Science Experiment-Hands Free Inflation

Yesterday the boys were grounded, well Palmer and Lincoln were anyway. Hunter was off like a shot as soon as his chores were done and I didn't see much of him the rest of the day. I have to admit that there is a small part of me that is happy when my boys are grounded because it means I get to actually hang out with them (I promise I don't ground them just to hang out with them :). This summer they have played their little hearts out, but I really thought I would get to do more things with them than I have. I am THRILLED that they have met so many wonderful friends in our neighborhood, but I have missed them a bit too. I spent the whole school year collecting ideas that I was going to do with them over the summer and I really haven't been able to do that many.

As we had the whole day ahead of us other than swimming lessons, I decided to do a couple of science experiments with them. This one was so neat! I got it here.
These are the things you need. Baking soda, a balloon, funnel, glass bottle with a narrow-ish opening and vinegar.
You measure four Tablespoons of vinegar into the bottle, and then one Tablespoon of baking soda into the deflated balloon. Then you attach the balloon to the mouth of the bottle.
This was a good experiment because the boys could help. Lincoln measured the baking soda into the balloon and Palmer got to turn it over.
When the baking soda and vinegar meet is produces carbon dioxide which in turn fills the balloon. The first one we did exploded, which was pretty cool, but we wanted to see it again, when it worked properly.
And since the little explosion took me by surprise I didn't get any pictures, so this time I took play by play pics :)
It really was so cool.
And this one was not as messy :)
It was so fun to hear the boys going crazy on how neat this experiment was. Hunter was sad he missed it, but I think he still would have rather been playing.
It actually blew up pretty big! This experiment was pretty easy to do and so fun to watch!