One doting dad made the most of last week’s nor’easter by building his 3-year-old daughter a gigantic Spongebob Squarepants-themed igloo — which, of course, she adored.
“She went crazy,” said Sea Gate resident Oscar Risco. “She loved it.”
The southern Brooklynite said he spent more than 10 hours constructing the nine-foot-tall igloo, which is modeled after the pineapple house in the popular kid’s show “Spongebob Squarepants.”
Risco kicked off the project on Monday morning, when he began shoveling all the falling snow around his property into a pile in front of his Lyme Avenue home, he said.
It wasn’t until that night at 2 am when the dedicated dad began building the enormous igloo and a smaller structure beside it that resembled the house of Spongebob’s neighbor, Squidward.
Risco finally went to bed sometime after 4 am, but he didn’t get much sleep, he said.
“She woke up to it; she was excited about it,” he said. “I was dragged out of bed.”
Risco, a contractor, said he began building igloos for his kids back when his 21-year-old son was young. The activity isn’t only fun for the youngsters; it also gives Risco a creative outlet, he explained.
“I was always drawing things as a kid growing up,” he said. “In the contractor business, we also create things — it’s just like the stuff I like to do on my own.”
Before this week’s storm, Risco and his daughter, Aliyah, had decided on their next igloo’s design, and it wasn’t long after the snowflakes started falling that Aliyah began asking about the structure.
“She saw it was snowing, and the first thing she said was she wanted an igloo,” he said.
The igloo tradition isn’t the only way Risco and his wife entertain the local kids. Throughout the year and during special holidays, the couple hosts activities for the neighborhood’s youth, the Sea Gate native said.
“We always try to do creative things for the kids in the community,” he said. “We really attract the entire neighborhood over.”
This story first appeared on our sister publication brooklynpaper.com.
