On Tuesday I wrote about a Science experiment my kids came up with on their own. After my son's paper towel without salt dried more quickly than the one with salt (which was not what any of us expected), I asked why he thought it turned out that way. He said he probably hadn't put the same amount of water on both, so we re-started the experiment, carefully putting the 2 Tablespoons of water on each paper towel and a generous amount of salt on one. We also re-started my daughter's experiment making sure to use the same amount of water on all the paper towels and the same amount of sugar and salt.

In the end, both experiments proved that salt made the paper towels dry more slowly. Sugar also slowed the drying, but not as much as salt. It actually makes sense now that I think about it since the sugar and salt would have absorbed water, slowing the evaporation.

And here's other "science" stuff from this week:

On Tuesday afternoon, my friend brought her son over to play while we chatted. After a while, we heard an unbelievable crash coming from the steps. I guess they were experimenting with gravity! They loaded a bunch of Hot Wheels cars on a Rubbermaid tub lid and slid it down the stairs. I was just thankful they weren't trying to slide down the stairs themselves on the lid! Believe it or not, I let them do this a couple more times (and they added more stuff every time) So here's what happens when a bunch of cars, Legos, beads and other assorted little toys hits the stair landing:

(Actually, the kids were very responsible and started cleaning up before I got my camera - it was much more of an explosion than this appears to be!)

And yesterday morning, we had a cool nature moment. My son was looking out the window and asked me to come look at a bird he saw sitting on the edge of the ice. "Is that a Bald Eagle?" I quickly found Dad's binoculars and confirmed that it was a Bald Eagle sitting (very much alone) on the ice in the middle of the lake. (None of the gulls or gees that usually hang out there were anywhere near that eagle!) We watched for a while and snapped a few pictures before we saw him fly away. (Unfortunately I couldn't get the shot before he flew behind a neighbor's house - but watching him fly was amazing!)

See him on the edge of that ice? Here's a cropped close-up. Too bad my camera couldn't zoom in further.