It’s hot. Not 100 degrees hot, but regular July-in-NJ hot. And despite living at the shore, we are not all-day, every-day beach people. There are only so many indoor, air-conditioned things you can do with a three-year-old during an extra hot week before everyone needs to feel the sun and get some vitamin D. This is where our backyard messy play has come in.

I’ve got a few summer messy play things up my sleeve, but this was great in the heat. Somehow I ended up with a packet of this instant snow at one of the toy events I’ve been to for GeekMom. And when the temps rose over 90 last weekend, we tried it out. And it is awesome hot weather fun.

Prep is super easy; you mix the powder and water according to directions, and stir. As you stir, it transforms from a liquid to a gloopy gel to full-on, wonderfully cold snow. Adam helped her mix up this batch of snow.

And she just sat with it in the backyard and had the best time. It doesn’t melt, it keeps its temperature. It doesn’t feel exactly like real snow, it has a slight silicone feel to it. We couldn’t really pack it for snowballs, it was a wet snow. But for a toddler to squish with fingers and stomp around on? Heaven.

She played for half an hour before the snow was squished and stomped all over the patio, and it was a great cool-down. And it hosed right off the patio.