Snow Painting

So the snow that came this past week has now turned into a crusty layer of ice. The weather has hovered above freezing during the day and has dropped to the frigid 20's (;-)) during the night. As a result, our yard is now covered with ice and is not so conducive to outdoor play. However, my friend Adrienne gave me a great idea to try with the kids: snow painting! And since I am watching her daughter Juliana today, she brought all the supplies just in case we wanted to give it a try.

[caption id="attachment_58" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Our decorated snowman :)"][/caption]

Each child receives a squirt bottle with water and an added drop or two of food coloring in it. The kids then take the squirt bottle outside and spray patterns in the snow. All of the kids absolutely loved this, and we had to refill the bottles three times. Our snow man now has a tie dye pattern, and the yard has been decorated in assorted colorful rainbow patterns. :-D The kids really enjoyed combining colors to see what new colors they could make.

[caption id="attachment_57" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="They had so much fun!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_55" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Ellie: "This is fun!" "][/caption]

Even better, they followed our one rule about keeping the colorful water on the ground/trees/bushes and not each other quite well. We only had one mishap - after which I found that good old regular shaving cream successfully removes food coloring stains from clothing and skin! I'll have to tuck that little trick away for future use. ;-)

[caption id="attachment_56" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Brandon"][/caption]

Many thanks to Adrienne for providing a great way to make an icy yard an artistic showcase! :-D

[caption id="attachment_54" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Jules"][/caption]