Icy Gazing Balls

So this week we were hit with sub-zero windchill factors and a good six inches of snow resulting in NO SCHOOL for the entire week! We painted, made flubber, danced, sang, cooked and baked (and yes, my yahoos bickered constantly once or twice) and were pretty much out of indoor activities by day three. I had seen a few pins about outdoor colored ice balls, so we decided to give it a whirl. 

The girls definitely thought this activity was the highlight of the week!

Check out our snow-covered yard...

 For this activity, you'll just need a few simple household items:

balloons

food coloring

scissors

patience

My sweet big girl was so excited about this activity! She is really into mixing colors and was excited to tell her sister about all of the different color combinations you can make with food coloring.

 We used regular McCormick food coloring along with some fun neon colors I found on a recent grocery trip.

 We squeezed about four drops of color into the empty balloon (2+2 if we were mixing colors).

 Then we carefully filled the balloons with water in the bathroom.

The girls took turns holding the bottom of the balloon as it filled.

 We erred on the side of caution and didn't fill the balloons too much. 

I had visions of colored water splashed on the walls and ceilings...

 We just repeated the process with different colors until all of the balloons were filled.

 We took them outside a few at a time...

 Stopping to pose for a picture before we put them on the walkway.

 We left the balloons outside overnight to freeze. 

 The girls checked on them constantly from the window.

 Finally it was time to snip the balloons and reveal our gazing balls.

 A little snip, and the balloons came right off.

The girls were super excited to see the fun colors they'd chosen!

 You can see that we were a little eager and unwrapped the yellow and purple a little too soon. 

My husband is THRILLED about the food coloring on the sidewalk!

Hindsight is 20/20- freeze your balls in the grass. 

Yes, I know how that sounded, and you know what I mean!

 Here are my goons posing with their pretty gazing balls. 

They even used them to decorate around our snowman!

Watching them cart each ball over to the snowman was priceless, ha!

Even though I'm yearning for Spring to make her appearance, we had some fantastic Winter fun this week!