Kids’ Corner

Kids’ Corner BATH BOMBS

Make a unique present for friends and family this holiday season.

By Sari Custer, Chief Curiosity Officer at Arizona Science Center

What’s more fun than bathtub bubbles? Bath bombs have been around since 1989 and have recently found a resurgence in popularity. With this activity, you can customize all your scents and colors for custom science gift-giving!

SUPPLIES

• Silicone molds (soap/candy molds, muffin tins, or plastic eggs also work well) • Whisk • Mixing spoons • Wax paper • Large bowl • Small bowl • Measuring spoons • Measuring cups • Gloves • Eye protection • ¾ cup baking soda • ½ cup cornstarch • ½ cup powdered citric acid (buy online, at a local craft store, or local grocer with canning supplies)

EST. 2009

• ½ cup Epsom salt • ½ tablespoon water • 2½ tablespoon oil (coconut, olive, or other vegetable oil) • Optional: portable fan • Optional: 4 to 6 drops of food coloring (powdered food coloring works well) • Optional: 2 teaspoons skinfriendly scented essential oils (lavender, eucalyptus, rose, lemongrass, coffee, cinnamon, vanilla, peppermint … whatever you like! Available online or at your local craft store).

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Put on your safety gear, including gloves and eye protection.

Powders can be irritating. 2. In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients (baking soda, Epsom salt, citric acid, and cornstarch) and mix until combined and clump-free. 3. In a small bowl, combine the wet ingredients (oil, water, scented oil, and food coloring). If you use scented oil, stick to about two

teaspoons. Roughly five drops of food coloring work well, but feel free to mix up different pigments and experiment with the color. 4. Very slowly add the liquid to the dry mixture — about one teaspoon at a time. Use the whisk to mix as you go. Slow down if you start to see the mixture fizz. The final mixture shouldn’t clump together and should have the texture of damp sand. 5. Spread the mixture into the silicone molds (or plastic eggs) and press firmly until it is fully and evenly packed in each section. Depending on size, this can make about 10 bath bombs. 6. Place the packed molds in front of the blowing fan or just set them out to dry. This can take up to a day. 7. When your molds are set, flip them over and very gently press the fizzies out onto a piece of wax paper. If they start to crumble as you do this, flip them back over and let them continue

to set in the molds for a while longer. 8. Test them! Once the bath bombs are set, try one out by tossing it into a tub of water. What do you observe? 9. To gift them, gently wrap your bath bombs in decorative bags.

If the fizzy does crumble, have no fear! The mixture can be poured into a bath and produce the same great effects.

WHAT’S HAPPENING?

The key ingredients here are citric acid (a weak acid) and baking soda (or sodium bicarbonate, a weak base). When the two ingredients are dry in their powdered form, they don’t react. But when you put the bath bomb into the tub, water causes the two key ingredients to mix, resulting in an acid-base reaction. Is there any change if you put the bath bomb in cold water versus hot water? How does the size of your bath bomb affect its fizziness? How does the color of the bath bomb affect the water?

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In recent months, 345 Wealth Management opened its doors in Scottsdale. The full-service financial services firm, which is located at 4835 E. Cactus Rd., Suite 255, is focused on comprehensive planning as it relates to the accumulation, distribution, and transfer of wealth. Within the firm, the team also offers innovative approaches as it relates to asset location planning and risk transfer strategies.

WHAT’S IN A NAME

The “3-4-5” in the company’s name is intentional.

The “3” represents the three buckets of money where clients’ assets may be allocated.

The “4” represents the four tax quadrants where assets fall, impacting how each will be taxed during each phase of the investment.

The “5” represents the five strategies used to customize a plan using the buckets and quadrants to ensure clients have more time and money to do what they love.

LOFTY LEADERSHIP

While the business and its name are new to the market, the award-winning team is anything but.

The already rapidly growing firm is the brainchild of industry veterans Dillan Micus and Patrick Kearns, who together have more than 110 years of combined leadership experience in the finance industry.

“The focus of 345 Wealth Management is to provide comprehensive financial planning services to our clients, allowing them to manage their finances so they can do more of what they love,” says Micus. “Pat and I bring years of experience to the firm, giving us and the team the opportunity to develop a roadmap for each of our clients designed to reduce risk while at the same time create tax efficiencies.”

Micus previously served as the executive vice president of his current broker-dealer, Equitable Advisors Southwest Branch for 17 years. When he moved to Scottsdale in 2005, he was the then-youngest person in the company’s history to take on the role of executive vice president. During his tenure, he was the firm’s highest-ranking officer in the Southwest region, growing the organization from a few hundred million dollars of assets placed under management, to $3 billion in assets placed under management.

Kearns served as a member of his brokerdealer, now Equitable Advisors since 2001, including as vice president of the Nevada office for 13 years, where he oversaw market operations, led recruitment and training efforts, and worked with clients across the Southwest. He worked closely with Micus in that role before moving to Scottsdale to serve as senior vice president of Equitable Advisors Southwest Branch in 2018.

“Dillan and I have spent decades understanding the intricacies of the processes and products that can impact financial freedom – estate planning strategies, wealth management, business continuation, qualified plans, the tax code, market conditions, client behaviors,” says Kearns.

Joining Micus and Kearns is Brady Schneider as chief operating officer. Schneider joined the firm in advance of its formal launch spring 2022 and in his senior executive role, he leads the design and implementation of policies to promote company culture and vision and oversees all day-to-day operations under the 345 Wealth Management umbrella. Prior to joining 345 Wealth Management, Schneider worked for Equitable Advisors Southwest/AXA Advisors Southwest since 2007, most recently as senior manager of branch operations where he directed more than 100 associates, providing support for service, new business, and commission related issues, and ensuring company-wide goals and operational standards are met.

Ali Grefsheim, a fellow Equitable veteran, rounds out the leadership team as chief of staff.

“The dedicated, unwavering work that we have done to facilitate financial transactions, create systems and processes, and advise clients is what has led us to start this firm,” says Micus. “Through starting our own business, we’re realizing a dream and now we will be able to help others realize theirs, too, starting with financial freedom on their own terms.”

For more information, please visit 345wealthmgmt.com.

This content is sponsored by 345 Wealth Management