BUBBLE PALOOZA... Making Bubbles with the Fam!

So, I've been talking about trying to do the DIY Bubble Mix project for some time, this Saturday, I kind of took the plunge.  I say 'kind of' because I pretty much threw 'scientific experimentation' out of the window. We just winged it, and had some fun! 

Being in my 30's and mom of several furbabies, I would have felt kind of funny doing this one alone in my kitchen.  I do admit that we've purchase the catnip bubbles for the kitties, but I was out to make some BIG bubbles, (I'll try catnip ones another day, lol!).  Plus, the reason I wanted to try the bubble making project was because my 2 year old niece, LOVES bubbles. So I headed over to her house with the ingredients, and her parents and siblings were great assistants.  Even in the heat and humidity we were so drawn to the bubbles, we played for hours!

Looking online there are several Bubble Recipes... they are pretty much all the same.  Many of them just vary on the third ingredient.  I think honestly that the third ingredient varies due to people just using what is easily available.  The basic recipe that most agree on includes Water, Dawn Dish Soap (We did test the dollar store brand and it was a big FAIL,  I have heard Joy works well too,) and Glycerin. Glycerin is available at the pharmacy among other places.  I bought this bottle at CVS, but I've seen it at Walgreens, and Rite Aid I believe.  I also saw on one site that Wilton makes some too! 

Third ingredient substitutions include Light Corn Syrup, Sugar, Corn Starch and Baking power, etc....  I stand behind Glycerin.  My sister-in-law did do a batch with the Corn Syrup, and they were more miss, than hit.  So.... here's the recipe we used.

The Lazy Diva's Bubble Recipe

Ingredients:

6 cups of water
1/2 cup Dish Soap (plus a squeeze or 2)
1/4 cup Glycerin

Pour all the ingredients into a bowl or jar, and SLOWLY stir.  You do NOT want it to be bubbly.  Bubbles ironically do not help make bubbles.

INGREDIENT ONE - WATER

I used  filtered water.  Soft or Distilled water is supposedly best, but I decided for today, it didn't matter.

INGREDIENT TWO - DISH SOAP

I went with DAWN, it had the most mentions online.  In order to save some dish washing, I grabbed an 1/8 cup measuring cup, and my 14 year old assistant wanted to help.  I told her we needed 4 full pours.  After one she asked if she was done. LOL! In the end we had some confusion on the number, but I'm pretty sure we hit the full 1/2 cup.  Then I added an extra squeeze for the heck of it. 

INGREDIENT THREE - GLYCERIN

In a couple of recipes I saw, it was just an 1/8 cup, between my assistant and I, we poured twice...  oh, well. It worked!

INGREDIENT FOUR - PATIENCE

We didn't have any!  We were too excited, and someone missed her nap! Supposedly the longer you wait, the better.  We didn't want to wait... but I did reserve some for the next day!  Day Two, I do think the bubbles were slightly better... so patience does pay!  

INGREDIENT FIVE - WANDS

Princess wand was fun, but they were tiny bubbles....

Now I bought some store bought 'princess' bubbles with a little tray and a few wands.  The kids also had some random wands AND an awesome big circle bubble wand.  If it wasn't so hot, or if we were more crafty I would have made wands, but these were great.  The big wand is the BOMB!

We love Big Bubbles.....

Now with the big wand, the competition was on for the big bubbles.... I think we all had a great time.  The poor porch play room carpet was a bit soaked before we moved outside, but soaps clean, so it was all good!  I took TONS of photos, but not a lot of those contained whole bubbles.  It was part bad photo timing... plus it was all about the long pulls!

Now some more BUBBLE PICTURES!

Day Two: The Bubble Formula was even better!  

The two year old had much more success the second day, and had some great pulls!

Well, that's this weeks blog... special thanks to my family!  We had tons of great pictures, I could have added tons more, but I showed some restraint!