I told Fino about the diet coke and mentos combination and he and the girls were eager to try it.

Now what really cracked me up about our experiment was not the fact that it worked - or that Fino was in his glory blowing something up - but the chicken factor. Always have to count our feathered friends being part of anything we do in our backyard.

The first experiment was great and the mentos, along with the warm diet coke (we took my co-workers' advice), went shooting out of the bottle.

Being the opportunists they are, the chickens then came over to see if they could catch a bite to eat. One hen discovered a mento on the ground and started pecking at it. Then Fino started another "experiment" and the hen shot out of sight almost as fast as the diet coke did.

Fino and the girls did another experiment to see if adding mentos to the already used diet coke would explode again. It did -- with a little help.

And in case you're wondering, yes, the diet coke left in the bottle is drinkable - and tasty according to Fino.

Of course, we did catch all the live action on video.

The Chicken Escape
[10 seconds]

Success
[8 seconds]

Recycled Diet Coke explosion
[16 seconds]