The Great Annual Egg Drop

The Saturday before Easter is Egg Drop Day here.  Highly anticipated as always, this event is a big deal because the stakes are high!  If your egg survives the drop you do not have to do any evening work, and these kids really, really hate family chores.  This year the egg vehicles were launched from the treehouse and had to land on pavement or be dropped a second time.

Mr. SP wrapped his egg in bubble wrap, enclosed it in a tupperwear container sandwiched between two gigantic green stuffed Easter bunnies bookended by two pillows all packed into a garbage bag.  At the last minute he added a couple of empty milk jugs from the recycling bin onto the bottom to act as shock absorbers.  He called it “The Easter Express.”  Next year I think I will be adding a maximum size requirement to the challenge.

His egg was unsurprisingly unscathed.  Happy kid. 

Mr. TOF spent all day designing his contraption.  First he drew plans on a piece of paper.  Then he gathered materials.  He was especially happy to locate a roll of duct tape.  He attached cardboard to two pieces of rules and stuck in some grass along with his egg.  He was so excited about his egg vehicle that he could hardly stand the wait until it was dropped.

I thought to myself, obviously there is no hope for this egg. It was sure to break into smithereens.

He dropped it from the treehouse and it landed with an ominous splat.  Then I looked down and there was the egg, escaped from the vehicle, rolling down the driveway without a crack.  There was one tiny little dent, and not a drop of yolk left the shell.  I consider that success, and this kid was so thrilled.  I have no idea how it happened. There is no feasible explanation.  

The Banana had a friend over in the afternoon, and they decided to work together.  Her friend even called her mom to check to see if the egg survived if she also could get out of family chores.  Her mom agreed, and these girls were on a mission!  They wrapped their egg in hair accessories, put it in a puffy sock inside a cardboard box filled with towels.  That box was sealed with packing tape and put between two pillows in a garbage bag (again, the need for a maximum size restriction next year).

Their egg also survived.  Happy girls!

YaYa’s egg vehicle was the most technologically advanced.  She nearly did not participate because she was angry that someone had used the last of the duct tape, but her littlest brother located another roll, and she went to work with a box of straws.  Her egg was placed in a plastic jar suspended in peanut butter.  The jar was then suspended inside a cylinder of straws duct taped together.

The end result was artistic and modern.  

It was a little tricky to extract the egg amid all that duct tape.  It took a while and things got pretty slimy in the process, but in the end it was apparent that even though the jar cracked and peanut butter dripped out, the egg survived.
Four for four intact eggs:  our best results yet.