Atomic Cookies

Today we made Atomic Cookies or Element Cookies as Deborah told my dh tonight at the supper table.   We're studying chemistry this year and I thought that making atom diagrams out of cookies might be more fun and stick with the younger kids more than just coloring in drawings of atoms.   

So I made these giant cookies and let them choose among the first 6 elements in the periodic table.   I wasn't about to let them make mercury or gold since we were using M&Ms for the protons, electrons, and neutrons.

Here are Deborah's.   The top one is Lithium and the bottom one is Carbon.   Notice the nice shell configurations.   The blues are electrons, the reds are protons, and the browns are neutrons.

And yes, they did taste delicious!

Squirrel Flag Day

Betcha didn't know that January 30th was Squirrel Flag Day.   What pray tell is Squirrel Flag Day?    My dh has been trying for a year to convince the children that the very first flag of the colonists was a Squirrel Flag.   The squirrel helped save the colonists from hunger.  One such colonist not only was saved from hunger, but I believe the squirrel alerted them to a fire in their house or led the husband back to his cabin in the woods.     She was so pleased that she designed the first Squirrel Flag.   You would have to ask my husband for the whole story.  

Anyway, my sister and brother-in-law put together a great family calendar every year for Christmas and I asked her to put something on the calendar about squirrel flags.   So she did.

To celebrate Squirrel Flag Day, we made my dh a cake and decorated it with the image of the Squirrel Flag.