Bad Magic

So a few days ago we had an Ice Day, but I didn't have time to do the accompanying ice "magic trick" that I had totally talked up to the kids. Since it so happened that we were having a "Mom, I'm bored" event in our house today, I decided that it was time to bring out the magic trick.

Sadly, the magic trick was a dud. The website, FamilyFun.com, sure made it look cool, with a picture of a fascinated and amazed child to accompany the directions.

But when we tried it, I could not get it to be fascinating and amazing to save my soul. In fact, I could barely get it to work at all.

What you're supposed to do is float an ice cube in water, lay a string across the top, sprinkle a little salt on the string, wait 5 seconds, and the ice cube-theoretically-will pull right up out of the water stuck on your string (because it has "magically" refrozen there). If you're me, you try at least 15 times with all different amounts of salt, sizes of ice cubes, waiting more or less time, even using different types of string, and you only get it to work once. Then, if you're me, the other kid (who it didn't work for, no matter how hard you try to recreate the victory) throws a fit and is upset for a half an hour. Sigh.

Unsurprisingly, I wouldn't recommend this activity. Just in case anyone wonders. The only magic that was happening in our house, was that I actually captured a picture of our one and only success.