Let It Snow- Part 3

The second day of snow we had was shockingly cold.  Temps were below freezing and the wind chill was painful.  You needed one of, what I refer to as a Bank Robber Mask, those caps where everything is covered except your eyes.  The wind blowing felt like needles, and it was one of those days when the sun is out but provides not a bit of warmth and everything seems clearer, sharper. 

As I said in the previous post (click there or simply scroll down), I really wanted to take the baby out, and get his photo in the snow.   I knew how cold it was supposed to be, so I walked out to determine if it was even smart to take little Rhysie outside.  It was around 10am.  I deemed it too cold.  We'd all have to wait for it to be a little later.  Hopefully, it would warm up...a little, perhaps? 

We started the day with some indoor activities.  Nick wanted to make mazes first.  Cool considering he came up with this idea on his own.  Pretty creative kid!  Afterwards,  Nick wanted to make an anemometer (a device that measures the speed of the wind.)  A few days back, Nicholas and I had watched Curious George make one.  He had expressed an interest in doing so as well.  I took note, and figured making one today would be a great idea on account of there being pretty high winds.  I was able to capture pictures of us constructing it, but not of it outside actually being used because it took some finagling which involved me holding it to make it work (but it did, at least), so I'll have to try to get a photo of the anemometer in action next time.

Our next indoor activity, involved some mess making, which is always fun.  I tried to stall the antsy-ness that comes with being indoors too much.  It also helped that Uncle Daniel came by.  Nick read to him.  I beamed proudly.  Then we finally made it outdoors! 






Creating mazes for Mommy and Daddy to solve.

 

"Oh, Mommy!  You're back!"
(After being out for approximately 3 minutes, checking the weather.)

 

"What are you doing, man?"

 

Making An Anemometer

This was pretty fun, although I do recommend using small Dixie-like cups instead of big ones of any material.  Because of the cup size, the straws weren't long enough, so we had to scramble and find some wooden kebab sticks.  Plus, the weight of the cups I used made it harder to spin in the wind.  Luckily, it was very windy so it still managed to spin around, but this is definitely an activity I would try again with Nick because he was really looking forward to holding it himself and watching it spin, and our version took some effort so it would spin.  All in all, I am happy that we were able to make it work though.
(I've included the link for instructions at the bottom of this post.)

Nick wanted to "diagram" the anemometer.  Cool!

 

 

Deep Baking Tin + Daddy's Shaving Cream+ New Matchbox Cars= Much Enjoyment

 

Shaving Cream Snow and some vehicles

It was a blizzard that buried the cars and continued to snow on them

Squeeze

Stories were being told of the vehicles that were having trouble getting to work.
(There was a delivery van, a K-9 police truck, a purple racecar,
and a dune buggy sort of thing for the sand, perhaps?)

Look at his facial expressions in this, and the photo below.
Those are serious sound effects.

Washing up was fun, too.
Getting his hands and cars clean in the "carwash".

The Outdoor Fun

 



More animal tracks.
And these two pictures prove what we already know,
and that is: squirrels are stupid.



I pointed the tracks out to Nicholas saying,
"Look at these squirrel tracks.  Aren't they silly?
It seems like they just randomly
decide to go in circles then carry on.
Isn't that funny?"
Nick just stared at me rather unimpressed.
Oh well.

Colored Ice Sculptures

I know, it's been a theme lately (the links are below if you missed them).  But they are so beautiful.  And this is one of my all time favorites.  So gorgeous.  All I did was add water and food coloring to baking tins of all shapes and sizes.  It turned out magical.


The two pictures below were of the set up.  I put the tins outside to freeze before it snowed at all.  It took two days for them to freeze solid.  It generated quite a bit of interest though.
 
Nick first spotted them inside through the window, "What are those?  What are they for?  When can we do it?" 

"They aren't frozen yet, we have to wait a little longer," I replied.  About 30 times the first day.

The second day, they were frozen solid.  I had to turn the baking tins over and pour warm water on the bottom to loosen them.

We slowly added a piece at a time.

Nicholas, I guess seeing everything come from a baking tin, decided it was a cake for his best friend.
He then delicately sprinkled it with "snow frosting."
Then not so delicately, but that didn't make quite as interesting picture,
 being as though it ended up in a massive mound of snow.

Ok, ok.  Here is what it looked like (Andrew must REALLY like frosting!)

 

Determination

Ta-Da!

And to finish the day's outdoor adventures, Nick went sledding, but not without showing everyone his fabulous new boots that light up!

What a treasure!  His bestie's grandma brought them back for him from Korea.  Not only do the snow boots flash red, blue, and green (this was my first time seeing light up boots, do they exist here in the States?), but they are Spiderman(!), they are exotic (Korean- oooh, aaaah), and his best friend has a matching pair in blue!  4 year old heaven!

Pretty Awesome, Nick

Now, let's sled already!

Nice and his slick Penguin Snowboogie-Board

Sledding Day 2 was more successful than Day 1 (not that that stopped us from trying).
Everything was more icy.

Wahoo!






Links to our other Snow Activities:  Ice Spheres,  Let It Snow- Part 1 and Let It Snow- Part 2


Credit and Instructions on Making the Anemometer and Ice Sculptures

Anemometer

If you have any interest in making an anemometer with your little ones, it was easy that only required a few steps and materials.  Use Dixie Cups, though. 

Here are the two sites I used:  this one has great instructions with pix: http://www.instructables.com/id/Paper-Cup-Anemometer/ and a slightly different version, her boys inspired by Curious George, too:

http://frugalfun4boys.com/2013/04/09/make-an-anemometer-to-observe-wind-speed/

 

 

Ice Sculptures

I am going to rave here for a second.  The following site is one of the best mommy blog/art sites for children that I have ever come across (thank you, Pinterest.)  Period.  I'm extremely proud that Nicholas' Ice Sculptures can actually compete with hers.  That's high praise.  It's called the Artful Parent, so if you have any desire to do anything art related with your kids, go there for serious inspiration.  This is the link to the Ice Sculptures:  http://www.artfulparent.com/2012/11/colored-ice-scultpures-outdoor-winter-art-for-kids.html

 

 

 



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.