giant bubbles

Kids are fascinated by giant bubbles! With enough supplies, they also make great fun for a party, as long as the day is not too windy. Little Soren here almost got gobbled up and carried away by the above bubble -- but he doesn't look too concerned, as he was hypnotized by a bubble that had floated some distance away.

You'll need:
-- a few large bubble wands or butterfly nets (I found ours at Dollar General). The butterfly nets actually work better than commercial plastic wands.
-- water
-- dish soap (like liquid Dawn)
-- Karo corn syrup (I used "light corn syrup" because it was what I had)

Recipe:

6 parts water
2 parts dish soap
3/4 part corn syrup

Let sit, uncovered, overnight. In fact, letting it sit for a couple of days makes it work even better. Ours sat for 2 nights and made awesome bubbles! (Which is good, because you don't want your kids to get frustrated!)

Butterfly nets make great bubble wands because the netting part traps bubble solution. Cut out the middle of your butterfly net, leaving a rim of net about 2.5 -3 " wide around the wand.

Variations:

-- A "bubble cone": roll up a piece of paper into a cone shape, and trim the larger end so it's even. Dip into bubble solution (let sit 30 sec the first time), and then blow into the smaller end. The layers of paper trap bubble solution, so you get some really big bubbles!

-- If you're having a playgroup or a party, it's easy to get enough supplies for everyone....you can either buy a bunch of butterfly nets (cut out the centers) and use a couple of pans of solution, or raid your local Dollar Store or Dollar General for cheap supplies. We found these long, awesome bubble wands that looked like swords (at Dollar General); they came in different colors, too. They blew good bubbles, but the bubbles weren't as large and easy to make as the ones we made ourselves (not to boast :) -- it was still good fun for a dollar. You can also buy various sizes of wands, bubble machines, battery-powered bubble blowers -- all kinds of fun for parties -- BUT you could just make some homemade solution and have good, clean, cheap fun, too.


Alternate recipe with glycerine:

-- 4 1/2 cups water; 1/2 cup liquid dish soap; 4 tablespoons glycerine (found at most pharmacies and drug stores -- you might have to ask). We didn't try this, just because we had corn syrup at home, but I hear it works well.