I love seeing snow through my children’s eyes. To them snow is magical and fun and exciting. And as long as I don’t have to travel anywhere in it, I quite enjoy the rare occasions that we get snow. This week we’ve had snow for several days which is almost unheard of. It’s been lovely to watch my girls getting outside and having fun in the snow.
Normally, the first thing the girls want to do in the snow is to try and make a snowman. This snow is the wrong kind for making snowmen though. It’s something that I never really grasped before. Normally when we get snow, it’s fairly wet snow which is perfect for building snow. This week, because it’s been so cold, the snow is quite dry and powdery.
As we couldn’t build a snowman, I thought it would be fun to try some snow painting instead. I filled up some bottles with water and food colouring, made a hole in the lid using a corkscrew and then the girls were free to have fun.
It worked best in areas where the snow was thicker. Where the snow was thinner on the ground, squirting coloured water at it tended to make it melt away. Sophie still enjoyed colouring the grass underneath though!
I thought the girls might try to draw some pictures on the snow. They were both quite happy just to squirt the colours in a random pattern though. Sophie quite liked making “sprinkles” on the snow by spinning round and round while squirting the coloured water. Jessica tended to go for more concentrated patches of colour.
They spent about ten minutes squirting the colours around the garden before the bottles were finally empty. Ten minutes is about Jessica’s limit when out in the snow anyway before she gets too cold. It was the perfect length of activity for her.
We’ve been trying to make the most of the snow over the few days it’s been here though – getting out for about 10-15 minutes at a time. The bottles have been refilled a few times for more snow painting. Sophie has also enjoyed drawing in the snow with a stick and Jessica had fun making snow angels.
The snow might have been a bit too powdery for making good snowballs but it didn’t stop the girls trying to have a bit of a snowball fight!
Last time we had some snow, I made “ice diamonds” by filling balloons with water and food colouring and putting them in the freezer. The girls loved them so much that I couldn’t resist leaving some out in the garden for them to find.
I’d read about snow ice-cream on Mum Turned Mom’s blog a while back and this week was the perfect opportunity to give it a try. I’d bought some condensed milk in preparation for this and left a couple of roasting trays out on the garden table one afternoon when it was snowing heavily to collect some fresh clean snow. I think I might have added too much condensed milk to my snow as it melted very quickly producing “ice cream soup” rather than ice cream but it was still very yummy with sprinkles on top. If I get another opportunity, I’ll be a little more sparing with the condensed milk. The girls enjoyed it anyway, even if it was a bit on the runny side!
I’ve waiting years for some snow to try these activities from Mum turned Mum and now my kids are too old! However they weren’t too old for sledging, snow man making and igloo building. We packed so much into our one day of snow, I wish we had another but it is now melting. If there is any left tomorrow I may have to put the paints out and try it myself just for the fun of it! Glad you got to give it a go and that the girls enjoyed their snow days.
Thank you for sharing with me on #CountryKids
I’ve wanted to try them all for ages too! It’s a shame that your children are now too old but it certainly sounds like you packed plenty in to your snow day 🙂
So much fun.love the painting. We made snow ice cream yesterday too. I wasn’t as organised as you though and didn’t have condensed milk in ready. Ours worked but only because we kept adding more snow until it looked perfect. xx
I should have added the condensed milk gradually – we only had a limited amount of snow that I knew was fresh and clean.
Snow painting sounds like a lot of fun, I best be quick as our snow is disappearing fast
Ours disappeared very quickly too!
I’m with you on only going out for 15 minutes at a time, my husband seems to think the kids will enjoy being out for hours but they get so cold it stops being fun. Snow painting looks great!
Nat.x
It was so cold that it was difficult to enjoy it for long periods of time. Much better to have fun in short bursts!
I thought of Sara as soon as I started reading your posts. Snow painting and snow ice cream are just great ideas aren’t they. Glad both girls got to enojy the fun #CountryKids
It was fun to finally be able to try them out – I’ve wanted to do so for ages having read about them on Sara’s blog 🙂
Such a good idea, I wish I had seen this earlier when we had some snow as my girls would have had so much fun painting the snow. Mich x
Thanks Mich, I’m glad we got the opportunity to give it a try.
Oh wow good efforts!! I think snow is the only weather that completely turns off my sense of adventure outdoors. I might feel differently when both kids can walk but Chloe is just a tad young to enjoy it. We had typical UK snow here where it arrived in the morning and had gone by the evening! I’ve been watching on at all the fun thinking maybe, just maybe I might enjoy it. Love that Ice baloon idea, you could do this even without snow!! #countrykids
It is hard when they’re too little to really enjoy it. We made the ice balloons in the freezer so they definitely don’t need snow! 🙂
We also had so much fun in the snow in our garden, but must admit, have never thought of snow-painting. Looks so much fun though 🙂 #countrykids
It was fun. Glad you managed to enjoy the snow too 🙂
What a great activity. We have done painting snow before but with paint and brushes. this looks fun and very active. #countrykids
Snow painting with paint and brushes sounds like fun too 🙂
What a brilliant idea, does it stain the grass when the snow melts?
It doesn’t seem to – I haven’t noticed any staining.
Wow what a creative idea. I’ve not seen anyone do snow painting or make snow ice cream before. Genius. Looks like your girls thoroughly enjoyed themselves too! #CountryKids
Thank you – I was inspired by Mum Turned Mom for those ideas 🙂
Snow painting looks great! I meant to try making ice sphere with balloons but realised we hadn’t got any balloons in the house. Great to see Jessica doing so well – love that snow angel #countrykids
Thanks Karen. The ice spheres are fun to make – we did ours in the freezer 🙂
Snow ice cream sounds intriguing and we’ve seen a lot of it this past week! Love the drawings and colours in the snow. Of course I’m glad to see snow angels! Hope you had a good snow day #CountryKids
We had lots of fun, thank you 🙂
It was so lovely to read this post and see you trying the snow painting and snow ice cream, really made me smile 🙂 Glad you had fun! It’s been great to see everyone enjoying the snow so much! #countrykids
Thanks Sara, I’ve been wanting to try them ever since I read about them on your blog. It was so nice to finally have the opportunity 🙂
I had t realised either that it was the wrong type of scow! Listening to the forecast this evening we could be getting more, in which case I think I will give the snow painting a go! #countrykids
Hope you had fun if you did get the opportunity. Think we’re all finished with snow here 🙂