This weekend, we have been mostly playing with bubbles. But not just the standard little bubbles that you blow using the bubble wands the size of a euro coin, no, we’ve been blowing simply enormous bubbles:
Above and below are rare glimpses of Mr McSpendy as he works his magic in my parent’s garden on Monday.
To create these enormous bubbles Mr McSpendy is using a gadget called “The Bubble Thing” by Klutz which is quite tricky to find but well worth the search. I’ve found it on a site called www.bubbleinc.co.uk (see half way down the page ‘Book and Thing’). Unfortunately, the site only caters for UK shipping but you can contact them for pricing for international shipping. The Book and Thing comes in at £10.99 plus shipping and it has more than earned its keep in our house – everyone who has seen us blow these giant bubbles has had to have a go. We were barely indoors for the whole weekend. The babas just loved the bubbles (it seems that bursting a life size bubble is a source of much joy) and the utter calm and relaxation that descends upon you when you blow these bubbles is amazing, I’m not kidding when I say that it could save you a few sessions of therapy !!
But you don’t need The Bubble Thing to have fun and, in fact, its quite large and takes a bit of practice so Mr Moo preferred a slightly smaller option (see below):
In this picutre, Mr Moo is using one of the giant bubble wands that comes with the Bubble Bonkas pack. You can buy this pack from ebay and it costs just under £10 including shipping to Ireland. The pack includes two bubble wands (one round and one star shaped), a container for dipping the wand into the solution and a small bottle of solution. While you won’t be able to blow bubbles your baba could fit into (like you can with The Bubble Thing), the round wand that comes with this pack easily blows bubbles that are two feet wide or (like Mr Moo’s masterpiece above) a long bubble ‘tunnel’ that could be up to four or five feet long.
If you can’t get one of these bubble wands, you could make your own wand using some wire or, if you are strong, a wire coat hanger. Whatever you use to blow your bubbles, the key to success is the bubble solution that you use. The recipe below is the best one we’ve tried. The ingredients are not expensive and each batch will give you and your babas so much enjoyment.
12 cups of water
1 cup of corn starch (we used corn flour)
2 tablespoons of baking powder (NOT baking soda)
1 cup of washing up liquid (use Fairy or other good quality brand…the cheap stuff just won’t cut it)
I’m not sure why this odd combination of ingredients works, it just does.
Please give this a try, you will not regret it I promise !
