Yawn.....

Because I am tired! But as late as it is, a little break from cleaning to update my blog won't hurt.

Let's see....

Oren came home a couple weeks ago with a letter from his teacher that the science fair was coming up, and that he had 2 weeks. Then, the next week, there was another reminder letter. Finally, 2 days prior to turning it in, she tracks me down while picking the boys up for an appointment to ask if I ever got the booklet on how to do the projects! Which I hadn't! Procrastination has unfortunately been a problem for me as of late, but how did those 2 weeks fly by so fast?

So the night before they were due, Oren and I scrambled up a quick experiment on "What Yeast Eats!" He basically labeled a whole bunch of cups, poured in some warm water, dissolved a bunch of different things in them, and then added yeast. We checked every few minutes to see which ones were doing well and which ones were sitting there.

Did you know that potato flakes and sugar produced the best results? While molasses did nothing at all? Fascinating!

And this was between scouts and Relief Society Choco-Rama night, where I was helping provide chocolate goodies. We came home, and he drew some charts and pictures, and we got his wording worked out, and I sent him to bed. Then Mommy was up until an unearthly hour pasting and positioning and making things look nice.

Oren ended up in a 3-way tie for 1st place in the 3rd grade catagory for his school! He got a chocolate bar prize, which he shared with all of his classmates, and a medal. Then his teacher sent home a note to inform me that his project needed to be brought to the district offices to the district science fair! And to think his project almost ended up in the trash a couple days ago, except that we figured Grandma W would want to see it at some point! He didn't win at District, but I was very proud that his slap-together rushed project had done well at all. And he was so happy about it, that boy loves anything science!


I, myself, have been in love with some new cake stuff lately. There is a sugar art supply store close by, and I went by the other day. They had isomalt, a sugar substitute used in sugar gems, pulled sugar, molded sugar.... This stuff is awesome! And dangerous too, since it has to be heated to about 340 degrees, and you work with it at around 275 (I believe?). Very hot stuff. But if poured into the right molds, it can create very real-looking edible jewels!

And I now have the opportunity to try this for myself. While talking with the lady at the eye doctor's, choosing my new glasses, we got talking about cakes and this sugar jewel thing came up. I mentioned how it would be so much fun to make an edible tiara and have little jewels on it, to put on a small cake or cupcakes. She ordered a small cake, in blue, with a jeweled tiara for her daughter's birthday next week! Sweet! (And I'm getting some cute glasses to boot. :-P) My first job since moving here. I've been trying to get the word out, and finally a bite!

So hopefully they turn out well, and I don't sustain any serious burns while using this stuff. This will be a naptime/bedtime enterprise, for sure. I've been researching what sort of equipment to use for pouring the molten stuff, and what sort of precautions to take. The supply store owner also does decorating classes, and so I will be signing up tomorrow for a series of gum paste classes, to learn about flowers and pearls and all sorts of other edible decorations. This is better stuff than just what Wilton teaches, and I can't wait!