Whatever snow does in summer!

My kids played for snow for the first time today!  In Southern California.  Outside.  In July.

It's been hot lately and I was looking for a fun afternoon activity.  We bought a snow cone maker for a recent 1st birthday party, and I decided I would finally answer the question my oldest asks me several times a day "Do you want to build a snow man???" with a yes!

So I spent a good portion of nap grinding up ice cubes and stashing my snow in the freezer.

I wish I had taken the time to get my camera out instead of relying on my almost dead cell phone, but despite the lackluster photography, this activity was a HUGE hit!

With my oldest, we poked, scooped, stacked, squeezed, and manipulated the snow in every way we could think of.  We added bits to water and added water to the snow.  We talked about how much easier it was to play with as it got a little bit more watery and we talked about melting, liquids, and temperatures.

My youngest mostly just ate it.

But even that was a huge success!  One of the hardest things about having two toddlers is that my oldest always wants to do things that my youngest is going to try to eat.  For example, he love to play magic sand, which is one of the reasons I thought this would be such a great activity.  It's difficult to have two different activites going on, so anything that's good for a 1 year old and a 1 year old at the same time is a huge hit around here!

We did eventually build a snowman.  Actually we built lots of snowmen, a favorite part of the activity was 'smashing the little men.'

This activity might not be nearly as popular with kids that live in places that get actual snow, but it was great here!  And in light of the drought, we did put our bowl under the table and collected the melted snow to water our tree.

Happy Friday!