boys favorite part was melting the M&Ms in drops of water and putting the colored water on the filter. They didn’t really care about the results of the experiment. =)

The second experiment we did was to guess which candies would sink & which would float. We made our hypothesis first and then ran the tests.

The only candy we found that floated was the 3 musketeers (marshmallow filling…less dense). The boys thought that was very cool. But they enjoyed eating our “test subjects” the most!

2. White orchid tea

I also wrote this week about making the time to have “In Real Life” friendships. Sunday night I went out with a group of friends to a fancy restaurant…but not for dinner. Instead we enjoyed the yummy desserts and fancy tea. Don’t you love this set-up? I tried a new scrumptious tea called White Orchid.

3. Adventures of Tintin books

My boy mom mentor, Leslie, was so sweet and loaned my boys her copy of the Tintin book “The Secret of the Unicorn”. They absolutely loved it and so this week I used my wonderful Amazon prime membership and ordered the next book in the series, “Red Rackham’s Treasure”. It arrived in a couple days (free shipping!) and my oldest son’s best friend sat on the couch and read it to him.

If you have young elementary school boys, check out the “Adventures of Tintin” books (there is a movie coming out this December directed by Steven Spielberg based on the two books in the series I mentioned above).

4. Little Bites Muffins

It used to be that my 2-year-old would eat anything. Now with the busyness of toddlerhood it’s hard to find anything that interests him…particularly for breakfast. I finally landed on a winner. He loves these little mini-muffins by Entenmanns. 

Each box has 5 pouches and each pouch has 4 muffins. He loves to hold one muffin in each hand. whew!

5. Emerging Butterflies

Remember our little caterpillars?

When I got back from Relevant we noticed they had formed their chrysalides

This past weekend they emerged. All within 24 hrs of each other. It was amazing to watch something so innate. Each of these creatures had never done what they were doing. They immediately came out and clung to the mesh side and unfurled their wings.

The beauty of transformation.

6. Stories that motivate to action

This week I have been reading the stories of several women who are in Ecuador right now with Compassion International. They are witnessing the difference Compassion sponsorship makes for these families. If you have not read their stories please take the time this weekend to do so…you won’t regret it. I will warn you that they will convict you and you may experience your own beautiful transformation.

Here is the link to all their blogs: http://blog.compassion.com/compassion-bloggers-travel-in-ecuador/ 

If you can only read one post…read this one: http://www.aholyexperience.com/2011/11/when-you-are-in-desperate-need-of-hope/

What were some of your favorites this week?