winter beauty

i think we can all agree that winter is at it's best when the sun comes out, the temperatures stay above 20 degrees, and there is plenty of snow with play with. can we agree on that? i hope so. those ideal conditions were present for almost all of january, and it was wonderful. 

snow fort #2 went sky high in these conditions!

mid february, the arctic blast arrived, and it got cooooold and suddenly the kids didn't want to play, i didn't want to ski, and the car didn't want to start. 

even the morning mist froze right onto the trees.

but here's the great thing: you can freeze water so quickly, and if you have the right idea, you can manufacture building materials really fast. so we did. 

bread pans+water+food coloring = building bricks!

snow+water+ladle+really good mittens=mortar and brick laying around a light source

ta da! ice towers!

and THEN in the midst of that, my neighbor from norway had a very norwegian idea: let's make ice lanterns en masse, light them up in the park, and invite people to stroll through them during these cold dark evenings. so we planned, organized, created, and set it up! we had over 20 households making luminaries, with over 300 ice luminaries cranked out in just 4 days. thanks, 

we even got a little media coverage, and had huge turn out from folks all over the city, and lots of positive feedback. its amazing what can happen when we all work together to create joy and beauty. 

here's the article:

https://madison.com/wsj/news/local/trail-of-ice-lanterns-brightens-near-east-side-neighborhood/article_9d0ee58f-8908-535e-8617-f356a6f03dfa.html

(ramons is so excited she was jumping for joy, seen here)