Guest Author - Susan Thompson

Why have the television on all winter when there are so many great things you can do with your kids that involve snow. Since there are only so many snow angels and snow men we can make, here are some more creative ways to have fun with snow.

Snow painting is a lot of fun for the budding artist. Here is what you will need:
- One spray bottle for each color
- Food coloring
- Water
- Snow (outside of course)

Put food coloring in the water bottles (the more drops of food coloring, the darker the color comes out). Fill the bottle the rest of the way with water. Put the top on the bottle and shake to mix the color and water. Just a quick note that food coloring will stain clothing and hands, so you may want to make sure that the kids are not wearing their best jackets or gloves. Now let the kids decorate the snow as artistically as they wish, and don’t forget to take pictures.

My kids invented a drink they call Snow Slushies. All you need is a cup packed with clean snow (we take it from the top of the picnic table on our deck). Then you add your favorite juice or soda for a great treat!

Along the lines of treats made from snow, you can actually make ice cream from clean snow. Here are the ingredients you will need:
- One cup white sugar
- One tablespoon vanilla extract
- Two cups milk
- One gallon clean snow
Place a large, clean bowl outside when it starts to snow. When the bowl is full, stir in sugar and vanilla, then stir in milk until you get the consistency you like. Serve immediately, or sit back outside to thicken slightly.
Make your own snow measuring bucket. Get an old bucket, the big five gallon kind work best. Using a yard stick as your guide, mark the outside of the bucket with a permanent marker at every inch. At the one inch mark you could put something like “Not enough to close school”, at two inches “Get out the shovel”, three inches could say “Just enough to sleigh ride”, four inches “No School”, and so on. Now place the bucket outdoors on a flat surface and where it is easily visible from inside the house (again, I would use the picnic table on my deck.) When the kids get up in the morning after a snow fall, they can tell how much snow fell the night before.
At our house another fun tradition is, if it is snowing, and you don’t want to have school, wear your pajamas inside out and backwards. Sounds silly, but my kids did this a lot when it snowed and believe it or not, most of the time they didn’t have school the next day. They really believe the pajama trick works. Kids are funny!