I am so totally impressed by this mother

The igloo was made using around 400 ice blocks. Bishop said they froze 180 of the blocks during the first night, around the same amount the second night and 70 blocks on the third night.

Connecticut family creates its own rainbow igloo during winter storm weekend

Stained glass artist, mother of three, who had the vision, the foresight and the ability to organize this project and motivate her kids to complete it; wow.

North Haven resident Brandy Bishop said she had seen videos in the last few years of people making their own ice igloos online and "always wanted to try making it." She said that she tried two years ago to make an igloo with her children, but only got a third of the way through before it got too warm and started melting.

When Bishop's aunt sent her a video of an ice block igloo shortly before Sunday's winter storm in Connecticut was announced, Bishop knew they needed to take advantage of the below-freezing temperatures.

"Usually the temperatures don't stay low enough," Bishop said. "When I saw the weather was going to be below freezing for over a week, we started planning and getting supplies together."

Bishop said she gathered aluminum trays, Home Depot buckets, plastic scoops and waterproof gloves to make the igloo. The buckets were used to gather water and snow to create slush to stick the ice blocks together, while the aluminum trays were used to make the blocks.

Another key item for Bishop's igloo was food coloring, so that she and her family could make it rainbow-colored.

"When I was a kid, my dad made me a snow igloo and colored it with food dye in a spray bottle, and I remember thinking it was the coolest thing," Bishop said. "We all love seeing beautiful colors. I'm also a stained-glass artist, so I just love seeing all the beautiful colors illuminated."

To create the igloo, Bishop, her mother, her aunt and her three kids worked together to map out the circle of the igloo. They laid out the aluminum trays in their backyard and put a few drops of food coloring into each tray before pouring in some water to freeze overnight.

Once the blocks froze, Bishop and her family laid a flat foundation for the igloo, then stood the blocks up and "cemented" them together with a mixture of water and snow. Bishop said that it's better for the slush to be a "little runny" so that it freezes faster.

Bishop said she and her family began the igloo-making process on Friday night by filling their trays, and they laid the last ice block on Monday.

My own mother was no slouch when it came to things like this: in 1963, leaving the two youngest in the care [sic] of our father, she loaded my brother and me in Granny’s VW bus and drove us out to Montana, before the Interstate had progressed much beyond Pennsylvania. A huge adventure (the VW broke down repeatedly, just to add to the excitement), she and this woman would have got along perfectly, and it’s great to see that kind of spirit is still around.

Related, sort of — it’s nice to know that there are still some educators out there that feel this way:

Here's why Connecticut still has traditional snow days when NYC students have online school

Ahead of Sunday’s snowfall, one superintendent said that “kids should be kids on snow days.” And other Connecticut school leaders echoed that sentiment.

“I hope our students, in particular, are able to take a break from smart devices and video games today and spend some time trekking outdoors, sledding, building snow forts, or simply enjoying the fresh air,” Danbury Public Schools Superintendent Kara Casimiro said in a message to families Monday. “Finding time to play and connect to nature are important and part of a healthy balance in our increasingly digital lives.”