Do You Igloo?

The conditions were perfect...for building and Igloo, that is. We had a day recently when it was above freezing, but with tons of snow on the ground. Good "snowball" snow, as we call it.

My husband was out playing with the kids, and thanks to inspiration from both our neighbors and the Discovery Channel, they decided to build an igloo. He had all 4 kids sit in the snow, and then drew a circle around them...that determined the size. (He wanted to make sure that they would all fit inside.) We used a bin for a block mold (shown) and started with the circular pattern. It took a good long time, but the snow was the consistency of cement, so it was easy to work with. I was inside when the roof went on, and let me tell you, I was doing some quick calculating figuring out how much wet snow weighs and how long it would take me to dig out if the whole thing collapsed in on me. We had a nice hard freeze the next night, so it's as solid as can be now.

The kids even slept out in their creation one (school) night...(See how brave we are.) I mean how many chances in your life are they going to have to sleep in an igloo? Most of the kids bailed throughout the night, and my sweet husband said that he slept in 20 minute intervals. But, my little adventure girl 6 year old stayed out there all night and was still snug as a bug when I woke her up for school the next day.

I give my husband so much credit for sacrificing his good night's sleep and making a memory that the kids will never forget!