Saturday, June 11, 2011

Parties and Mummies

The boys were just a little bit excited.  And by "just a little bit" I mean completely overwound.  What is it about lack of sleep that makes them so hyper?  (Up until after midnight last night with the CAP cadets, up at 0700, and washing cars all day, for a fund-raiser.)

Well, they would've been excited anyway.  I mean, it's a PARTY, and there was ICE CREAM.  We had Grampa and Gramma Grasshopper over for dinner to celebrate the end of another year of homeschooling.  WOOOOO-HOOOOOO!

One of the first projects we did nearly four years ago, when we were studying Ancient Egypt, was to mummify a chicken.  (Actually - and here's a tip for you -

we paid a little extra and got a Cornish Game Hen

They're smaller, which means they'll dry out faster.  You can thank me later.) 

We followed the instructions meticulously, dried the thing out, wrapped it in strips of muslin (because I'm not buying linen), sealed it with (glitter!) glue and "amulets", and packed it in this lovely, be-jeweled, gold sarcophagus.

And tonight, the archaeology team opened the crypt (with all the drama of Geraldo Rivera...)

Tate, looking very mysterious.

Yes.  It looks like a loaf of bread.  But, ladies and gentlemen, we give you...
King Cluck!

We mummified him in the fall of 2007, and he's been sitting on the shelf in the school room, these nearly four years, so we were pretty sure we did it right.
How did we know?

No smell.

Not content just to open the crypt, the boys needed to open the mummy.
Clean and dry.
If it smelled like anything, think old-chicken-nugget-found-under-the-car-seat.
Not that I would know anything about that.

Actually, the view was a little surreal, since I just cooked a nineteen pound turkey, for dinner.

And here are my favorite overcooked hams.

Well done, guys!

7 comments:

Doug Hibbard said...

Wow. We need to mummify something!

Felicity said...

Very well done! We skipped that project when we did Ancient Egypt - I couldn't quite face it...
But I'm glad it worked well.

Herding Grasshoppers said...

Yah, it worked great and the boys were intrigued.

Doug, if you do it - THINK SMALL. Think of what will fit into a large ziplock bag.

Crystal in Lynden said...

Wow! I passed that project up. You guys did a fabulous job!

melanie said...

Y'all just have way too much fun! =)

"King Cluck" ~ makes me laugh!

leah said...

Tate's face is classic - I love the look of foreboding before King Cluck is exhumed! ROFL!

The Hibbard Family said...

That is just way too cool!