Science

The kids and I have been doing science experiments at home:  baking soda, vinegar, pH indicators.  It's all very fun

How's this for a morning commute

Zoe wins a prize!

Every new years (Epiphany, to be exact) in France, the "Galettes des rois" appear:  delicious marzipan (and other types) of cakes in a flakey, buttery crust.  Inside, there are little prizes which you can find, which are called feves.  I'm always impressed by the quality of the feves, which can be well glazed ceramic figurine which will probably last a lifetime.  I guess the custom is pretty ubiquitous in Europe, and even in Louisiana, where it goes by the slightly less mellifluous name of king cake.  So we as a family have eaten a ridiculous amount of these things this year because they are soooo delicious.  Despite their deliciousness, I really hate seeing what it brings out in the kids.  They immediately surround the galette to try to determine where the feve resides, which they infer by subtle ripples in the surface of the cake.  Fights then erupt regarding where the cake should be cut, and who gets the slice:  it's madness.  Anyway, we recently had some friends over, and the parents decided to pre-load the galette with some extra feves to make sure all the kids got them, and handed them out.  Zoe's feve was a red ceramic disc which instructed us to go to the boulangerie to pick up a special prize.  The next day, Chloe brought the feve to the boulangerie to redeem the prize (and buy more galettes of course), and were surprised to find that the prize was a diamond pendant!  There was an immense spectacle as the boulangers checked the serial number on the feve against their records.