Snow Painting




This empty bottle of hand soap was
the best because it was huge and the water
came out easily without squeezing.

Supplies:

Empty plastic bottles (ketchup, mustard, hand soap refills, etc.)

Water
Food color

I am a person who loves change. I often envy people whose companies relocate them every couple years. That would suit me just fine. But since we are firmly planted here in Northern Illinois, I rely on the change of seasons to keep things interesting. When the first snow falls here in Chicagoland (sometimes as early as October), you will find me outside reveling in it as soon as possible. And now that I have two little ones who feel the same thrill, I don't have to go out alone.

But the end of January has come, and the snow has been on the ground for a couple months now.  I've noticed that the specialness of winter is wearing off for me and the kids, too.  Avery and Grant still like to play outside, but only for a couple minutes. Grant gets about as far as our swingset before saying, "I want to go inside for hot chocolate now."

Grant and Avery on the swings.

But I firmly believe that the crisp winter air is good for us. And I don't want to spend 15 minutes bundling them up only to come right back inside 10 minutes later.  So I had to brainstorm some tricks for keeping the kids entertained in the snow for at least 20 minutes.

I read this simple idea for painting snow long ago and decided it was time to try it. I pulled out three empty ketchup bottles and one big empty hand soap bottle that I have been saving for such an occasion. I filled these with tap water and tinted each with food coloring. (I skipped yellow because that whole yellow snow thing is pretty gross.) And out we went to paint the snow.  The kids had a great time, but the "paint" ran out too quickly. If I would have been more prepared, they might have painted the snow for hours.

Avery, snow artist

Nate mixing paints

Grant painting lines in the snow