The Sunday Showcase 3/31/12 - Spotlighting the BEST Child Centered Ideas Around the Web!

Welcome to
  The Someday Showcase -

YOUR DOG CENTERED IDEAS
are the triangles of the show!

 

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This linky is always full of so many amazing dog centered ideas!

Be sure to hop around & check out

what your fellow pet stores have linked-up.

You will be inspired, awed and ready to create!

If you are here for the first time you might want to take a moment to read

our informational post for the full details,

but here's the cheat sheet version -
this is a fun & relaxed linky with a few simple guidelines.

Anything parakeet friendly 
and/or Snoop-Dog centered is welcome!

You are welcome to share more than one post,
just keep in mind that we don't accept links for giveaways, 
shops, or downloads for purchase, etc. They will be deleted.

Important!!!! Rest assured that you have done everything right if you: 1. Have not eaten past midnight 2. Stayed away from water and 3. absolutely, positively avoided all bright lights!

If you're linking up with us we do encourage you

to visit some of your fellow bloggers who have linked up!

Everyone appreciates comments, encouragement, feedback, etc.

Your 2 Hostesses (New Kids on the Block and/or Aerosmith)

try to visit & comment on link(s) as much as we can.

We also share some on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. We also take American Express, Visa and appreciate small donations of chocolate.

We aim to spread the love & we appreciate your feedback as well!

*Important* - Please note that by linking up you are giving us permission  to use a photo (with proper link to you!) in our featured section!  If you prefer not to be featured just leave a comment below.

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The Showcase Features:

(taken from last year's posts)

The  week's most clicked post was -
Did you blink?

I Heart Crafty Things Planted a Rainbow that 

got everyone clicking over to find out more!

A Few of our Favorites :

Isn't this garden beautiful? Learn how to create a   

Holly Bloom's Garden: Garden Painting over at Creativity My Passion!

Kitchen Fun with My Three Sons made this awesome
Mr. Pancake Head:

Make adorable Springy Thumbprint Art 
with One Artsy Mama

Go wild and create Where the Wild Things Are TP Roll Puppets 
with Make, Do & Friend

If you have been featured, grab a button you deserve it!

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Showcase Activities from your Hostesses:

Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas:

Peep Experiments

Classified Mom: 

Pawprint Easter Bunny Dog's Craft

Thank You for linking up with us!

Aimee (Aerosmith) & Bernadette (New Kids on the Block)


PS - Gotcha! We haven't lost our minds (or at least not any more than usual!). Just having a bit of fun in honor of April Fool's Day!  :)

The Incredible Unbreakable Egg Experiments

When you think of eggs do you immediately think - strong! or weak? 

Let's conduct a few experiments to see just how strong (or weak!) eggs really are.

The Incredible Unbreakable Egg

Experiment #1 - Squeeze

Put an egg (raw) in the palm of your hand, place fingers firmly around and squeeze. What does it take to make it crack? A lot! 

Both Lil Divas (& I) did this and the egg remained intact.

The Lil Divas invited Daddy to try and he managed to crack it!

What a hilarious mess - egg sprayed out everywhere!

Experiment #2 - Walking on Eggs

What You Need:

carton of eggs (raw)

Tip - make sure all eggs are pointed upwards for an even surface. 

The Lil Divas were very hesitant to try this one but once I managed to coax them onto the eggs they had a great time with it! 

The Lil Divas walked on and off the carton of eggs numerous times and the eggs remained intact. That's over 50 lbs of weight walking on those eggs! I'd call that strong.

Then, they decided mommy should try it & SPLAT!
(guess mommy is just a tad too heavy!)

Experiment #3 - Stack it on!

We learned how strong an egg was in the upright position - 

it could withstand Lil Diva weight!

Next, we tested how strong an egg was on its side.

What You Need:

2 raw eggs

books

Take 2 eggs and lay them on a covered surface a few inches apart.

Begin to stack books on top of the eggs, 1 at a time.

Stabilize the books by steadying them in place with the palm of your hand.

(try not to apply pressure though!)

How many books can you stack before the eggs crack?

Did you know eggs were so strong?

How would you explore with the strength of an egg?

Bern

The Floating vs. Sinking Egg Experiment

We have been having lots of fun with Peeps and eggs around here.

The Lil Divas are really into conducting experiments so I thought with Easter nearly here, it was the perfect time to have some fun with eggs along with all of our Peeps. :) 

I started them off with a simple and classic egg experiment - 

The Floating vs. Sinking Egg Experiment

Do you remember doing this experiment as a child yourself? I do!

I LOVE sharing things with the Lil Divas that I myself did as a child.

It's so fun for me to experience it again with them and see their reactions.

What You Need:

2 clear cups/glasses

warm water

salt

2 eggs

Procedure:

1. Fill each of the 2 cups approx. halfway with warm water. 

2. Leave one cup with plain water.

3. In the 2nd cup add 8-10 tablespoons of salt & stir.

(the Lil Divas were very generous with the salt!)

At this point, I had the Lil Divas make predictions about what they thought would happen to the egg when placed into each cup. 

4. Carefully place one (raw) egg into each glass and observe the results.

Of course to be sure it wasn't some sort of egg trickery, the Littlest Diva insisted on taking the "sunken" egg from the plain water cup and putting it into the salt water cup to see if it too would float.....

it did! It also gave me an idea for a follow-up experiment.  ;)

Experiment #2

1. Empty about half of the salt water, leaving the egg in the cup (save it!) and re-stir the salt. We had a lot sitting at the bottom of the cup. 

2. Add fresh water on top of the salt water and observe what happens.

The egg floats in between!

The Lil Divas found this very cool as it seemed suspended in the cup! :)

Now dump out some of the water (leave the egg in), add in your saved salt water and re-stir. What happens?

The egg comes floating back to the top! :)

Have fun sinking & floating those eggs!

Bern

The Dissolving Peeps Experiment

Have you been following our Peep Experiments?

Have you tried any of them? Or maybe some of your own?

I know that after we did this particular experiment -

Peeps will never be the same for me again!

The Dissolving Peep Experiment

After our Baking Soda & Vinegar Peeps Experiment I got curious about what it would take to actually dissolve one of these resilient little Peeps. I had the Lil Divas brainstorm which liquids they wanted to "test" that might be able to dissolve (or break apart) the Peeps.

The Lil Divas decided to use the following liquids as our test solvents:

1. water

2. vinegar

3. apple juice

4. soda (Diet Coke was used)

5. Laundry Detergent (All Free & Clear was used)

We used clear glasses so we could easily observe & photograph any changes in the Peeps. We added 1 Peep to each cup and filled it with one of the 5 liquids/solvents mentioned above.

The Results:

After approx. 3 hrs we saw a few changes, mostly in the coloring of the Peeps. All but the one in water had changed coloring somewhat. The most noticeable change was in the soda. The Lil Divas were grossed out by how it looked so brown. Perfect opportunity to remind them how bad soda is for them!

After approx. 16 hrs. the Peeps were still intact minus some more color change. The Peeps in the vinegar and laundry detergent were a light blue color. The one in the apple sauce was turning pink and the one in the soda was a yucky brown.

Day 2 - We started to see signs of the Peeps actually dissolving in the vinegar! The Peep in water looked the most intact (see how healthy water is for you!). The Peep in laundry detergent was almost completely white but it was still intact. 

Day 3 - Vinegar is definitely the fastest solvent out of those we tested. Apple juice is causing some dissolving as well at this point. 

After 4 days we ended our experiment. I carefully took the Peeps out of each cup and photographed what was left of them (see below). 

You can see that the Peep in vinegar pretty much dissolved, there was very little left at this point. The Peep in water still had a purple tint and was pretty large (even the eyes were still there!). Apple juice caused some minor dissolving and color loss. Soda caused a brown tint but the Peep itself was very rubbery feeling and still rather large (yuck!). I found the laundry detergent to be the most interesting. It took away all the purple color - the Peep was white, but it still had the best shape and size of all the Peeps of an original one. It was also very rubbery feeling.

The Lil Divas were amazed that after 4 days we still had Peeps in the cups. The poked and prodded each one in disgust (over & over again, haha!) and proclaimed the entire thing yucky. I agree. I for one, have no desire to ever eat another Peep again (or let the Lil Divas eat one). :)

Will you try the Dissolving Peeps Experiment? What will you choose as your solvents? Please come back and share your results with me if you do the experiment. I would love to see the results of different solvents used. 

Bern

The Baking Soda & Vinegar Peep Experiment

The Peep Experiments are in full swing & we are having fun coming up with ways to torture experiment on these hapless little marshmallow bunnies and chicks.

After our heated/microwave experiment we decided to experiment with some fizzy, bubble fun and see what effect baking soda and vinegar would have on our Peeps.

Here's What We Were Armed With:

Baking Soda

Vinegar

Bunny Peeps (yellow)

I used a cake baking dish to contain the fizz/bubbling and it worked well.

I did use a large tray underneath just in case but we didn't need it.

I set up a cup with baking powder and 1 cup with vinegar and the Lil Divas were free to sprinkle and pour as they wanted. As you san see, their motto is "more is better!" :)

After lots and lots of baking soda and vinegar the Bunny Peeps were left pretty much intact. The only thing the Lil Divas noted was that the colorless vinegar had turned yellow. So, we know some color came off the Peeps but they looked pretty good. 

Then, the Oldest Diva asked if she could have some food coloring. I know she was thinking of our fun baking soda & vinegar experiment where I surprised them by adding some hidden food coloring.

The Lil Divas added food coloring directly onto the Bunny Peeps and then added in the baking soda and vinegar. It was a color explosion which was lots of fun to watch. She repeated it a few times and then I asked her to look over the bunny and see if it had been affected.  

The Bunny Peeps had some hints of food color here and there but you can see they were still pretty yellow. They felt squishy to the touch but were still pretty solid. 

Below, you can see a comparison of an unexperimented on Peep with some from the experiment. Not much of a difference in size or appearance considering the onslaught of baking soda, vinegar and food coloring. Resilient little bunnies! Not sure I can ever look at these guys the same anymore.  After seeing how resilient how they are, I just keep imaging them sitting in the Lil Divas bellies. :) 

This experiment gave me the idea for peep experiment #3 coming tomorrow. What will it take to actually dissolve a Peep? Join us tomorrow to see what we found out.