The Igloo Ice Bar

 

One of my favorite things about Justin is that he doesn't do anything half way. When he gets an idea in his head he figures out every little detail, adds his own extras and goes the extra... ten miles. The spark of a little idea turns into absolute awesome-ness! So my third new thing this year involved us building a huge igloo type structure in our backyard… Justin style!

The week long project started by snow blowing the outline in the yard. We had perfect weather that week – although it was freezing, it allowed us to continuously build and thankfully the structure survived the one warm day in the middle of the week! By warm of course I mean just above freezing… it was a little droopy but still standing!

We worked every night for a week with the promise of an ice bar party on Saturday! We packed big plastic tubs full of snow and began building…

We sprayed each layer with water so it would freeze over night and be strong enough to put another layer on top the next night. This involved a lot of work with small portable sprayers that we had to fill up frequently in the tub upstairs, and or hauling the hose out of the basement because it’s too cold to leave it outside!

Layer number two….

Bo joined the team on night number two and the boys worked hard as I made dinner several nights in a row! Layer three made it up before the warm day hit us!

We did lose pillars that had to be re-built but layer four made it up the next night!

Insert homemade slab …

and torch for an ice luge,

homemade slab for ice bar equipped with ice shot glasses,

 

decorative ice candle holders,

fire,

and friends for a good time!

It was absolutely freezing that night – I think it was 4 degrees out, but we had a blast and stayed warm with chili, hot chocolate and standing very very close to the fire! It was quite a week and I think will become an annual event at the Bogle Drake house! Thank you to my Zumba class for reminding me to be silly, adventurous and have some fun! Winter is great if you make the most of it, get outside and play! Happy winter!