Backyard Winter fun!

“Did it snow?” The first words out of my daughter’s mouth in the morning when she’d heard there was a chance of snow the night before.

“When can I go play in the snow?” Ever hear those words at your house? There is so much fun to be had outside in the winter.

After you’ve built the snowmen, scourer the yard for natural add-ins – my kids raid the gardens and break off seed pods and stalks to make hair and faces for their snow friends. We have made snow forts, snow cars, snow chairs, snow dogs and one March we even made a four foot snow bunny! Start saving those plastic containers – they are great for scooping snow to make snow forts and chairs.

Snow painting is another easy, fun thing to do – save up squeeze-style bottles (like shampoo, ketchup or syrup) and fill them up with colored water (try food coloring or very watered down tempera paint) and let the kids paint away on the snow.

Find a place to sit and watch for birds – string cereal or popcorn and hang it in the yard – make observations daily until it is gone. We go for walks in our yard – tracking the animals who have been frolicking through…deer, dogs, coyotes, rabbits, squirrels, birds and voles leave tracks in the yard. If you don’t have a bird book - check one out from the library to help you identify a few local birds you will see.

Don’t forget to have a snow shovel for each member of the family - kids often love helping out shoveling the driveway, walkways and decks and what neighbor wouldn’t love to have your family help out shoveling next storm or come home after a day’s work to find their driveway shoveled out.