SnowGlo


Last night we helped out at SnowGlo at the park. I was surprised how many people have never played with bubbles in winter.  Their surprise at bubbles freezing and glowing was fun to watch.

We also had the chance to play.  We painted with light sticks, roasted marshmallows, played with more bubbles, watched a hula hoop artist and enjoyed being outside.

Megan even made a new friend who was around two.  When it was time for us to leave, he followed her wanting to play some more.  He was very disappointed that she had to go home so she could warm up!

In order to make glowing bubbles, carefully break apart a few highlighter markers.  Take the filters out and place in your favorite bubble solution.  After they soak awhile, enjoy using a black light to see the bubbles glow as you blow them.

Glow Bubbles

A friend asked me if I had ever tried glow in the dark bubbles. I had not, so the kids and I experimented.

We wanted to try tonic water.  We know that the quinine in it does glow under blue light.  (We also learned it tastes disgusting!) For some reason it did not work outside even though we could blow bubbles inside.  We are thinking the cold changed the solution enough that it did not work.

Different colored highlighting markers can be used to dye regular bubble solution.  However, yellow works the best.  Orange, red and green usually works, while blue rarely does.  It depends on the marker you use.

In order to see the bubbles, use a black light.  Once the light is turned off, the glow is gone.

Photo Contest

We enjoyed putting some pictures in the Elkhart County Parks 38th Annual Photo Contest.  On Saturday we went to the Historical Museum to see how we did.

My favorite picture of all those the children submitted, Mark’s “Working Hands”, won second place!  Audrey photographed some crowned slug caterpillars and earned a third place ribbon in the youth division. Even though the other children did not win ribbons this year, their photography has improved a lot since!

The children were excited to see their pictures up and already looking forward to the new pictures they will take this year.

Jump in Puddle

 

Today is jump in a puddle and splash your friend day.  Since the snow is completely melted, we thought it would be easier to find some great puddles, but the wind dried most of them up.  We did find a huge one at the park though.

People walking their dogs either smiled at the kids playing, or gave us strange looks.  We left only after Adrian and Megan were soaking wet and their boots were full of water.

 

Discovery

After many days of below zero weather, I took the kids to see if the river had frozen over. I knew it probably was not, but was still hoping 🙂  The only time we have seen it completely frozen was in 2014.

Megan thought the ice was fascinating.  She made a snow angel and admired how the river looked through the ice.  Then she just sat quietly and watched the geese for awhile.  I wonder her reaction if the river had been completely iced over.