Ice Spheres

 

We have been on quite the weather roller coaster ride here lately.  Yesterday's weather was supposed to be a high of 17 degrees (and I'm talking Fahrenheit so that would be -8 C), when I picked Nick up from school my car said it was 12 (-11 C), and the kicker was that it felt somewhere in the -20's (around -28 C) with the wind.  The brutal wind.

 

It was impressive.  And weird.  There was no snow.  In fact, the snow that had fallen a couple days before had melted.  Thursday (which is tomorrow as I write this) is forecasted to be 40 degrees (4 C), Friday 43 (6 C), and Saturday 60 (15 C).  Yes, 60 degrees.  It's hard to keep up with.  I've been forcing my kid to put layer after layer on, and it's going to be 60?!  That's practically beach weather.  And only to have it plummet back down again? *Sigh* That's East Coast weather for ya.

 

 

So, what does one do with freezing weather and no snow?  I went for making ice spheres, or orbs as some call them.  I made them overnight.   They are the easiest thing you'll ever make.  Just fill balloons with water and put them in the freezer. Then cut off the balloon once they are frozen. The next day I arranged them on our nature table outside like little ice sculptures so that Nick would discover them when he arrived home from school.  They did turn out quite beautifully.

 

 

Cutting one out of the balloon

I arranged them in a glass vase on Nick's nature table

 

Nick loved them.  He wanted to take a mitten off to feel it. 
 

He picked it up mitten-less,
 and put it right back down and as you can see below,
put his mittens back on to further inspect.
(I picked it up without gloves and it burned).

Nicholas studied it for as long as he could bare to be outside with the intolerable wind.
He wanted to know what it was, how it was made, what the lines were inside...
I'm glad it piqued his curiosity.
And they still adorn our table out front.