Snow!

Over the course of five days we had eight inches of snow, 65 degree weather, thunderstorms, tornado watches and back to freezing temperatures!  It was crazy!  We definitely took full advantage of the snow, starting the day it was falling.  We brought some inside in the sensory table and Lily and I created our town, complete with Chick-Fil-A, Kroger, A Candy Store, a park, the Library and multiple friend's houses.  We also scooped and dumped the snow with Simon.  

The following day we went outside to explore. There was lots of tasting the snow and since it was over 40 degrees outside we didn't wear gloves, so we all got to feel the snow. We used a Tupperware lid as a sled and went sledding down the hill in our backyard. A real sled would have worked better, but we still had fun with our makeshift sled. Lily and I made snow angels and we pretended our back deck was a pond full of snow and ducks.

Simon created snow castles.

We brought more snow inside and I gave the kids some food coloring to color the snow. They really enjoyed this activity. It took Simon a little while to figure out he needed to squeeze it while it was upside down and not just simply squeeze it, but while he was figuring that out he discovered shaking the bottle also created color on the snow.

When I started working at the Child Development Center on Campus I remember the kids in my class talking about snow cream.  I grew up in the north with tons of snow and I had never heard of snow cream so I never even gave it a second thought.  The longer I have been living here and the more winters we experience in Virginia, the more I have heard about snow cream.  So this year I figured we should give it a try and it was great!  I used a Paula Dean recipe that called for snow, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla and I was shocked at how much it tasted like ice cream!

We can't have ice cream or snow cream, apparently, without sprinkles!
We wouldn't complain if we got some more snow this Winter season!