Frozen Water Balloons

Well, I only pinned this idea a year ago... Maybe I am on the ball, because, really, how many things do people pin and how many of those pins do they actually accomplish? (I've never thought about the rate of attempting vs. just saving ideas, but I bet my track record is pretty good compared to most people.) Anyway, this wasn't something that the kids could really help me with, which was a bummer, but we all enjoyed the results. It was just something fun for yet another "snow day," which was really a "way too cold to go to school day and, therefore, you can't go outside and play day" -- of which we have had far too many this year! I lined them up along our porch railing so that we can easily see them from the living room window.

{A row of pretty frozen "eggs" on my porch railing}

Materials:

• water balloons 
• food coloring
• water
• pan to hold balloons (optional)
• scissors (optional)

Directions:

1. Stretch out your water balloon. Add a few drops of food coloring. (I used 3 drops per balloon. I made one balloon for each color of pure food coloring: red, yellow, blue, green, neon pink, neon purple, neon green, and neon blue plus I mixed a few colors. For example, orange = 2 yellow + 1 red.) Tip: Do NOT use regular balloons. Trust me on this. You will just end up with a mess of colored water!
2. Fill the balloon with water. (Mine came from Dollar Tree and the package included a little nozzle to attach to the faucet. It didn't stay well, though, so I secured it with packaging tape. If you decide to do that, have a towel handy! Actually, you may want a towel handy, anyway, since a few of the balloons are bound to leak. We lost two at this stage.) Tie the end of the balloon in a knot.
3. Place filled balloons outside to freeze. This takes a few hours. Be careful not to move them too soon, or they may pop. (This happened to me when I was checking on them about 2 hours later. I figured with the sub-zero temperatures that they might be ready. They weren't. One popped and made a mess on the front porch. I didn't check again for another 4 hours or so just to be safe!)
4. Remove the balloons and display your frozen "eggs." You could use scissors for this. I just peeled them off with my fingers. (Here I lost a couple that had become frozen into the purple puddle from the popped balloon that I moved prematurely. They ended up cracking when I tried to chisel them away with my boot.)

{Neon colors are surprisingly less vibrant.}

NOTE: If you enjoyed this project, you might also like making Colorful Frozen Ice Shapes. On another note, there are just a few days left for the Livingston Parent Journal's fundraising efforts. Please stop by their crowdfunding site and see if there is a way that you can help out! Thanks so much.