Responsible Parenting 101: Firestarting Skills

Yesterday was all about Boy Family fun. The morning started with a science experiment, perfect for our young science enthusiasts. Mike had heard a rumor that you could use Mountain Dew, hydrogen peroxide and baking soda to make a glowing concoction similar to that of a glow stick. So into their lab (our garage) they went, armed with their three ingredients, mixing bottles, and all the excitement a 4 and 7 year old could muster.

Well, what followed could only be described as sheer disappointment. In the words of the Boy Family, they were BAMBOOZLED! Sadly, this was a hoax and the mixture did not create the desired effect. In fact, there was no effect at all. We should have known to go right to the source to verify our information.

So on to the next event where the title of our post comes into play. As winter is upon us, we spent part of the day on Sunday cleaning up the yard, digging the plants up out of the garden, and emptying out our deserted bird house. OK, so I did the first two items while the boys stayed inside playing video games. What became of the bird nest material you ask? We had our own version of training for SurvivorMan (perhaps one of the coolest shows ever!).

Under careful supervision and instruction by Mike, both Michael and Erickson took his turn starting a fire with the bird's nest material using Mike's Swedish FireSteel. An essential tool for any serious camper/outdoorsman! The boys thought that this was very cool and were so proud of themselves!

NOTE: THIS WAS NOT MY IDEA. Perhaps little experiments such as these are why the boys think that Mike is the coolest dad ever.