The Cardboard Box

When my kids were little, they were the kind of kids that would be equally, if not more interested, in the box a gift came in rather than the gift itself.  Nothing was more fun than a great big box.  One day the box would be a ship, the next a fort, followed by an igloo or treasure chest or any number of things.  Cardboard boxes were decorated with paint, crayons and markers. Secret clubhouses were created along with magical worlds and castles and it was always a sad day when the boxes became so ragged that they had to join the trash pile. Whenever gifts came with bubble wrap - well - that was a bonus as that meant at least an hour or two of pure happiness and enjoyment.  Sometimes they would pop each individual bubble slowly and methodically and other times it was a full out popping festival complete with jumping and twisting the bubble wrap until every last bubble was popped. The package wrappings and boxes were their favorite things for many years and then like most children, what was inside the packages began to hold their fascination more than the plain wrappings they came in........or so I thought. Yesterday Mr. Yesteryear Acres and I received a very kind gift in the mail. It really brightened our entire day and was just the most thoughtful gift.  Our gift arrived in a big styrofoam cooler and was packed in dry ice. All 3 of my kids thought the gift was wonderful and were definitely appreciative but when they saw the DRY ICE.....well that is when the excitement really began. Our entire evening last night was spent watching our 3 kids come up with different experiments with dry ice. Did you know that if you add dry ice to dishwashing soap, you can create the most interesting bubbles you have ever seen? And if you clap the bubbles in your hand, they turn to smoke. It was actually really fun and to see the joy on my kids' faces was just priceless.  They performed a number of interesting science experiments with the dry ice but their favorite by far was the grand finale.  They put dry ice and water into an empty water bottle and closed the lid tightly and then set it down OUTSIDE FAR AWAY FROM EVERYTHING AND EVERYBODY.  Then we waited at a safe distance. Did you know that when a water bottle explodes - it is REALLY LOUD?!!  When the first one exploded we all jumped a mile high and then fell down laughing.  It was very impressive. We repeated that experiment several times. We ended the evening using a very thick litre container. It took almost 20 minutes for the gas to explode and WOW that was so loud it shook the earth. My son got the biggest kick out of the evening. He decided at that very moment he would follow in my daughter's footsteps and major in chemistry. He said he couldn't imagine anything more fun than blowing things up.  I guess now I will have two chemists in the family. When my daughter comes home over the Thanksgiving Holiday, she and my son have already drafted the secret "AA BOMB".  So if anyone hears a nuclear type explosion out in the fields around our home, please don't be alarmed.  It is merely young chemists hard at work.