What could be more perfect for cooling off in the summer than building blocks made of… ice? Freeze the “blocks” up the night before and your toddler can build their very own igloo the next morning.

To start, I filled plastic cups with water and added a bit of food coloring to each. I squirted the color in randomly (some red, some yellow, and some green) but you could have an even number of each color, a full rainbow, or even just leave the water clear! Freeze overnight.

Veronika was immediately intrigued when I pulled the frozen cups out in the morning. Run a little bit of warm water around the outside of each cup and the ice blocks will easily slip free. I set them on a tray and it was time to build an igloo!

We tried stacking them…

…or just arranging them in a single layer to form a wall of ice.

Either way, Veronika’s little toys loved to live inside their icy house. She soon had them leaping from icy rooftop to icy rooftop.

She also loved using two forks as a tool to move the blocks around, which helped keep her fingers from getting too cold.

If you have enough room in your freezer, consider freezing larger blocks in loaf pans instead. Or mix and match a few loaf pan rectangles with the cylinders from the cups. The only drawback to the game? One way or another the house won’t last forever, since the igloo is going to melt.