Sugar Cube Igloo

I am sure there are many tutorials to be found on how to make this project. And this probably would have worked out more beautifully if I had read them. But, it was still fun, and you can tell what this is supposed to be. I hope! I started by making a batch of royal icing to use as the glue. My recipe calls for 3 egg whites, 4 cups of sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon of creme of tartar. Mix it until it is smooth. Easy as can be. Once I had my icing ready, I got the rest of the supplies out: a small box of sugar cubes, a knife, and I cut the side off a cardboard box and covered it with tinfoil to use as our base. I also traced a mixing bowl with the tip of a pen to leave a marking on the foil to help us make a round igloo.

We used our knives to spread a little icing on the sugar cubes, one at a time. I didn't try to put icing on the sugar cubes that were already assembled on the igloo because I thought the structure would collapse from the pressure of the spreading. I suppose you could try piping it on, but that still feels risky to me.

We followed along the outline of the circle, and left just small cracks between each sugar cube. (they can't fit tight together because the sugar is a square, and the structure is a circle). We were also careful to leave an opening for the door.

Then we added the next ring, putting the next sugar block over the gap between the ones below. We also moved our ring closer to the center of the circle so that the layers would eventually taper at the top.

To build the door, I made this arch flat against the table. Then when it was dry, I could stand it up and it didn't fall apart. I acutally made two of them, so that one could stand out from the main structure a bit.

After we had our dome shape about half way done, we decided to let it harden up a bit before we added any more. (I really didn't want it to collapse!) *tip: be sure to cover up the icing in the bowl, or it could get hard and not work for you when you come back to finish the rest!

We left it for about half an hour, and when we came back, it was nice and firm and able to support more cubes.

We came back and kept building up and up and up, trying our best to stagger the blocks over the cracks from the last layer. I propped up the entrance and we attached it with some icing.

Since we had some left over icing, we spread it all over the base so it would be white like snow.

Then inspiration hit, and we put a couple of tablespoons of icing sugar in our sieve, and we let it gently fall over the whole thing. Just like a fresh flurry!

I think it turned out really well, and it didn't take as much time as I thought it might.

The kids have all asked if we are allowed to eat it now that it is built. (I think they are remembering gingerbread houses from Christmas, where first you build it, then you sample it. Funny!)

Indoor Snow Play

It is always lots of fun to take the kids out in the yard and play in the snow, but it is hard for my littlest man to participate. He can still be a little wobbly walking, especially in big clunky boots on uneven terrain, and so he spends most of the time sitting in the cold, frustrated that he can't get around.

Which really just means that I don't take him out to play in the snow because it is so miserable for him.

Enter this brilliant idea:


Snow Play in the kitchen sink!


I'd brought snow inside in buckets before and let the kids play with it on the kitchen floor, although admittedly, I haven't even done that once all winter. It was kind of a pain, since you had to spread out towels all over the floor, which made more laundry....


But then I saw this idea over on a friend's blog!


It is so much easier, since sinks are designed to take the mess down the drain for you. No more towels all over the floor.

I put a few of his stacking cups in the sink for him to fill and play around with, and a serving spoon made a fine shovel.

It was great! As soon as I set him up on a chair, he was quick to dive right on in.

I kid you not, he stood there for half and hour straight, digging, scooping, and dumping.

And it turns out that even my bigger kids thought it was a great idea. As soon as I packed my little guy off for his nap, they jumped right in!

Observing Snowflakes

A while back, I was cutting out paper snowflakes with the kids and we were having a nice time together. While we looked at all the different patterns we had made and how pretty they were, one of the kids said something like, 'but real snowflakes are just round.' I said that no, there were tiny patterns on real snowflakes too, but I couldn't really show them for themselves.

Well, we had a beautiful snow today. Lots of fluffy flakes, falling gently, not too cold. Perfect. So I grabbed some scraps of dark fabric and we went outside to catch some snowflakes.

It didn't take long before we had a good sampling to look at.

Sure enough, we found that the icy crystals actually had tiny, delicate patterns, just like our paper snowflakes did. It was so great to watch the kids as they looked at individual snowflakes and declared this one or that one to be the prettiest.

Snow Ice Cream

Something fun we got from a friend a couple of years ago was a recipe for ice cream that you make with actual snow. We just had a beautiful downfall of the white stuff, and so I went outside and scooped some up so we could make some this afternoon.

Start with 4 cups of fresh snow in a mixing bowl:

Pour in 1/2 cup of milk. (cream is better if you have it)

Add 1/4 teaspoon vanilla

and 1/4 cup of white sugar.

Mix it all together until it is nice and smooth.

Serve.

Enjoy!

Snow Painting

We had done this once earlier in the season at Joy School, but we've had so much beautiful snow lately that it was definitely time to pull this activity back out and do it again!

I bought three squirt bottles at our local dollar store (I love dollar stores!). I planned on filling them up with the primary colours of red, yellow, and blue, and then we could make other colours on the snow as we played. But - the kids didn't want yellow. They wanted green. I tried to convince them, but they weren't interested, so yellow was out, and green was in.

Come to think of it - colouring the snow yellow is a little distasteful!


To make the coloured squirters, I just filled them with water and added food colouring drop by drop until I thought it was dark enough to contrast easily on the white snow.

Just a warning here - the food colouring can stain, so make sure that if they do get some on their winter clothes you wash it right away!

My husband built a snowpig with the kids a few days ago and we used our squirters to paint him pink. How cool is that? We actually got a few comments on him from our smiling neighbours!

Indoor Snowmen

We had fun making some no-snow-required snowmen this week. (We made these a couple of months ago in Joy School, but the older kids didn't get a chance, and they've been wanting to do it.)

Here is what you need: Powdered laundry detergent and water to make the 'snow,' and any decoration do-dads you want to use to make him jolly. I went to my pantry and came up with cinnamon sticks and whole cloves, to my sewing box for some spare buttons, and the kids' craft supplies for felt and beads. I also set out paper plates for the kids to make their snowmen on to keep the table from getting too messy.

Scoop out some detergent into a large bowl. We used about 1 cup of detergent per person.

Slowly add water while stirring until it makes a thick paste.

Then roll it into balls, and build yourself a snowman. Add all your accessories. Have fun.

This one was mine. I used cinnamon sticks as arms, cloves for the face, beads for the buttons, and a felt strip for the scarf.

And a bonus of this craft is that it smells so good and clean. Having one in a room is like an air freshener. Love.

Lamingtons

My family all love this treat, but somehow I can only bring myself to make it in the winter when it is snowy outside. It has coconut on it, so maybe it is something about that that reminds me of snow. Who knows?

Lamingtons, if you are unfamiliar with them, are squares of cake that are rolled in icing and coconut. Pretty simple to make, and it gives the kids a chance to get messy in the kitchen, which they enjoy.

For the cake:

3 eggs

1 1/4 cup flour

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup sugar

1 tablespoon butter

1/2 cup boiling water

1/2 teaspoon lemon OR vanilla extract

Beat eggs for 5 minutes, add sugar, flour, baking powder. Then add butter and boiling water. Add flavoring of your choice. Pour into greased 9x9 pan. Bake for 25 minutes at 350. Let it cool completely.

Make a batch of your favourite chocolate butter cream icing recipe, but make it quite runny. Open a bag of flaked coconut and pour it into a separate bowl.

Now you are ready to begin the fun, messy part!

My eager helpers, ready for work. I cut the cake into 1" squares in the pan, and then they did the rest.

Take each square of cake and roll it in the runny chocolate icing until it is coated.

Put the square into the bowl of coconut and roll it around until there is coconut sticking on all sides.

Let the icing firm up a bit, and then they are ready to eat. Don't you think they kind of look like snowballs?

Marshmallow Igloo

My oldest is studying the Inuit people and the arctic at school right now, and he is totally fascinated by all of it, which I love. His class was planning to do an art project of building igloos from marshmallows, and he was so excited! The morning of the day when the big project was going to happen, he woke up with pink eye! He was devastated when I told him that he wasn't able to go to school. There were tears.

So I went to the pantry, and we came up with our own version of the craft. (I'm sure the one at school would have been cooler, but we had no idea what we were doing and just made it up as we went. It didn't turn out too badly though.)

We started with a white foam cup, and he cut an archway out to be the entrance to the igloo.

Then we used white glue around the edge of cup and stuck it onto a white foamy plate.

I gave him a paintbrush and he painted white glue around the bottom of the cup.

And he added mini-marshmallows all the way around.

Paint another ring of glue around the cup above the first layer of marshmallows, add marshmallows, repeat, repeat, repeat...

He kept going and going, and when the cup was covered, he had his igloo. He enjoyed making this one so much, he dug out more supplies and made one for each of his siblings.

Another tragedy averted!