Marbled Marshmallows

Marbled marshmallows. What do you think?!

After making Pac-Man Marshmallows, you're going to have small amounts of red, pink, blue, orange and yellow Candy Melts left in little bowls. Don't rinse them out! Instead, scrape the remaining bits into a separate bowl. Drag a toothpick or the edge of the spoon through the colors to mix them slightly, but do not stir or drag too much.

 

Drop a large marshmallow into the bowl. Gently roll it until it is coated on all sides. 

 

Remove it gently with a spoon, then set it on waxed paper to dry.

 

I was able to make 5 marbled marshmallows using just the leftovers from Pac-Man. I put one in Trevor's lunchbox yesterday and it was a big hit with his friends.  

I'm definitely going to be doing this again.

Pac-Man Marshmallow Treats

Marshmallows + Candy Melts + Candy Eyeballs = Pac-Man marshmallows! Now I have an edible Pac-Man set to go with the definitely not-edible Pac-Man rubber finger tips. This post contains affiliate links.

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Pac-Man Marshmallows

Materials: 

• large marshmallows
• Wilton Candy Melts (yellow, red, white, blue, and orange)
• Wilton Candy Eyeballs 
• waxed paper

Steps to make the ghosts:

Melt one color of candy in a small bowl. Drop a marshmallow in and swirl it around until it's completely covered. Lift it out with a fork and let it drain slightly. When it's done dripping, transfer it to waxed paper. Let it cool for a minute or two, then put the eyeballs in place. If they slump downhill, remove them and wait another minute and try again. Or leave them that way, like my Clyde (orange). Repeat for the rest of the ghosts.

Steps to make Pac-Man:

Compress one marshmallow vertically until it is more round than cylindrical. Use kitchen shears to snip out a triangle from one side. 

Dip it in yellow and swirl to coat it completely. Lift Pac-Man out with a fork, allowing all the extra candy to drip off. Put it on waxed paper and let it cool for a minute or two before adding a single eye. 

Oh, and don't rinse out the bowls of melted candy yet. Tomorrow I'll show you how to use up the little bits that were left over.

Vacaville's Jacks

After finding all 25 of the decorated fiberglass jackrabbits in the nearby city of Vacaville, I was tempted to make a mini book with all the photos I took. Each Jack was so beautiful and totally unlike the rest. In the end, I decided to just stick with what I usually do and made a single layout with some of my favorite photos from our adventures.

Besides, whenever I want to see all 25 photos together, they're right here for me to enjoy.

Glue-Resist Cursive Name Art

After making the glue-resist spiderweb project, I wanted to try a similar technique to see what would happen.

Materials: watercolor paper, white glue, mists

Use white glue to write your name in cursive on watercolor paper. Do not substitute a lighter weight of paper. You need the heavy watercolor paper for this to work.

Let the glue dry completely (overnight is best). Spray the paper with mists. (I used Tattered Angels Glimmer Mists.) Let the mists dry completely. Gently peel the glue off the paper. Work slowly and carefully. 

Occasionally, the paper will want to tear. Use one hand to hold the paper down around the glue while gently pulling up with the other hand. 

There's a bit of a learning curve to this project. I started with the Y and you can see that it looks much more rough than the rest of my name. You might want to practice with a random squiggle on a scrap of paper before peeling up your name. 

Adventures in Science, Meetings #2-4

Last week, Trevor's Cub Scout den finished up their "Adventures in Science" activity pin. I've already shared what we did for the first meeting, so I recommend reading that first if you haven't already.

Meeting #2 was in our garage Cub Scout Science Lab. We did a bunch of experiments with different household items like baking soda, vinegar, and dish soap to observe chemical reactions. 

The boys used scientific equipment, including pipettes and test tubes.

We tested different reactants with litmus paper, made predictions, conducted the experiments and made observations.

 

Meeting #3 was a field trip to the California Raptor Center on the University of California, Davis campus. Each Scout had prepared questions to ask the scientists and volunteers that work at the Raptor Center. If you are local to the area, I strongly recommend a visit, particularly during one of their open houses. 

We toured the facility, watched an excellent presentation, then visited the museum. This is what Trevor would look like if his eyes were as large as an owl's eyes are in proportion to the rest of the face.

 

Meeting #4 took place in the Cub Scout Science Lab and in our kitchen. I split the boys into two groups. While Steve stayed in the Science Lab showing one group how to make series and parallel circuits, I did some food science with the other group. We talked about how oil and water don't mix, then connected that to how cream rises to the top of milk. Each Scout shook a container of cream, stopping when it was thick to taste the whipped cream they made. 

They returned the lids to their containers and continued shaking until the liquid separated out and they were left with butter. The Scouts gave their homemade butter a big thumbs-up.

 

After we finished up the stations, we went back to the Science Lab to have a building competition. Each Scout had one piece of newspaper, 200 stickers, and 15 minutes to design the highest free-standing tower he could.  

 

Trevor's tower looked promising at approximately 30" tall...

 

... but literally one second after I called time, it fell over. Steve measured each remaining tower and declared the winner to be the one that was 26" tall.

I had such a fun time leading the science adventure. Congrats to the boys for all the hard work they did to earn this activity pin!