Three Kids, a Volcano, and Blueberry Muffins

We learned about rocks in our kindergarten class last week, which for little kids means: time to collect rocks and time to talk about HOT LAVA! I expected kids to get a kick out of picking up rocks and talking about their similarities and differences, but what always surprises me about my dear, sweet little girls is their fascination with lava. They love to play "Don't Step on the Hot Lava", and this is a pretty serious game since apparently there is a whole bunch of lava on our living room floor on most days. And I thought they were so unique to have come up with this game all on their own, but ya know, it's everywhere. Kids love this game. Real kids play it. Book character kids play it. Television show kids play it. And so, what did we just have to do as part of our rock week? We had to make a volcano. And let me tell you something: this took me back to my second grade class. Oh the smell of baking soda, vinegar, and clay all mingled together was like being eight again. Except now it was my kitchen that stunk.





We had a sweet homeschool friend join in on the volcano fun. Many hands made light work. I was pretty impressed with how well three kids got along as they worked to make one shared volcano. Isn't it great when moments of sharing and team work happen? Sigh.

And we ended up with a volcano that was not only solid, but also fabulous. Can you tell girls made this?

So since we were going to be working in the kitchen that day anyway, my oldest child (the one with a love for the Food Network and the cookbook shelves at the public library) wanted to do some baking for an after school snack. We went with stone ground whole wheat blueberry muffins (they look healthy, are pretty healthful, and they were so very, very good). Thank you to two sweet fellow mothers and friends of mine for picking up the blueberries at the store for me. You can see we put them to use. Isn't it funny how something as simple as someone picking up something at the store for you can brighten up your day? Motherhood is absolutely amazing and sweet and wonderful, but it is also hard and even lonely at times. I hope I can always make time for other mothers to catch up over coffee (either in person or sometimes over the phone...), help each other clean up toy room floors, and pick up blueberries at the store for each other. It really does make a difference in my day, and hopefully in my friends' days. What a great way to end our rock and volcano unit week: with muffins that look like rocks, but taste great.