Rubber Egg (also called see-through egg or raw egg peeler)

Too cool!
You MUST try doing this sometime!!
Pour a glass about half full of white vinegar. Put in a raw egg. Leave for a couple of days. (Ours worked in about 24 hours.)
When you take the egg out it feels like rubber!
Here are some before and after shots.

Before (the bubbles are just starting!)

After (notice how it looks swollen, and yellowish-that would be the yoke)

See the difference?!

The vinegar reacts with the calcium carbonate of the eggshell to make calcium acetate, carbon dioxide (the bubbles) and water. It eats away at the eggshell until all you have is the inner membrane surrounding the white and yolk.

It amazed not only the kids, but us adults as well!!

I Spy: Zoo Train

Ryan borrowed an “I Spy” book from the library recently. And like most things that strike his fancy, he is obsessed with it now. Subsequently he has taken to making his own “I spy” scenes. Here is the first.

I spy a red flag, a brown reindeer, a potato in a car, and one bunny ear.

I spy a dragon, a seal, a knight and two cheetahs in a cheetah fight.

Sandia Crest

A few years ago we made a trip to Sandia Crest, overlooking Albuquerque at 10.,867 feet, vowing that we would do this again regularly. Well, we haven't done that, but today we decided it was time to go back to the top of the Sandias. The drive there was faster than I thought it would be, and before long we were parking near the ranger station. After a quick picnic lunch, we started some hiking. We first went along the crest, and then we took to the La Luz trail, which connects the crest with the foothills below as part of an intricate network of mountain trails, along which one may spend an entire day and traverse the length of the Sandias. This I plan to do when my sons are older.

We eventually hiked a mile or so down and then back up, and, while the kids (and the adults, truth be told) were tired by the end, everyone did a great job along the way. In spots, the trail is maybe one foot wide, with a pretty steep dropoff down the mountain at your side. And it's amazingly lush and green. In fact, at the crest it was almost chilly with the thin air and the breeze.

Here are two pictures from the trip. First, Summer and Evan walking to the car after lunch:
And second, the kids at the crest, with the city behind them: