Painting On Snow

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After our recent attempt at painting on snow turned out to be painting on ice, we decided to give snow painting another go this morning.

A Balcony Snowman

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Another Day, More Snow…

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And Miss G could not be more thrilled about it. Why? According to her, the very best thing about snow is ‘always having a snack nearby’. Hah! Seriously. And not only does she eat it as we walk along the streets, but she regularly brings cups of it inside to eat with a spoon too.

REAL Snow

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Today, well into our morning routine of sitting at the table together sipping on hot drinks before the sun rises, we realized something…

Our balcony was covered in a blanket of snow! It was so dark outside we hadn’t noticed even though we’d been sitting right in front of it for nearly 30 minutes, but the moment we did, we threw on our coats and boots {in between shrieks of ‘It’s snowing, Papa! It’s snowing!’, of course} and headed outside to play. It was heavy and sticky – the perfect snow for building things with, which made it that much better.

Strangley Delicious: {Vanilla Maple} Snow Ice Cream

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I’ve seen snow ice cream floating around the web a lot lately (like here, here, and here)… Some recipes use eggnog, some use sweetened condensed milk, some use vanilla pudding powder, and others use raw eggs. The trouble is that I wouldn’t feel good about giving any of those things to my little lady. So today we set off to create a healthier version. (It would have been a shame not to with all of this snow we’ve been getting in the Okanagan!)

I’m happy to report that the end result turned out wonderfully! It was sweet, creamy, and delicious – a perfect afternoon treat.

Here’s our line up of ingredients… Cream, vanilla almond milk, pure maple syrup, pure vanilla, and some really good cinnamon.

Oh, and a bunch of this – light and fluffy freshly-fallen snow.

To get us started, Gracen poured both the cream and vanilla almond milk into a large mixing bowl.

Then she added some pure maple syrup…

Some pure vanilla…

And a few pinches of cinnamon.

Then she stirred everything up.

The next step involved adding the snow.

The monkey requested a mitten in order to get the job done.

With all of the ingredients added, it was time to mix, mix, mix.

We found that alternating mixing with a sort of mashing motion worked really well and broke up the clumps at the same time. Here’s what our batch looked like once it was ready.

To serve it, I added a little sprinkle of cinnamon (Miss G loves it and it has great health benefits, so we add it to a lot of things) and topped it with a pecan.

Not only was it delish, but it was a really fun snowy day activity.

Vanilla Maple Snow Ice Cream

3/4 cup of vanilla almond milk
1/4 cup of cream
1/4 cup of pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon of pure vanilla
a couple of pinches of cinnamon

6 cups of freshly fallen snow

Add the milk, cream, maple syrup, vanilla, and cinnamon to a large mixing bowl and stir well. Add the freshly fallen snow and mix until all ingredients are evenly distributed and clumps are broken up.

Enjoy!

A couple of quick tips based on our experience…

You do have to work a little bit quickly in order to prevent the snow from melting and turning your ice cream into soup. If needed, you might be able to buy yourself a few minutes of extra time by placing your large mixing bowl into an even larger bowl lined with ice.
This ice cream is best made and served fresh. After a few hours in the freezer, ours pretty much turned into an ice block.
If you don’t have snow where you are, processing ice cubes in a blender or food processor until fine is a fairly effective way of making your own snow.

♥

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Stair Sledding

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Most people walk their tushies to an actual hill. We, on the other hand, pile heaps of snow onto the deck stairs, send Brad down a few times to pack it in, and tell Grae that she now has her very own sledding hill.

Ingenious, or just plain ol’ hick? I have a feeling we’ve been in Lumby for too long… ☺

♥

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Snow Spray Painting

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Though it feels like we’ve had a good, long winter vacation already (because we have), we’re lucky enough to have one more week to spend in the Okanagan before Bradley’s return to work. And while we’ve been doing more than our fair share of relaxing (and indulging – oy!), we’ve also been trying to make the most of our time with the snow, because before you know it, we’ll be back to our city of rain, rain, rain.

Today we tried something new – snow spray painting!

In order to make the paint, all I did was pick up a couple of cheap spray bottles (I made sure to give the triggers a little squeeze in store first – some are little hand-friendly, and others are not) and filled them with some cold water and food colouring.

Then we headed outside {in pajamas} to decorate the freshly fallen snow.

We played with the nozzle on our spray bottles to get the flow just how Miss G liked it – in a steady stream in order to achieve maximum distance. ☺

Her goal? Covering as much of the snow in snow spray paint as possible.

“A new spot now!”

Though using a fine mist is a little trickier (because you need to be quite close to the snow for it to show up well), it makes pretty cool results…. Pink snow anyone?

Of course when you’ve painted your little heart out and you’re ready for a break, you can always topple over in a snowbank and have a rest. ☺

Snow Spray Paint

3/4 cup of cool water
10 drops of food colouring

Pour the water into a small spray bottle and add the food colouring. Repeat for multiple colours/bottles. Spray the snow. Have fun!

♥

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The First Snow {2012]

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Though not a lot, Miss G has definitely seen snow before. But today, when she woke up and I whisked her off to the window to show her the surprise that had arrived overnight, she said to me, “Mama? What’s dat white stuff?”

With that, we promptly layered on some winter gear on top of our pajamas and headed outside to play in the {barely there} first snow of the year.

“Dis is snow? Santa likes snow.”

Perfect snowball making snow.

“Yook, Mama! Yook what Grae Grae has.”

Snowballs.

A collection.

Attempted snow angel.

For the freezer.

♥

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Let it Snow

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This afternoon, for a brief time, little dancing snowflakes filled the sky. Gracen sat on a cushion in front of the window, sipped her milk, and took it all in. ♥

Snow Fun at Queen Elizabeth Park

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With Bradley not working until later in the day today, we knew we had better get outside to enjoy the snow while we could. We packed up the little one, some steamed milk, and her sled and headed to Queen Elizabeth park, just up the road from our house. We walked around the park a little bit, did some sledding, and showed Grae how to make snowballs. Her favourite part? Eating the snow. Here are some shots of our outing…

Such a fun way to start the day. I wish it would stick around, but I have a sneaking suspicion that all of this snow won’t last much longer…

SNOW!

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This morning we woke up a wonderful surprise – SNOW! Not the wet, messy snow that turns to puddles within the hour, but real, light, fluffy snow!

Naturally, Grae and I quickly got dressed and headed out to scour the stores for a little sled. It took a couple of stops, but we found one! We got dressed, got Grae strapped in, and toured in the neighbourhood for most of the morning.

Grae waved to other walkers from her sled, and if we so much as paused at an intersection, she’d immediately start signing, ‘More! More! More!’ Hopefully the snow will stick around for a bit so we can enjoy it for a few more days.

Silver Star

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Late last night, the Kossowan crew arrived in town from Cochrane and this afternoon we all met up at Silver Star for some tubing and ice skating. Here are a few snapshots from the day…

Gracen and Korbin are bundled up and ready to hit the slopes.

Grae and Kinslee in their twin sleds.

The crew.

“Skating” while cozied up in her stroller.

Dinner in the warmth of the cantina.

After thawing and grabbing a snack, we all headed back outside for round 2 of skating. Gracen loved being pushed around the ice in her chariot and we stretched our time as far as we could before packing up and heading down the hill for bedtime.

Our Second Snow Adventure

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It was a lot cooler today than yesterday, but that didn’t stop us from heading out on our second snow adventure.

We got Grae bundled up and snuggled in her sled…

Then headed down the lane…

And up “the hill”.

We found a nice little path and with Brad at the top and me at the bottom, sent the little lady down the slope.

Apparently we were a little too ambitious with the length of our sled run because poor little G took a tumble about halfway down. Oopsies! Parenting fail. She’s such a little trooper that she just laid there until we came and rescued her.

We did a couple more runs and then headed back down the hill.

By the end of it, we were all chilly and Gracen was unimpressed that she had to wear Mama’s mittens when she didn’t even want to wear her own. Time to call it a day.