Blowing Bubbles in the Snow

This one is my favorite!  Look closely, and you can see tiny little frost lines forming!

Here it is, cropped and up closer:

I saw this post the other day where a person had blown beautiful soap bubbles in the snow. These bubbles froze, and the person was able to get beautiful photographs of the bubbles.

I wanted to try it, too!

I decided since temps in our area were predicted to be the lowest in more than 30 years, it was a good time to put the soap bubble blowing to the test.  So, I went out yesterday and started blowing.

Well, I was sorely disappointed at first.  All my bubbles just immediately popped or began blowing back toward the warm house.

Having a history of being an epic fail at making no-fail science experiments to work, I figured I was doing something wrong.  When I asked my Facebook friends, most of them seemed to think that it was probably just too windy outside. Another said I needed to use cold water.

Regardless, I thought it would be a fun science experiment for my homeschooling kids and a great photo opp.

So, I waited till it a tad bit less windy and -8 degrees this morning and tried it again.

Guest what?

IT WorKED!!!!

Ok, it worked on a small level.  While, I was able to blow some pretty large bubbles; those all would drift away and pop.  Though, some formed amazing ice crystals before they popped; I was not agile enough to be able to maneuver the wet bottle of bubbles and a video camera to capture these amazing sights.

I did, however, manage to get a glimpse of some of the small bubbles that stayed in tact on top of the snow.

I then went out later and added blue food coloring, and here's what I got:

Here's the small bubbles:

That splat you see toward the upper right-hand side of the pic is from a larger bubble that popped.

Safe in the cleft of the snow. Reminds me of the song that sings, "Under the shadow of His wings, I will find a hiding place."

This one sort of looks like a pear inside of an oyster.

 

The shadow is from the side of our deck - It's not me standing in the way of the light!

A Blast of Snow Got Us Outside

Today I found out about a fun blog hop going on, and I decided to jump in.  The topic?  What we've done outdoors lately.

The topic is perfect, seeing as how we got a surprise blast of snow over the weekend.  And, when I say surprise - I mean surprise!

The temps in my midwest town last week went from 70 degrees to about 7 degrees in the course of less than 48 hours.  Then, it happened!  Late, late on Saturday it hit!

It really only snowed for about 2 hours, but we ended up with about 4 inches out of the deal.

My eldest daughter was jumping up and down with excitement.  See, snow is what she always hopes for on her February birthday.  While, her birthday forecast is looking to be in the upper 40's or lower 50's, she knew she had to accept her early gift and run with it - Or, should I Say, sled with it!

Sledding is what we did!  And, we enjoyed every minute since it will probably be out only true snowfall for the entire winter.  Oh sure, we had a few dustings.  But, this was the only good quality sledding snow we got hit with all winter long.

For a homeschooler, snow and sledding simply means hours of logged PE hours.  And, for us - We'll take any PE hours we're handed.  Of course, I'm still convinced that the kids only sled for the hot cocoa.

And, my youngest girl decided to build her own miniature snowman, but I don't think it truly counts towards logging Art hours.

Please click on the Explorers Blog Hop badge below to read other blogs about outdoor happenings, and/or to link up your own:

Bunny Slippers for American Girl Doll Kit and crafts to Soothe The Soul

My son has been having issues getting his school work done. My 4 year old has been begging for mommy to play with her. So, today we took some time to simply reconnect and we made a ton of crafts.

We made little purses out of an old pair of pants. We made pom poms which we put on hair bands and my daughter added them to her boots. My 4 year old made a paper doll, and of course we had to have plenty of elephants for my elephant-loving daughter.

My favorite are the bunny slippers we made for Kit, my oldest daughter's American Girl Doll.

Do you think we can sell any of it on Etsy?

A Snowy Key Hole View Into Winter-Time Family Fun

There's snow in our part of the world! 9 3/4" was the exact amount that fell on the patio table on our deck. This meant knee-deep snow for my children. It was very fun watching them tackle walking through this white fluffy and cold obstacle to get to the top of the hill in our backyard to sled. The amazing thing about this snow as how it glistened in the sun. It looked almost like the fake styrofoam version used in Hollywood movies as we watched it fall the night before.

Snow often reminds me of the sand on beaches, only much colder of course. As my children made their way through this wintery sandy beach of a back yard, I got our my camera and got creative. I began to bore out holes with my gloved-hand through the tall snow that had landed on my deck's railings. Then, I got the idea to take photos viewing through these holes. I was really happy with the outcome and found it to be very poetic and inspirational. As I look at the pictures, it's as if I'm looking through a key hole surrounded in snow into the lives of my family.

The thought occurred to me that it looked as if I was gazing into a dream, or a scrapbooked happy day to remember. It has been my dream to be married, have children and to teach them at home. As I gazed through my snowy key hole yesterday, I realized how fortunate I have been and how wonderful my God is to allow my dream to be fulfilled. I hope you enjoy my wintery key hole pics!

Homeschooling In The Snow

Snooowwwww Daaaaayyyy!!!! Did you feel the earth shake a my children one by one woke up to discover today's schooling would, for the most part, take place outside bundled up and squealing excitedly as they sled down the hill in our back yard?

Being a homeschooling parent, you know I couldn't help but include some amount of education besides the obvious PE. Of course, we had our daily Bible reading before heading out. We're reading the Bible Chronologically this year. The science learning started off well when my son found a leaf frozen inside a giant ice block. Then, upon their return from the snowy tundra, we talked about scientific terms such as DISSOLVE while making the hot chocolate after the snow play was finished. I quizzed about boiling point temperature as I made some ice candy (currently cooling in refrigerator), and we explored vocabulary tongue twisters as they drank the hot chocolate and ate. Tomorrow is a great time to start back to the books. Today, we'll enjoy homeschooling at its finest!