Granny's Homemade Ways: Winter Carnivals, Crafts and Stories for Boys and Girls-February 6, 2010

The weather here at Tickle Belly Farm has been anything but predictable! We've had everything from rain to snow to sleet to even lightening! But the past few days provided us with  some wonderful new snow, sunshine and moderate temperatures. Put all of that together and it means outdoor fun.

If you have been reading the Tickle Belly Farm hubs, you know that we have some terrific sledding hills near our west pasture. We also have a shed full of sleds but the weather was so perfect, we decided to host a spur-of-the moment "Winter Carnival". Since this was not a planned party, Papa and I had to make a lot of phone calls to our friends and family just to invite them. Then we had to gather the things we would need to host a winter carnival. You don't need a lot of land or even a sledding hill at your house to host a winter carnival. In fact, you don't have to go sledding at all!

Snow offers so many wonderful opportunities for family fun besides sledding and making snowmen. With just a little preparation, you can host your own winter carnival in your backyard just the way we did at Tickle Belly Farm!

You will need:

Spray bottles

Food coloring

Plastic buckets

Plastic boxes

Large plastic or wooden kitchen serving spoons

Spatulas

Award ribbons (from your local dollar store) optional

Snow Painting

Assign areas for your “artists”. Supply each with a set of spray bottles with water and food coloring. Have them paint pictures, words or snow “graffiti”.

Snow Sculptures

Provide each “sculptor” with a bucket of “tools”. I've re-purposed ice cream buckets and added some large spoons and spatulas. If you want these utensils to be returned to the kitchen, you might want to add some brightly colored tape around the handle so they can be found in the snow.

Snow Towers

The goal of this game is to see who can build the tallest tower without having it fall over. Provide each person or team with plastic buckets or boxes: I've used food storage and even plastic shoe boxes. The boxes will allow them to make “bricks” to pile up.

How to Make Invitations to Your Winter Carnival

If you know in advance that you are planning a Winter Carnival, you might want to consider making some invitations for your guests. You can create some imaginative invitations. Fold a piece of white construction paper in half and cut a snowball shape invitation. Then  take some cotton balls and pulled them apart so you end up with wispy cotton pieces. Using white glue, paste the cotton ball pieces on the construction paper snowball. Write the invitation instructions on the inside.

Here is another story from "The Mammoth Book" which was published by Whitman Publishers, Racine, Wisconsin in 1924 but does not list authors.

Mary, Patsy and their little brother, Timmy, came into the house with bright, red noses.

"It is too cold to build a snowman." said their mother.

"I wish we could make a snowman in the house," said little Timmy.

"I know how we can!" exclaimed Mary.

"Show us!" cried Patsy and Timmy.

Mary said, "We must all help. Then we can each have our own snowman."

Mary went to the cupboard. She found some popcorn. Patsy found the corn popper. They popped corn until they had a big bowl filled with light, fluffy white kernels.

While Patsy and Timmy finished popping the popcorn, Mary made a syryp for popcorn balls. Next she found some raisins and prunes.

She explained that they were each to make three popcorn balls-one big, a smaller one, and a tiny one. The children got busy.

"Now make the eyes, nose and mouth of the raisins and prunes and stick them on the smallest one," said Mary. She finished hers, stuck the smaller ball on the biggest and the tiny one with the face on top of that. Then she topped off her popcorn snowman with a papercup for a hat.

Patsy made one, too, and was very proud.

Where's yours, Timmy?" asked Mary.

Timmy smiled, I will have to start over. I made a mistake and ate mine," he said.