Thomas's Volcano

Two weekends ago Thomas announced (around 11 pm Sunday night) that he had to create a working volcano for science class. Oh, and by the way, it's due on Wednesday. Interestingly, Thomas and I have been down a similar road many years ago when one winter weekend (when Thomas was about 4 and Frederick not yet in existence) and we made a mountain with a giant cave at the bottom out of paper machiere. We staple gunned chicken wire to a board and then covered it with flour-glue newspaper. Thomas was generous with the gluey goop and it took at least a week to dry. Then we painted the mountain brown, the cave black, and the board blue. Thomas used it as a home base for his dinosuars, in particular his plesiosaurus. I reminded Thomas of those happy times we had together and he has NO MEMORY of this whatsoever! Why did I even bother, I thought to myself? Here is our latest co-creation. This time I managed to keep Thomas's glueiness under control and the volcano (with a secret bottle inside, more about that later) dried over night.Thomas again, looking pleased. (Note village so near to doom and damnation.)And here are the secret ingredients: vinegar with red and yellow food dye and a giant box of baking powder that Thomas poured into the bottle inside the mountain. He poured the vinegar into the mountain during science class and, to everyone's delight, the mountain erupted with foamy red lava and the village was wiped from the face of the Earth. (I suggested that he label the vinegar bottles "God's Wrath" but Thomas wouldn't do it. He said, "That is unnecesarily provocative." Thomas is too nice for his own good.)Speaking of lava, Grandma was cleaning out her house and gave us this lava lamp. We can't stop staring at it!