Herding pigs, moldy apples, and monks

This week we had co-op, which Viggo, Svea, and Elin can't wait to be a part of every week.
The theme this week was farm.

A super-fun activity that my friends Amanda and Beth planned was herding pigs. Four dozen balloons, pool noodles cut in half, and only one minute to get all the pigs into the "pen" made for a good time.

 We could have probably herded the pigs all morning, but eventually moved on to some other fun things.

Milking a cow.
Unfortunately we were unable to get a real cow into the church for co-op.
So we settled for a latex glove instead. Almost the same thing.

 Please observe Elin's crossed legs. She milks the cow with grace and poise.

 Crafts and snacks for the littles.

 Drawing and writing for the bigs.

 And the mummified apples! The epsom-salt only apple was moldy and yucky.

 Viggo removed each apple and scraped extra salt and baking soda off, so we could weigh it.

The biggest loser of most moisture: well, there was a tie. Jar 4 had a 1/4 C epsom salt and and 1/4 C table salt. That apple lost half its weight exactly.
Jar 5 had 1/2 C table salt and 1/2 C baking soda. That apple lost 4/7 of its weight.

Aren't you glad you know these things? The next time you feel like mummifying apples, you'll know just what to do.

So this little experiment begs the question, do you think this was how the Egyptians figured out how much salt to use in the mummification process? Did they do a test first? To see which mummy comes out moldy and which one is all shriveled? Just wondering.

 Viggo did a great job of the apple removal.
Others wanted nothing to do with that part of the process.

 In other news, history was a lot of fun this week with learning about monks in the middle ages.
Monks, as it turns out, are pretty cool. They are gardeners, artists, writers, cooks - pretty much everything I want to be. Too bad I'm a girl . . . and Protestant. And married. Well, that dream fizzled pretty quick.

These monk outfits were hastily sewn together in five minutes because I didn't bother to do it the night before, so quality is on the slim side. But the gold cording was a big hit.

Tonight we're having a monk supper. I'm so excited. We are making split pea soup, and will also enjoy bread and cheese. Monk apparel is encouraged but not required - so stop on by!