My awesome friend Ali shared a photo of her daughter playing with these amazing Hatching Egg Fizzing Dinosaur Bath Bombs the other day on Facebook.  As soon as I saw them, I knew we had to create a DIY recipe for them - Fizzing?  Dinosaurs?  Bath Bombs?  What's not to love, right?

Luckily we have a whole entire army of teeny dinosaurs that play in most (OK, probably all) of our small worlds.  We love this set and highly recommend it - I honestly can't think of a day that these little guys haven't been played with.

And, as is our penchant around here...we had to make a set of RAINBOW eggs.  :)

S was SOOO excited.  She took some of her "grown up" dinosaurs and matched them with their eggs.

Now these are totally fabulous bath bombs, but the lighting is terrible in our bathroom, so we decided to put them in a shallow tray of water to play with them.  S totally thought it was magical that we just added water - not vinegar - to make the eggs start erupting and hatching!

A close-up of a hatching egg.  It was really SO much cooler than this photo conveys...so there's a video at the end of the post.  :)

He's almost hatched!

S had the best time with these.  Because the chemical reaction here is endothermic, the eggs feel quite cold to the touch.  We chatted about this and I had her recall her experience with the opposite type of chemical reaction - an exothermic reaction - with Elephant Toothpaste.  She still remembers the foam from our Elephant Toothpaste experiment was warm to the touch, so it was a fun way to bring a little chemistry into the activity.

Are you ready to make your own?

You will need:

Small Dinosaurs

Baking Soda

Oil (we used olive oil)

Citric Acid

Food Coloring/Liquid Watercolors (we used Liquid Watercolors)

Add 1/2 cup baking soda to a small dish/container and add about 1/4 tsp Liquid Watercolors (if you don't have liquid watercolors, add 1-2 drops food coloring to 1/4 tsp water), using your fingers (or your kiddo's fingers) break up and spread the coloring throughout the baking soda until it is uniformly colored.  Next add at least 1 Tbsp of citric acid.  We used 1 Tbsp of Citric Acid and were happy with the amount of fizzing for the cost, but some of you have since reported trouble with forming the bombs.  I reworked the recipe and found that adding just 1 additional Tbsp of citric acid will make the dough much, well, doughier!  It should be a ton easier to mold if that was causing you any trouble.  And it's fizzier!  Mix the citric acid throughout your colored baking soda.  You may see a small amount of fizzing and/or feel the mixture getting cold - this is because citric acid, water, and baking soda will react together and there is a small amount of water in the colored baking soda.  Next add 1 tsp of oil (we used olive oil) to the mixture and mix well.  

You should have a dry and crumbly dough that just barely sticks together if you smoosh it.  If it is not sticking together under pressure, slowly add more oil 1/4 tsp at a time.  You do not want a wet dough - it should be very crumbly and dry.  Take your small dinosaur and press handfuls of the crumbly mixture onto the dinosaurs body such that you create an egg shape around the dinosaur.  Though the egg will be crumbly and fragile when you finish it, by the time it has dried overnight, it will be pretty solid.  Just set it somewhere where it is unlikely to be disturbed while it dries.  Do leave yourself at least 10 hours for the egg to harden.  I like to make them the night beforehand so they are ready the next morning.  Once the eggs have hardened - all you need to do is add water!

A few final notes:  I was able to find citric acid in the bulk section of our grocery store.  It's used in canning foods, so if you don't want to buy some online, the bulk section of your grocery store is where I'd recommend looking for it.  We had no issues with staining in our tub, but of course I cannot guarantee anything.  If you are very concerned about potential staining, I would recommend omitting the color and making white eggs.  And finally, because the recipe contains oil, if you are using these as bath bombs, your tub may be slightly more slippery than usual.  Please always monitor your children in baths and stay within arms reach!  :)

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All activities here are activities I feel are safe for my own children.  As your child's parents/guardians, you will need to decide what you feel is safe for your family.  I always encourage contacting your child's pediatrician for guidance if you are not sure about the safety/age appropriateness of an activity. All activities on this blog are intended to be performed with adult supervision.  Appropriate and reasonable caution should be used when activities call for the use of materials that could potentially be harmful, such as scissors, or items that could present a choking risk (small items), or a drowning risk (water activities), and with introducing a new food/ingredient to a child (allergies).  Observe caution and safety at all times.  The author and blog disclaim liability for any damage, mishap, or injury that may occur from engaging in any of these activities on this blog.