Bring it Inside

What do you do when it's too cold to play outside in the snow? You bring it INSIDE! This idea was inspired by Happy Hooligans fun in the snow!

The Farmer set up the water table in the basement and lugged in a bucket of snow for Sweet P yesterday. She LOVED it! We started off with bowls and an ice cream scoop and she had a ball just scooping the snow from the bucket into the table.

I ran upstairs to get some people to play with and formed a slide for the people to slide down. She wasn't very interested in my slide. She just kept scooping! We made ice cream and cupcakes and I attempted a tunnel. Sweet P went through 3 pairs of gloves (they weren't snow gloves and kept getting wet, but they worked the best for this activity). If you look closely you can find her in all 3 pairs!

Random insert: Our neighbors put a perfectly good book shelf on the curb last night and I said "TAKE THIS HOME RIGHT NOW" to the Farmer (except I was a little bit nicer) while were on our walk last night. Here's how the rest of the convo went:
Him: "I'm not taking that home right now."
Me: "Why not?! Someone is going to take it!"
Him: "This thing has been here ALL day. No one is going to take it."
Me: "Fine. But if it's gone when we come back I'm going to be really mad."
...30 minutes later.
Him: "I can't see it. Someone must've picked it up."
Me: Craning my neck and straining my eyes to find it (we were still several houses down). "You better be kidding."
Him: "Oh wait. It was hiding behind that tree."

And all was right in the world. We lugged it home. He took the frame and the shelves while I lugged the backing, holding Sweet P's hand (Baby Brother was in the Ergo if you're wondering).
End random insert.

While she was playing, I decided to clean above book shelf because it was right next to where she was playing and REALLY dirty. I ran up to get the dust stuff (olive oil & vinegar in a spray bottle) and a rag. Halfway into it, Sweet P wanted my spray bottle. So I found an empty one, filled it up with water and let her go to town. (this paragraph reminds me of a "If You Give A Mouse" book.)

She quickly learned that spraying water on snow turns it to a slushy consistency and if you keep spraying, it melts it into water. That spray bottle got a workout and at one point she was spraying herself in the face on accident. I squatted down to help just as she figured it out and got a face full of sprays. We thought this was hilarious so she sprayed me until my face was dripping. Then the Farmer came down and said "Was she spraying you? Your face is wet." Ha. Then he got a face full, too.

SO much fun. We are SO doing this again. Soon.

Feeding the Birds?

Last week the weather was FABULOUS. So fabulous that we decided to make a bird feeder. Yep. A bird feeder. It seemed like a really good idea at the time, but since then I haven't seen a single bird. Not one! But it was fun, it turned out pretty cool and it's simple enough to make again when the weather gets warmer. Maybe we'll call it a squirrel feeder and it'll keep them out of the garden. We can hope, right?

The Craft: TP Roll Bird Feeder

What you need:
TP Roll
Peanut butter/butter knife
Bird seed
Hole punch
Yarn
Wax paper

Lay out wax paper (this will minimize mess and give you a place to lay your bird seed). Punch two holes across from each other at the top of your TP roll. Thread the yarn through the holes and tie off. This will give you a way to hang your bird feeder.

Use the butter knife to spread peanut butter all over the TP roll.

 

Sprinkle bird seed on the wax paper, then roll your TP roll through the bird seed.

Sprinkle any leftovers on top of any open spots on the roll.

Take it outside and hang it for the birds!

Simple!

Like I said we haven't had any snackers, but we'll keep watching for them!

Snow Tracks

Know what this is?

Yeah, I didn't either. Until I found more in the yard while Sweet P and I were out playing in the snow. It's a rabbit track! I didn't have my camera while were playing, so by the time I went back out the majority of the tracks had disappeared with the snow so this is the only track left.

This track was hanging out right below our bird feeder we made last week (so far we've seen ZERO birds feeding from it). Think it's the wrong time of year for a bird feeder? Anyway, we found it while checking on our bird feeder. I think this little rabbit smelled the peanut butter on our bird feeder, but couldn't figure out how to reach it!

We followed the tracks around the yard until we got to the fence line and saw the track disappear into the neighbors yard. I was SO excited that we'd found an animal track in the snow! Sweet P wasn't quite as impressed as I was (she wanted to go back to the pile of snow the Farmer shoveled into a flower bed). We also saw paw prints from the neighbor's dog in the yard behind us.

We made some of our own tracks with our boots and Sweet P liked the polka dot print her boots made. I'm actually excited for it to snow again so we can have some deeper snow to play in!

Have you seen any animal tracks in your snow?

Note: We don't live on the farm (yet), we live in town so this was a special treat. These are a regular occurrence at the farm!