Two and a Half

A couple days ago we celebrated Violet's 1/2 birthday. She got a half cake like her sister did on her half birthday. She was allowed to lick the beaters and the bowl from the frosting making and delighted in all he chocolate goodness. When I told her she was two and a half she acted like an actress receiving an award. I wish I could have caught it on video. I love this beautiful little person more than I can stand and I can't believe two and a half years have gone by already!

Winter Farm

We went to the farm to see if any little lambs had been born. One had, and was as cute as could be. It was the geese and the darling rooster that we enjoyed the most, however. It was very cold, but we managed to stay there for a good hour and spend time with all the animals we have come to love that live there. Especially Josie, the world's cutest donkey, and possibly sweetest animal ever.

More Ice Sculptures

Violet checking the ice.

Penelope bringing in the ice from outside so it could melt just a bit to make it easier to get out of the containers.

Violet carrying an ice balloon.

Ice Balloons

Ice Balloons

Pen with ice balloons.

Ice Birthday Cake

Ice Tower

Cups of colored ice.

Ice Artists at Work

Ice Close-up

Pink  ice penguins inside a partially frozen ice balloon.

A few days later, partially melted ice sculptures.

We had a couple friends over a few days ago to do more ice sculptures. This time we made way more ice in various containers and also in balloons. Our friends brought over various ice cube and Popsicle ice pieces, including some pink ice penguins. We has lots of fun with this.

So, how to do it! Well, you need to freeze water in some containers. We did lots of sizes because we were working outside, but you could go smaller with your containers and do it inside too. We used old milk and butter containers, water bottles, bowls, cups, etc. For smaller add-on shapes use ice cube trays, small cups, popsicle molds, tiny muffin tins, little balloons, whatever you have.

We put ours outside to freeze. We had super cold temps so things froze fast, but if it's not quite that cold put your containers in a shady place for a couple days. You can do it in the freezer too if you are doing tiny molds. We added food coloring to ours. For balloons it works best to add the food coloring first and then the water. When things are frozen bring them in the house to melt a bit so it's easier to get them out of their containers. The balloons don't need to melt first, just a little snip with scissors and you can peel the rest away easily.

To stick the ice together you need to make slush with snow and water, and you use the slush like glue to stick the ice together. It works, honestly. I put our slush in a plastic bowl and gave the kids plastic spoons to scoop up the snow with. Then you can just leave the sculptures outside and watch them change each day as the weather changes. Put candles in the hollow parts at night, add more colored ice pieces here and there, stick some bird seed into a hollow part, whatever you can think of. It's really so much fun.

This Moment, Friday, January 25, 2013

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

January Snow Day

  

The girls and I had a proper snow day yesterday. We built an ice sculpture, Penelope has been asking daily if it was cold enough and finally it was. Penelope learned about this from an artist  who had an outside exhibit of his ice sculptures at a gallery downtown a couple weeks ago. She and Steve happened upon him working on his sculptures outside the gallery on their way home from the library. They stopped and watched for a while, and the artist explained how he did it to Pen. Then later in the evening, after dinner, we walked down in the dark to look at his work on display and it was pretty amazing. Penelope must have really been paying attention when the artist told her how he did it, because she told me exactly how to do it, like she'd done it all before. It was beautiful in the sunshine during the day, and then at night we put a candle in it and it was a whole new work of art!

After ice sculptures we headed to our local hill for some sledding. It was a ton of fun for Pen and for me, but not so much for Violet. It was windy, the hill faces the bay and there was a lot of snow blowing around the ground. For most people it means snow blowing on their boots and snowpants, for Violet it means snow in the face. But she eventually found a long stick she became quite attached to and went around drawing lines in the snow with it and smacking snow covered bushes so the snow came falling off. She reminded me of Peter in The Snowy Day, by Ezra Jack Keats.

After all that cold fresh air we came home and had hot soup for lunch followed by a huge pile of snow related books before naps and quiet time. It was a perfect snow day.