Delicious Fringe Benefits Of Nonfiction

Thing One loves anything to do with science.  I took him to a very cool kid-friendly physics demonstration at our library last week, which he thought was the coolest thing in the world except for a few unexpectedly loud bangs.  (Really, setting a match to balloons filled with hydrogen INDOORS??  It was certainly a good illustration of why we fill balloons with helium now, anyway...think the Hindenburg disaster on a smaller scale.)

He made a beeline from that presentation directly downstairs to the nonfiction section of the library, where he proceeded to pick out--no exaggeration--22 science books.  My only rule is that he has to carry whatever books he picks out, and he managed that stack although we did have to take the elevator back up.

Not my son; I couldn't see his head!

While he was digging around in the Rocks and Minerals area, the other two kids started looking at the cookbooks on the adjoining wall, and soon I was fielding checkout requests from them too:  Thing Two wanted a bread machine cookbook and Petunia a children's dessert cookbook.  OK, sure.  I told each of them that they could pick any recipe out of their books and we'd make it together.

Sunday was cooking day.  Thing Two wanted cinnamon raisin bread, so we hauled out the breadmaker and tossed all the required ingredients into it.  Petunia decided that she wanted to make meringues.  I whipped the egg whites and sugar together for her, then handed her the bowl of marshmallowy goo, a spoon and two smaller bowls of raisins and Craisins for decorating and let her have at it.

This was the result:

 Not entirely sure what some of these shapes were supposed to be, but they were delicious!  As was the cinnamon raisin toast we all had for breakfast this morning.  Let's hear it for edible nonfiction...