With just a plastic bucket and lots of snow, Claire Loney and her partner Kevin Donnelly enlisted their two children to build the ice-cold house. Claire said the children, Reece Loney aged six and Amy Lee Loney aged nine, worked hard collecting buckets of snow to build the amazing structure. With no experience, the children packed the snow into the plastic bucket, creating bricks for the igloo. “It was unbelievable,” said Claire who lives in Knockramer Meadows near Derrymacash. The kids go to St Patrick’s Primary School Derrymacash and Tullygally Primary School but have not been formally taught any building techniques, however dad Kevin is ‘snow dozer’ and works in the building trade so he gave them a few tips. It took them around three hours with the children gathering lots of snow from the neighbourhood and carting it back to the igloo. Claire explained that they used the snow bricks to build the house and then some plywood to create a roof, packing it with snow on top. “They even used a trowel and a saw to cut the snow bricks,” she said. “And they used old coal bags inside to make it comfortable.” “It was quite an operation and very exciting,” said Claire.