Last year on New Years Eve it was just below 32-degrees.
I'd seen on Pinterest how you can blow bubbles if it's below freezing and they'll freeze,
then break when they hit the ground. Cool, right?!
I thought the boys and my nieces at our house that night would think that was pretty cool, so we gave it a try... and it was a complete bust! I felt rather dumb for even trying to be cool! :P
Well, a year later and another winter season is in full force! We have lots of snow- yay!
And temperatures way, way below 32-degrees.
So, I thought I might give the frozen bubble thing another shot.
The boys and I mixed up our own bubble solution, since, well, I don't really have bubble lying around the house in January :) I used the recipe I found here:
2 1/2 cups hot water
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup dish soap
Stir the corn syrup into the water until dissolved, then slowly whisk in the soap until well combined. I used the Pineapple dish soap Stephen brought home awhile back, so our solution is yellow- and smelled yummy!
We also made homemade bubble blowers from straws and cute tape- the boys really enjoyed that part :) I could see they weren't going to be anywhere near patient enough to let the bubble mixture sit for a couple of hours, so we went straight outside to try it out!
And, as you surely guessed- we got it to work!
I hadn't intended to make this a "tips and tricks" type of post, but once it was all said and done,
I realized we had learned some things about this little experiment that could be helpful to others too.
1- I think the biggest factor to the success of our bubbles was that it was flat cold outside! I don't see this project working unless you have temperatures well below freezing. I know right now there's a cold snap just about everywhere, so at least this year, that part should be no problem :)
2- The longer the bubble solution sat outside, the better the bubbles froze. Be it homemade or not, let your solution be in the cold for awhile before expecting great results. My boys liked just playing around with normal bubbles in the beginning, so there was really no waiting about it :)
3- So, my little guy got bored of trying to blow bubbles himself and started dipping his bubble wand in the snow instead :) At first I thought nothing of it, but then I started using his want to blow bubbles for him to pop- and they seemed to work better! I'd recommend getting your blowing wand cold to make frozen bubbles too :)
Love this pic :)
When the bubbles first started freezing, we could barely see them as they landed in the snow. So, I quickly ran inside and grabbed a couple of dark wash clothes to land the bubbles on so we could see them.
4- We did catch a bunch of them on our bubble blowers and then drag them over to the cloth to be able to watch the pop better. Catching and dragging the bubbles to where you can watch the effect of them breaking is a good tip too!
And there you have it- a fun, unique winter activity. That actually works at that!
So the next time (ya know, this afternoon- ha!)
that you're thinking it's colder than cold with nothing you could possibly do outside,
mix up some bubbles, get bundled up go watch them break for real!
I got to take some pics of the cutest snowmen ever at the same time:)
