Snow Cones

When your yard looks like this on April 24:

I am pretty sure this is the best response:

Snowcones! Made with real snow... It's a pretty good way to make a little girl happy!

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. But when Spring gives you snow, make snowcones!

Rainy Day Fun

Up until a few days ago, we have had a very rainy few weeks! We got all geared up for summer and got Eliana a big inflatable pool for the yard and then it turned dreary out. So to make the best of the situation (and provide a little diversion for indoor play after being cooped up for so long!) here's what we did:

We blew up the pool in the basement!! It's on a mat so it is less likely to get scratched along the floor, and the mat also provides a softer floor for little knees and hands to crawl on in the pool! We didn't, obviously, want to fill the pool with water right there in our basement, so we filled the top section with the next best thing for indoor play:

Balls!! We made Eliana her very own little ball pit! She thinks it's great and played in it all afternoon, affording me a little time to get things done without her whining that we couldn't play outside because it was raining. She had a blast racing the balls down the slide...

... and then retrieving them...

And now that I know we can do this indoors, we have a winter activity just waiting for us once the summer sun is long gone! I'm excited to have another activity to pull out for her and think I'll use that basement corner as a place to rotate activities every week or so once we're inside more due to weather. Plus, it means I can use the pool all year long, which makes it a little more cost effective, and that is nice.

(By the way, if you're going to do this, I highly recommend using a vacuum that can be put on reverse to blow up the pool. I used my Kirby to do that and it still took a good long time, so I can only imagine how long it would have taken if I tried to blow it up myself! Eek!)

The magic of food coloring

There's no end to the fun you can have with a little food coloring, some water, and a squirt bottle. This is what Ellie and I did the other morning for about an hour...



And no, there wasn't a massacre. Just a lot of food coloring mixed with a lot of snow. Ellie thought it was great. Until her water bottle ran out of squirt. Then...



"More please. Water empty."

And indeed, it was.



So I'd refill it with plain water and she'd go out and empty it on the deck again. We went through this about a dozen times. She thought it was great. So did I.

All in all we had a great time playing in the snow. It was a good way to use up some energy, and it got me to stop thinking about how much I wished the snow would just go away. I'm ready for Spring!

ACTIVITY: Snow Painting

Need:
snow
food coloring
squirt bottle of water

Directions:
Fill the squirt bottle with water and add a few drops of food coloring. Take it outside and squirt the snow to make colorful designs and patterns! When the bottle is empty, refill it with another color.

Work on:
Colors, shapes, gross motor skills