-8 degrees can be so cool!

I think the cold weather has started to affect my brain. The frigid cold temperatures of the last two days are starting to seem fun. (Of course, I say that knowing that it's supposed to warm up later today and should be 30 degrees warmer by Sunday.)

Knowing we had a limited window of opportunity to demonstrate for the kids something I once got to demonstrate as a reporter, (I'm pretty sure just about every other TV reporter/weather caster in Duluth has done the same.) I boiled some water last night and grabbed the camera as Jeff threw it into the cold night air.

Poof! Instant steam!

AJ's mind instantly started to race. What else could he do with water in the cold? Remembering that Sydney's preschool class had a "homework" assignment this week of putting water in the freezer to see what happened to it, AJ decided to put a bowl of water outside on the front step. (I probably could have told him this would work any night for the next two months, but hey, who am I to spoil the fun?)

Sydney of course had to copy him. Unfortunately, she seemed to mix up the two experiments, and so after filling her bowl with water,

she walked to the front door and flung it in the air.

It did not turn into steam.

Oops!

Meanwhile, I'd posted the steam photo on Facebook, and a high school friend who lives in a slightly warmer climate showed it to her daughter, Reagan, who thought it looked really cool and asked if there was video of it. What a great idea! 

I shared this with AJ, who thought Reagan's name was pretty cool because he remembers Ronald Reagan's birthday is the day before his own. (It's how his mind works. I'm sure he would have helped even if she didn't share a name with a president.) And so this morning, AJ and I repeated the boiling water trick. 

Here's your video, Reagan. Sorry that it's sideways. I have no idea why it's doing that. It looks normal on my computer until I upload it.

I love how casual he was at the end. He was probably overcome with relief that he hadn't gotten hurt. (I might have gone a little over the top in my warnings to him before we did this, to make sure he didn't somehow spill or toss the boiling water on himself.)

And then he remembered his other experiment. Off the kids ran to check their bowls of water

...which, of course, had frozen hours ago.

So then the question became what do you do with really big ice cubes?

Turn it into a puppy treat. Gus liked this experiment the best.

And now I'm ready for warmer weather.