Mt. Vesuvius....no but close!

It is that time again (school project time) so once again we find ourselves elbow deep in some type of mad material trying to construct whatever our daughter's teacher has deemed required. This go around it is a volcano, which must be capable of erupting. Of course no kits were permitted as that would make too much sense and be way too economical. So, as usual we found ourselves wandering the aisles of Wal-Mart in search of the needed materials to construct an erupting volcano. Thank goodness for You Tube (never thought I would hear myself say that out loud) and stormthecastle.com, which provided step by step instructions for numerous types of volcano models along with complete You Tube tutorials! The one we chose could be easily crafted out of a (2) liter bottle of Diet Coke, aluminum foil, Great Stuff foam sealer and craft paint. My husband did decided to help our daughter epoxy the (2) liter bottle to the platform in an effort to keep the volcano from tipping over. Here is a picture of what it looked like with the first coat of foam. She is in the process of painting it as I type, but I did want to share the events of our "trial" eruption, which took place earlier this afternoon. We decided to put a bottle of Diet Doke and some mint mentos to the test to make sure this thing would truly erupt as it is a requirement for the grading rubric. So, my daughter and her Dad set up the bottle and mentos, He stood close to the pseudo volcano leaning against the car and I took great care (as always) stood way...way back in an effort to get this on film. Here is what happen! Look what type of reaction you get when you dump in (4) mint Mentos into a bottle of Diet Coke. Just think that could be YOUR stomach on diet coke and mentos. I tell you it sure made me think twice about mixing that combination! It happen so fast my husband almost knocked himself out trying to step away from the car and out of the stream of Diet Coke. I will post pictures of the finished project tomorrow. Right now we are still waiting for the paint to dry!