Painted Snowballs

It's hard to believe it's the end of March and that as I write this we are getting another batch of fresh snow. As much as I love winter fun, I'm ready for winter to be over. However, the outside world currently looks like a Christmas card. So while I may be tired of the snow, it's what we have outside to play with so we're getting creative.

One day after school we decided to try painting snowballs. The boys loved this colorful, messy project. And, it is actually perfect for spring snow as it's warm enough out to take off gloves and mittens.

Confetti Snow Dough

Over the holiday break I took a bag of confetti out of the party box as we got ready to celebrate New Year's Eve. Yet, I couldn't quite bring myself to let confetti out free rein with the boys . . . who knows what corners of the house it would wind up in.

Mid-month I got the idea of mixing the confetti into some fun sensory play and we came up with this confetti snow dough.

In the past we've had fun making "Cold" Sparkle and Snow Dough which we originally learned of through Growing a Jeweled Rose. This is such a great sensory recipe that creates an actual cold feeling sensory snow. This time we enjoyed throwing in a little extra special sparkle: the confetti! 

Snowmen at Work Playdough Play

Many people know the books Snowmen at Night and Snowmen at Christmas by Caralyn and Mark Buehner, we were pleased to buy the books in a set a few years ago. Along with the set came Snowmen at Work, which is part of the same series but not as well known. This winter the boys have discovered the book and they love reading it. In the book a little boy ponders if the snowmen (and snowwomen) have jobs they do when humans are not looking.

We used the book as a launching point to inspire our newest playdough play invitation. 

To begin with I made up a batch of our basic cooked playdough and kept it white. 

Painting Snow- Inside!

We put this together on a whim this evening and we had so much fun with it I had to share it tonight. Dinner was taking a little longer than expected, and after a funny weather afternoon it was suddenly nice out. As it was too late to get everyone into their snow gear to go out, I decided to bring it inside!

We've painted snow outside before, we've used it to add color to snowmen and snow forts. We've also played with snow inside before, but we've never combined them. It was a hit!