We had snow in Georgia a couple of weeks ago. Well, there was a LITTLE bit of snow and A LOT of ice – to the point that we were out of school two and a half days. It always looks crazy on the news to you Yankees, but let me tell you – there is a HUGE difference between driving in snow and driving ON ice. I can do the first. I won’t even attempt the second. I’m a mom. My Princess needs me alive and functioning. I won’t risk it.
In typical Georgia fashion (or maybe it’s news organizations everywhere), they hype before the snow was even more insane than the actual event. They weren’t really sure when it was going to start coming down, and if it was going to be ice or snow when it did come down, so our county decided to have early release on the day the weather system hit. Now, let me say that it had been REALLY COLD here – cold for Georgia anyway. So, the ground was actually frozen. So, whatever hit it was gonna freeze immediately. That means ice. I agreed with the decision to release early. You don’t want your kid on a bus trying to make into the hilly part of the county on an iced road.
School got out at noon. There wasn’t anything coming from the sky until about three. I had four girls (I had my neighbor’s three since she had to be at work and I could be home) – four extremely excited, “Oh my goodness I can’t wait for it to snow” girls. And there was no snow in which to play. We needed to be busy.
My first thought – we’ll bake something! Well, that’s all fine and good until it’s sitting in the oven and we’re all waiting for the yummy goodness to come out.
Next thought – we’ll make Rice Krispie Treats! They are edible right away. However, there’s not much to that. It will take like five minutes.
But WAIT! They can play with the Rice Krispies!! They’ll get messy, but who cares. We have soap.
The BIG IDEA! We can make snowmen out of Rice Krispie Treats! They can form balls and stack them and then eat them. FUN! FUN! FUN!
That’s what we did. We made INDOOR SNOWMEN with Rice Krispie Treats.
Here’s what you do:
1. Put a piece of waxed paper at each spot at the table.
2. Put softened butter in bowls that everyone can reach. Depending on age and size of children, you’re going to want each child or every two children to have a bowl. And you need LOTS of butter. We used about a tablespoon per child.
3. Call everyone into the kitchen and explain the plan. Explain that when you are almost done mixing, you are going to tell them to wash their hands. They must do so IMMEDIATELY and get to the table so their treats won’t harden before they get to play with them. They will listen VERY seriously and promise to do exactly what you say.
4. Make the Rice Krispie Treats. I never use actual Rice Krispies (unless I got them on sale with a coupon), but you know the basic recipe is on the box of any puffed rice cereal.
5. As you are adding the cereal to the marshmallows, call out for everyone to wash and get to the table.
6. After they are mixed, let them cool about 30 seconds. During this time, instruct everyone to get a mass of butter and make sure it covers their hands. They LOVED this part. There were many squeals of joy. Getting messy and greasy on purpose. Oh the fabulousness of it all!
7. Give each child a portion of of the Rice Krispie Treats and let them have fun. You can make snowmen. You can make logs. You can make…. well, whatever you want.
8. Helpful hint: The Princess discovered that if your treats started to get a little stiff, like they wanted to harden up, just add some more butter. Made them soft and pliable again.
The girls had a blast! We had over a half hour of fun out of this activity. And, it was our snack too. Check out the pictures below and looking at the grinning faces. They’ll tell you that Aunt Kathy/Mom rocks! It’s ’cause I let them play with food.
