Snow day! Two little words that have the power to fill a parents heart with dread or pure joy. I am a parent who absolutely loves snow days. We have currently been snowed in for four days now and we are not only surviving, we are thriving. We have had so many wonderful experiences as a family from movie nights, sledding, snow art and snow science. The best part is lasting memories we have made as a family.
This is how we survived Snowmageddon 2016...
Day 1- Finally we had the "S" word in the forecast, with the possibility of accumulation- Yay! Naturally I bundled the little's up and headed to the store for some snowssentials and I am not talking about bread and milk. First stop, the baking aisle for some baking soda and a big jug of white vinegar. Next, everyone got to pick out a special candy. We grabbed a box of popcorn with the pour over butter (because calories do not count on snow days), and of course caffeine for mom because I am not crazy enough to take on a snow day with three little's with out a morning pick me up. Finally, we hit the shampoo aisle for a bottle of white conditioner and then we were ready to checkout and head back home. As the evening of day one approached my little's were bummed that not a single snowflake had fallen so we took matters into our own hands. We made our own snow!!!!!! We did this by mixing 9 cups baking soda and 1 and 1/2 cups of the white conditioner (the original recipe calls for only 3 cups baking soda and 1/2 cup of conditioner but I needed enough for three). The outcome was pure playtime bliss, my little's loved this activity and the best part was that it really felt like snow.
Day 2- OMG!!! It's Snowing! There is actually white flakes falling from the heavens and it is sticking. After watching the snow fall for a few hours we ventured out to play and by mid-afternoon we had about five inches of glorious white snow which meant that we could finally make a snow volcano. To make our volcano we used a small Pepsi bottle that I filled about halfway with baking soda, a water bottle filled with the vinegar, a few drops of red food coloring, and snow. Next I placed the Pepsi bottle in the snow and covered the sides with snow, basically building a mound around the bottle. After the volcano was built my husband poured the vinegar and we watched. Almost instantly we had a volcanic eruption that wowed and amazed my little's. They loved it so much we repeated the experiment several more times. As the sun began to set we headed in to warm up with some hot chocoate and prepare for a movie night. We ended up watching Mr. Poppers Penguins which was free on Demand. We also stuffed our faces with popcorn, M&M's, Sour Patch Kids, and Sour Patch Watermelons.
Day 3- Of course we spent to morning just enjoying the snow but by the afternoon my littles wanted something new and fun so we attempted to make ice marbles using balloons, water, and food coloring. You are supposed to use water balloons but all I had on hand was thick party balloons but I figured it was worth a try.We filled each balloon with water and a few drops of food coloring before putting them in the freezer to set up. After about 3-4 hours in our freezer the balloons were rock hard, so we peeled the balloons off and what we had were ice ovals. They were not round like marbles (I think the balloons affected the shape) instead they were egg shaped. I was bummed things had not worked out the way I expected, but then my oldest spoke up, "Wow! mom we have dinosaur eggs! Lets hide them and go on an egg hunt!" We spent the rest of the afternoon hiding and hunting dinosaur eggs.
Day 4- Day four brought blizzard like conditions with frigid temperatures so we weren't able to play outside but that did not stop us from enjoying the snow. In the morning we made snowflake sun-catchers to hang on our patio doors. It was a simple project that we were able to complete with items we had on hand, we used clear contact paper, black construction paper, and tissue paper in shades of blue. I helped my two youngest cut their snowflakes out of the black paper but my oldest was able to to hers on her own. Next we placed the snowflake in the middle of a piece of contact paper, and then added the tissue paper to fill up the rest of the contact paper. Once they were finished I hung them on our glass patio doors so the sun could shine through them. This was a very simple and stunning art project. After lunch we collected some clean snow and made snow cream which was a huge hit. I know most people have a favorite snow cream recipe but in case you don't here is the one we used...
Snow Cream Recipe:
8 cups fresh snow
1 cup milk
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract.
Mix all together and serve immediately!
1 cup milk
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract.
Mix all together and serve immediately!
After we finished our tasty treat I went back outside and filled a bucket of snow which I brought inside. We used this snow to make snow buddies. Each kiddo made their own snow body (they were basically just blobs) next we used Mr. Potato Head pieces to give our snow buddies life. They actually turned out super adorable and they were a lot of fun for the kiddos.
Day 5- The original plan for day 5 was to build a snow fort with snow guards but that went out the window when our neighbors invited us to spend the afternoon sledding with them. By the time we had finished sledding the sun was setting and it was nearly dinner time but we were able to squeeze in time to build a small snowman family before heading in for the night,
There you have it, how we survived Snowmaggedon 2016. Please feel free to try any of these fun activities with your own kiddos on your next snow day. If you didn't find an activity you loved check the pictures below for more ideas from our previous snow days.
