Hi, internet. Allow me to introduce you to someone. This is my new friend Jorge.
How magical is he?
Well, I'll tell you. Jorge is so magical that he was able to calm The Beasts at Alexis' birthday party this weekend.
Let me just set the stage for you. There were half as many kids at the party this year as there were last year, but there was DEFINITELY twice as much chaos and noise. In fact, when my husband got home from work about halfway through the party, he walked into the family room, stood silent and dumb-founded for a minute or two, and then promptly walked downstairs and hid in his Man Cave for an hour.
He's a very smart man.
But Jorge and his friends managed to quiet The Beasts for a solid ten minutes.
Even better, I heard more than one party guest blurt out, "Mom! We had little snowmen!" the second their mom showed up at the door to pick them up. I think that's a sign of a project that was absolutely worth every minute of my time.
These little guys were a very essential part of the Winter Wonderland party theme that Alexis requested. It took me about an hour total to put them together (I made 25), but SO WORTH IT. See also: The Beasts were quiet for ten minutes AND were very impressed by them.
Miniature Snowmen
Small Clear Cups (I used 9oz disposable cups)
Hot Fudge
Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
Pretzel Sticks
Orange Triangle Sprinkles (or whatever orange candy you can find to use as a nose)
Mini Chocolate Chips
1. Heat the hot fudge.
2. Scoop one teaspoonful of hot fudge into the bottom of each cup. This helps keep the snowman from sliding around later.
3. Place one small scoop of ice cream on top of the hot fudge.
4. Put the cups in the freezer until the hot fudge is no longer hot.
5. Use a teaspoon to scoop a little round ball of ice cream and place it on top of the snowman base. I ended up using a second teaspoon to pat and shape and generally force the ice cream to form into a little ball. (I wish I had video of this because it was super easy once I figured it out. Alas, there wasn't time for video shenanigans.)
6. Do the teaspoon-round-ball-ice-cream-thing again for the head. If things start to get a little too melty at any point, just pop the cups back into the freezer.
7. Break a pretzel stick in half and shove both pieces into the snowman's body for his arms.
8. Add a nose. I happened to have triangle-shaped sprinkles, but you could also use a cut-up Starburst, an orange Tic Tac, an orange jelly bean, or whatever else you can find.
9. Add mini chocolate chips for his eyes.
10. TAH-DAH!
Jorge rules.
Jorge and his friends were just one part of the fun, though. I also put together a fruit tray, a veggie tray, a bunch of chips and crackers, and made a bunch of my favorite recipes that I've posted in the past. Here's the list with links:
Fruit Dip (I used blueberry cream cheese in place of strawberry so that the dip would match the party theme. Why, yes, I do know how to beat a party theme until it's dead. Why do you ask?)