Hi Everyone! Even though the weather has moderated some here in SE Ohio, last week gave us a glimpse of winter with cold, windy weather, and a hint of SNOW! My kids love to play outside in the winter. they make snow-men, igloos, go sled-riding, take walks, have snow-ball fights, and ride their pony.

A few days ago I read a book that said to let your kids paint in the snow! I had never seen this before and it looks like fun. Fill empty dish-soap, ketchup, mustard or other types of "squirt" bottles with water and some food coloring. ( I think this would be a good use of things like left-over beet juice...) Then the kids can squirt or spray it in the snow to make pictures.

This would probably be good to do if you knew it was going to snow again soon, so you don't have to look at it for weeks on end!

I am posting this early so you will have a chance to save these bottles in case you don't have any already. Tell the kids to have fun!!!!!

-- Melissa (cmnorris@1st.net), October 30, 2001

Answers

Melissa,

I did this with our youngest a few years ago but we used small spray bottles - they are available in the Health and Beauty section at Wal- mart. I already had a couple of these bottles that I used to mist plants with. It was a fun activity and we took pictures of our creations.

-- Terry - NW Ohio (aunt_tm@hotmail.com), October 30, 2001.

Thanks Terry! I will also save windex bottles as well!

-- Melissa (me@home.net), October 30, 2001.

What a cute idea! Wouldn't it be neat to outline a snow angel this way? My soon to be 4yo DS can't wait to get out and make a snowman! Its gonna be a fun winter! Hopefully we'll get snow and not ICE!

-- Lisa in WI (lehman16NOSPAM@vbe.com), October 31, 2001.

I just hope the temps will be warm enough to ENJOY the snow this year. The wind was often so sharp last winter that no one wanted to go out much. We were out enough just trying to keep the snow off the driveway:)

-- Cathy N. (keeper8@attcanada.ca), October 31, 2001.

Will beet juice stain? I know my hands were red for days.

-- Micheale from SE Kansas (mbfrye@totelcsi.net), October 31, 2001.

The beet juice might stain, but with the old stuff my kids wear outside it wouldn't hurt anything, and diluted down with water it wouldn't be too bad. My hands don't get stained when I can mine I just keep rinsing them off as I go.

-- Melissa (me@home.net), October 31, 2001.

Melissa, I use pipettes (sort of like an eyedropper) instead of squirt bottles for a finer line, but the food coloring soaks into the snow and sort of dissipates after a day or two anyway. We do this every year. We also set up targets for snowball throwing accuracy. I hang 4 inch plastic pots from a trellis and we see if we can hit them with snowballs. We built a small sledding hill that goes out onto the pond and of course we skate on the pond. We also cross- country ski and sometimes take a picnic lunch into the woods. Winter can be just as much fun as summer if you want it to be. We adults tend to have more time in the winter since there are few gardening chores. This year we may try delving into the whole snow scupture thing. We have to move a lot of snow anyway...why not make it into something interesting? Life is good!

-- sheryl in Me (radams@sacoriver.net), November 03, 2001.