Good Clean Fun

Good clean fun is the perfect way to cap off a perfect summery spring day. Now in most houses good clean fun involves maybe running thru the sprinkler,a nice game of monopoly or jumping on the trampoline until someone goes flying off and breaks a tooth. But here at the the Exton Home for Wayward Boys we like to kick it up a notch. Well maybe it was a few notches, but it was educational,I swear.
First of all I need say that I never knew that you could buy dry ice at the grocery store. Leave it to teenage boys to know this though. And they know this why? Because you can blow things up with dry ice that's why! It's also why you have to be 18 to buy it so they had to hang around and ask people to buy them dry ice(at least they're not hanging around the liquor store trying to get some idiot to buy them a fifth of rotgut). Had I known just how much fun we would have I'd have gladly gotten it for them!!! Of course,there's the obvious fun,dry ice is a blast because when you put it in water it boils and puts out bubbles that look like pingpong balls. If you put it in your stream it creates a foggy cascade and more bubbles! I put it in my giant urn fountain and it looked like bubble,bubble,toil and trouble-awesome. However, I am off the point slightly,to remind you- you can blow things up with it! And blow things up we did!!! Actually it's very cool(no pun intended) you put some dry ice in a plastic bottle,fill it with water and screw the lid on nice and tight. Then you either throw it or leave it there and run like hell. It is absolutely crucial to take cover or get very far away after this step .If you do it right, pretty soon the plastic bottle starts to expand and crackle. Then if it has a label the label pops off and then it flat out explodes. We are not talking the top blows off,we are talking vaporization (if it goes really well) or at the very least the plastic shards roll up like curling ribbon. The sound is incredibly loud. My neighbors can clearly attest to this because of course someone called the cops( it was only a matter of time). Now granted the noise was alarming but it's amazing what else people will assume is going on. Apparently there was underrage drinking,guns and bombs!!! So as we have set up the last icebomb in a diet tonic bottle our friendly neighborhood officers arrive. Personally I thought we'd met them all but no,here were two new ones! They ask one of the kids-the one hiding in the previously built bamboo structure-what he's doing. Of course like all good teenageres he tells them and then invites them into the yard. Of course he's hiding-we all are-so the officers politely decline(duh).Meanwhile Hubby cranks up the chipper shredder and pretends not to hear or see the police. It's not like they were unexpected-I mean we were clearly having to much educational fun! Finally he decides to talk to them(we know our rights dude!). All this time the bottle has not yet exploded. Now the problem with this is that just because it's been 15 min doesn't mean it won't blow up when you go over to check it. So of course the boys begin to fling things at it (making it even more entertaining). Most of the items miss and the cops continue to stand in the driveway with Hubby discussing the benefits of shooting it with a BB gun. Finally someone throws a log and the thing blows up in a big way. The lid and a curl of plastic is all that's left! The officers are duly impressed and able to confirm that we are indeed gun-free and there are no laws against dry ice and water. They also kindly requested that next time we provide some sort of legitimate crime( I swear!) like snorting cocaine off the center line of the road(not likely-it's the freakin' Exton Autobahn out there,none of the kids have jobs and Hubby would never spend that kind of cash on a non-investment!) or actual underage drinking. Apparently the fact that they spend a lovely afternoon wandering our yard and enjoying educational excitement makes them feel guilty. They are no doubt forbidden to have fun on the job. After inquiring about where to buy dry ice they hightailed it off with smiles on their faces to look for real criminals. Leaving us wondering what the heck we would do for the rest of the afternoon for excitement!