Coke Bottle Penguins
Because of the 2-inch layer of ice plus 2-inch layer of snow on the driveway, we were a little stranded in the house. We decided to make these Coke Bottle Penguins.
We found this idea on Pinterest and followed the instructions from the image below. It's good to note that for each penguin you need 2 bottles from COKE products. The shape of the bottle from Coke products is imporant and necessary to this project. We'd have made these a long time ago, but I'd been saving bottles from other brands, and I quickly learned those wouldn't work. We rarely drink soft drinks, so I resorted to taking empty bottles from various gatherings where 2-liter Coke products were served.
These are our penguins. Aren't they so cute? We each made our own pom-poms, and I crocheted the two scarves, too.
Colored Ice Balls
As I drifted off to sleep one night during our snow week, I suddenly remembered another idea from Pinterest that I'd told myself I needed to remember should we ever have cold enough temperatures for it. Considering I'd already gone to bed before the rest of the family, I got strange looks when I walked into the kitchen and called the girls to come help me. We filled balloons with water and food coloring and set them outside to start freezing.
I used regular balloons. I put them outside close to midnight the first night when it was in the low 20s and the next day all day it stayed in the low to mid 20s. They'd been outside well over 12 hours when one of them broke and it WAS NOT frozen enough to keep the water from spilling all over my shoe. The second night got below zero and the next day stayed in the mid-teens, and it was only then that they were solid enough to unwrap.
I used big balloons, too. I suppose you could use smaller balloons with less water and it wouldn't take as long to freeze.
The picture above doesn't show at all how cool the color was inside each ball. You can see it more with this purple one below. As you can see, most of the color was in the center of the ball. But even the yellow, green, and red balls had a similar effect that the photo doesn't show.
They were a fun addition to our yard during those very cold days, and it was fun to see how they melted a little each day.
Cabin fever set in, and out of desperation we took a sledge hammer to the 2-inch layer of ice on the driveway to finally set ourselves free. True story.
When the next round of snow came, it was very powdery and not good for much more than snow angels. We decided it would be fun to shovel the driveway. As we shovelled, we made a large pile into which we dug a snow cave.
We couldn't build a snowman in the normal sense of building a snowman, so we made another pile of snow into which we carved a snowman.
The next day, sunshine and slightly warmer temperatures made conditions right for building a proper snowman.
He cheerfully helped with the shovelling.
The kids missed two weeks of school. Maybe more. I lost count. They did manage to have one full week of class before dismissal for Spring Break.
"Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool." Isaiah 1:18
