potato heads in the snow

Posted on March 8, 2013 by happyhooligans

Winter Potato Heads!

We we tried something entirely new today: Potato Heads in the snow!

On the way out to the back yard this morning, I grabbed our Fisher Price farm, a bucket of animals and our potato head basket. I intended to set up some toys in the sunshine on the deck to keep the littlest hooligans happy while the bigs played in the snow.

The sun was really strong, and the snow was getting soft and sticky, and that was when the idea came to me. I took the potato head bucket out into the snow, formed two large snowballs, and tested my idea.

After testing things out myself, I called the hooligans over to give it a whirl.It was perfect. I was able to pack the snow tight enough that Mr. Potato Head’s parts held well in the snowballs.

I tried rolling a snowman, thinking we could have some fun with that, but the snow was too wet to make anything bigger than the snowballs that you see here.

How cute are these?

Don’t you just love putting a new spin on an old favourite?

fun in the blizzard!

Posted on February 24, 2012 by happyhooligans

We had a full-on blizzard here this morning! I didn’t know if the Hooligans would even want to go out and play in it because it was snowing and blowing so hard. I mean, every kid likes to play in the snow, but in a snow-storm? I wasn’t so sure they’d be up to it, so after snack, I asked them to look outside, and think about if they wanted to go out and play, or if they’d rather stay in for the morning.

Silly me! They took one look out the back door, and ran for their boots and snow-clothes.

I have to admit that I wasn’t quite as brave. I opted to plant myself comfortably in front of the sliding glass doors in my family room, nice and cozy, with my camera. I popped on the zoom lens, and snapped these pictures of my crazy little friends enjoying winter at it’s best! They went out armed with shovels and snow brushes and had a blast.

There’s really no need for me to say anymore. The pictures and the smiling faces tell the story.

Hope these snowy little faces put a smile on yours.

cake and ice-cream in the snow

Posted on February 21, 2012 by happyhooligans

We haven’t been crafting much since Valentine’s Day, but we’ve had snow, so we’ve been spending a lot of time outside, enjoying the snow while it lasts.

When we headed out this morning, we discovered that our snow was nice and sticky, so we brought out some scoops and containers, and set up a cake and ice-cream shop on the front porch.

Badminton birdies make perfect ice cream cones!

We raided the garden for items to decorate the cakes with, and collected sticks and twigs for birthday candles.

Ice cube trays are great for making a “box of chocolates”.

These simple materials kept the Hooligans cooking up a storm for over an hour.

And I received this lovely “birthday cake” just before we headed inside for lunch.

Do you have snow where you are?

coloured ice in the snow

Posted on February 2, 2012 by happyhooligans

Want to add colour and interest to your every day winter play? Freeze a few trays of coloured ice cubes for your children to play with in the snow! A few weeks back I filled a few trays with water and food colouring, glass beads and sparkly crafting odds and ends.

Then the temps turned really mild, and the only precipitation that we got for a couple of weeks came in the form of rain, so it was a while before we got to use our colourful cubes. We finally got a decent amount of snow a few days ago, and we made the most of it because it wasn’t expected to last for long.

We spent one morning tobogganing on our neighbour’s hill,

and the next morning (we’d received another couple of inches overnight), I set some of the coloured ice cubes outside with some spoons and containers, and sent the Hooligans out to investigate.

Just look at the fun they had! The scooped and stacked. They set up a “candy store” and they baked “cakes”. There may have even been a few free samples and some taste-testing going on.

They played with their coloured ice for over an hour, and finished off by decorating the snow-fort and the snow-slide that we had been working on.