Naps Happen

The Eruption of Mt. PEEP

Alicia ♦ March 25, 2013 ♦ 13 Comments

Although much of the country appears to be locked in the eternal embrace of Old Man Winter, we’ve got some sweet and sunny spring around here. You know, at least the stores are chock full of PEEPS®.

YOU KNOW. PEEPS. If you don’t have fond memories of eating them as a child, you are probably one of the nerdtastic legions who have devoted themselves to using PEEPS for a variety of useful activities. You’ve baked with them, or made a wreath out of them. You’ve staged them in an elaborate diorama.

No?

Okay – then you’re the person who exploded one in the microwave.

I had a pretty entertaining half hour the other day when I got sucked into the PEEPS vortex by visiting all the activities feature in this funny YouTube video. Its topic? Why, all the uses for PEEPS, of course! Check it out for yourself – you’ll be amazed.

Now, you all know that I live in a house of boys, so when PEEPS season came around, I wasn’t the person who was going to make a PEEPS wreath. I mean, after all, the front door of my house faces south, and the door gets to be about 100 degrees on a mildly sunny day (now there’s an experiment I can do…).

No. We had only one mission. It was, of course, to make a volcano. Out of PEEPS.

First, I will say that this did not cause anyone to drift off into a nap. No…it was far too exciting for the Naps Happen boys. Between the extra energy provided by the consumption of fatally “injured” PEEPS and the actual detonation of a PEEPS volcano, we were all wide awake.

First, I got a huge pile of PEEPS. I theorized that the chicks would work best, due to their superior girth. In the end, I would advise future volcano-makers to consider making a chicken wire cone and then covering it with rabbits. However, we had to move forward with a mixture of chicks and rabbits and no chicken wire, so that’s how it went down.

Once I started working with them, I also realized how very soft and luscious a fresh PEEP is. In other words, for structural integrity, stale PEEPS would probably have worked out best. Lesson learned. However, we were determined to proceed. Using a mixture of wooden BBQ skewers and toothpicks, the pyramid was painstakingly constructed.

As the structure grew and gravity took effect, it became clear that we’d need something to which we could anchor the PEEPS, so we inserted our choice of explosive – a cherry soda. Friends and various internet sources had suggested that the best way to make the volcano explode would be to drop a Mentos® candy into a 2L bottle of soda. In fact, as I consulted various people in the week leading up to the construction of Mt. PEEP, I was pretty amazed how many men have spent an embarrassing amount of time, at some point, finding out how to best explode a model volcano. Food for thought…

Cherry seemed festive.

We inserted the bottle of soda into Mt. Peep to support the leaning tower of PEEPS that was forming around it.

Meanwhile, we outfitted our lab assistants with protective gear. Exploding soda can be messy. As you can see, one of our assistants was a little too busy trying to wipe sugar off of the volcano.

Meanwhile, Dad rigged up a long thread with several Mentos® candies attached. This would allow us to suspend the Mentos in the mouth of the volcano and drop them in from several feet away.

Then, because I’m not insane, we relocated Mt. Peep to the back porch. We disguised the top of the soda bottle with an entire can of whipped topping and a little strawberry syrup for authenticity.

And, with that, I must refer you to the video for the eruption(s).

In the end, we had a pretty messy mountain of PEEPS and some very excited boys!

Suffice to say, Mt. PEEP is probably going dormant for awhile, but it may have to erupt again next spring…

For more PEEPS fun, check out their website!

This post is sponsored by PEEPS although the thoughts, opinions, and bad volcano-making are all my own.