Diet Coke 'Sploding

Many of you know that we are unorthodox parents. Mostly because we are nothing but giant kids ourselves. So for Noahs 8th Birthday we had a 'Mythbusters' party of sorts.

For anyone not familiar with Mythbusters, it is a show on the Discovery Channel where they find all sorts of myths, stories and urban legends and debunk them through 'scientific discovery' which usually ends with something being blown up. WE LOVE THAT SHOW. One of our favorite episodes is the one where they figure out how to get the biggest bang out of Mentos and Diet Coke. (Again, for anyone who doesn't know, when you put Mentos in Diet Coke, it is like carbonation on steroids.)

So we invited 5 of Noah's friends, his sisters (because they too love to blow up Diet Coke) and his little brother (we always need comic relief), and let the Diet Coke explosions begin.

With some careful planning, lining up of Diet coke bottles, and instructions, we were ready to get started. Although all of the kids wanted to set them off all at the same time, we had to nix that (we had 2 hours to kill), and we only had 17 bottles of Diet Coke.

While as a family we have set off Diet Coke bottles many times, we were surprised that some of the kids had never heard of the wonderful world of psycho-carbonation. It was an adventure to be sure. And our guests couldn't believe that they got to 'blow stuff up' at a birthday party.

After the first round the kids started to really get into the 'project'. They were using paper as funnels and trying to figure out how to get as many Mentos into the Diet Coke bottle as possible (because the more Mentos the bigger the show).

We managed to get a few really great spouts going. The only problem we faced with our little experiment was how to get Caleb to stop drinking from the geysers. And from what I understand, because you know they all had to try it, peppermint Mentos and Diet Coke Tastes NASTY.

It looks like they had a good time. And if they didn't, I did. Once all of the Diet Coke and Mentos had been sprayed all over the road, it was time to move on. And we made rainbow colored volcanoes. Sorry folks, no pictures, I was too busy trying not to get food coloring all over myself.

We discovered many wonderful and exciting things in our scientific endeavors.

All in all it was an incredibly fun day, right up Noahs alley (and quite frankly, the rest of ours as well.) So, Happy Birthday Noah...and you thought you wouldn't make it to this birthday.

Lessons Learned

1. Diet Coke and Mentos is one of the best activities EVER.

2. Caffeine, 6 little boys, 2 little girls and a spastic two year old...not a good idea.

3. When making volcanos out of baking soda and vinegar, putting the lid on will NOT make the bottle explode...apparently oxygen is a crucial part of the chemical mix.

4. It takes forever for food coloring to mix up in the vinegar, so if you add it at the end, right before the baking soda, you will get a fascinating rainbow effect in your volcano.

5. When your kid wants to blow up Diet Coke and Mentos for his birthday, let him. WAY FUN.