Bubbles

For some reason, I am enamored with blowing bubbles. Even in my decrepit age.

Maybe I never got enough of blowing them when I was a child.

Maybe my inner child loves blowing them so much that she begs and whines to blow them.

Whatever . . .

Because of my fascination, I inflict bubble activities on my grandchildren at least once a year. They kindly endure.

If blowing bubbles through the little wand that comes in the bubble bottle is good, wouldn’t blowing bubbles through a straw be just as good? And if blowing through one straw is good, then blowing through 4 straws is 4 times better, right?

That’s what I thought.

So, of course I had to try it out with the grandkiddos. Last week, my granddaughter was a good sport to give it a try.

I taped 4 straws together and made my own solution of bubbles (using Dawn dish washing soap which makes the best bubbles in my humble opinion).

Of course blowing bubbles can get rather messy. So we went outside.

Here we are, blowing bubbles. In the wind.

A few days later, we had a family get together. Once again, I dragged out the blow-bubbles-through-straws activity.

You know, the more you do an activity, the more you learn from it. Right? Well, I’ve learned a thing or two about using straws.

First, the masking tape that we used didn’t work very well. It didn’t seem to be very sticky. Was that because it was ‘old’ masking tape? Maybe. Was it because it was an off brand? Maybe. Or, maybe that’s just the nature of masking tape — when it’s wet the stickiness is gone, gone, gone.

Also, try not to do this activity when it’s windy — especially if it’s very strong. The bubbles burst too quickly or get carried away too fast for the grandkids to enjoy.

At our family activity, I tried putting rubber bands around the straws. They were either too tight or not tight enough. Maybe I should have tried a different size of rubber bands. Oh well.

So, I finally turned to good old reliable duct tape. I taped the straws together close to both ends. The straws held together beautifully — even with soapy water drenching the duct tape.

Another thing we learned is that you have to blow slow to make the bubbles. If you blow hard, you just splat the solution all over your little brother/cousin. And little brother/cousin doesn’t take kindly to soap in his eyes.

Yet another thing that I learned is that four-year-olds just might not have a long enough attention span. If they can’t quite get the knack of blowing slow, they get frustrated because there aren’t any bubbles. If they don’t get bubbles, they lose interest and move on to something else.

Last, the next time I get the urge to have grandkids blow bubbles through straws, maybe I should resist that urge until they are a tad older. And, maybe I ought to just blow them myself!