Walking water experiment - it actually worked!

I saw a post for a science experiment that I tried with the kids this past weekend.
Take 3 cups.
Fill 2 with water, and leave the third empty.
Using food coloring, color the 2 with water.  I chose yellow and blue, but you can use any colors you want.  Set them up in a row, with the empty cup in the middle.
Roll up 2 paper towels into skinny snakes, and put each with one end in the water and the other in the empty cup.
Result:  The water should walk up the paper towel and fill the empty cup.  The color will be the appropriate combination color (yellow and blue make green), and the water level should be even in all 3 cups.

I figured the color would turn out as it was supposed to, but I honestly did not think the water would be even in all 3 cups.  That's a lot of water to move out of each cup, and I really thought the level would be significantly lower in the middle cup.

I set up the cups at about 3pm, and Emi predicted that the water would be green (I am impressed that she actually knew that!).  When we went to bed that night, there was a little bit of green water in the middle cup, and Emi went to bed thinking she was the smartest person in the world.  The next morning, the water level was equal in all 3 cups!!  I am shocked... it really moved that much water out of each cup.  Even 30-somethings can learn new things!

October recap

Hana's Elsa pumpkin

Emi's Hello Kitty pumpkin

 

The Frozen sisters

Those of you that know me, know that I LOVE Halloween.  Last year I started a "Spooky Town" collection, and I hope to add to it each year.  This year it was setup on the mantle, but if it grows I may have to find a table to build the town on (yippee!).  I did not decorate the outside of the house this year, so Mr. 6 Ft Spider hung on our wall inside the house near the kitchen.  The first few mornings I think I even startled myself when I came down and was greeted by him. 

Last year, the girls only made it to 3 houses and then said they were scared and started crying.  So I did not have high hopes for this year's outing.  But we spent the evening with our good friends, and there were about 9 kids total Trick or Treating together, and it was great!  The girls scored a bunch of candy, and it made me so happy to see Hana especially running top speed from house to house and getting really into it.  I wish I had gotten it on video:  she was scaling hedges, walking through front lawns, and even revisited one place again because she didn't want the night to end.

It was probably August when Emi said she wanted to be Elsa for Halloween this year.  They had it all planned out: Emi would be Elsa, Hana would be Anna, Bear would be Sven, Chewie would be Olaf, and Daddy would be Kristof.  Oh yeah, the afterthought - Mommy would be a troll.  How did I get the bum end of this year's costumes?  But then the next week Hana really got into the Incredible Hulk and said for over a month that she was going to be the Hulk for Halloween and she loved him because he "smashes" and would punch the air.  So I got their costumes:  Elsa for Emi and the Hulk for Hana.  When I brought them out and said it's time to try to them on, Hana started crying and said she didn't want to be the Hulk anymore.  Either the costume scared her, or she remembered Emi's birthday party when we did face painting and she thought her face got itchy when she asked to be the Hulk.  Good think I think ahead (and mostly didn't want to get stuck without finding these sold out Frozen costumes anywhere) and got an Anna costume, just in case.  Don't I know my kids well?

All in all, we had a great October.  Emi had her first field trip with her Kindergarten class to a working farm and pumpkin patch.  Since each kid needed a chaperone, we were able to bring home 2 pumpkins which both kids were very excited to decorate.  They both turned out very cute, and I think we need to paint the pumpkins from now on.  It's SOOOO much easier and less messy.  The farm did tell us that if you save the seeds, dry them out, keep them and plant them in June, we should have pumpkins by Oct.  I have saved our seeds and we'll see if we get any next year!  I'll keep you posted.