Snowman Party

It January and cold and was a hosting a playgroup this week. I love having playgroup - but we are starting to get a few older kids. So I'm enjoying coming up with fun ideas for the kids to enjoy as a surprise during the playgroup. This week since It was cold I was thinking about snowmen. Our last snow fall wasn't the greatest for snowmen, but the kids made some a few weeks ago. I did Sloppy joes and cheese and crackers for lunch. I also had been having a craving for Puppy chow (Chex Mix Muddy Buddy or what ever you call it). So I made some Puppy chow - but since we had a snowman theme going I told the kids it is was snowman poop!

I first came up with a fun game for the kids. I converted a diaper box into a quick toss game. I have all the materials except beans for the bean bags. What is nice is I can reuse the bean bag and then recover the box for other occassions.

Supplies --

one box of choice, paint of choice ( I used house paint and craft acrylic and paint pens (for details))

assorted felt and chipboard (for the hat)

glue, scissors, and extaco knife

scrap material and dried beans

I painted the box and drew the circles for the snowman ( used our dishes for the circles). Since these are for little kids - the hole is fairly large. If you had a bigger box, you could get more holes.

I cut the hole after the paint - so I knew where I was going with it.

I made the hat out of chipboard covered with scrap felt and glued it on the box.

I poked holes at the neck for the scarf.

For the bean bags I cut my material 6" square and sewed a double seam. I filled the bag half full of dried beans. Have a piece of paper or a funnel to do this. and then sewed the seam shut.

The kids enjoyed it for the short attention span they have. I know it will be used more.

For the extra treat of the day - I made rice krispie snowman to decorate. I had some old Wilton Snowman Single pans for the shape. I did one batch of Rice krispie Treats and was able to get 8 snowman. I went through the treat cupboard and was able to find candies to decorate with and only had to buy the stuff for the hats and buttons (and I really didn't have to buy the buttons).

treats before decorating

Pretzel arms, mini oreo buttons,

candy corn nose, M&M eyes, licorice scarf and mini peanut butter cups and fudge stripe cookies hats.

I had a little leftover frosting that I melted for the glue. I premade the hats - because we had 3 and 4 year olds. Due to illnesses I only had 4 kids - BUT they had a blast!

My sample for them to use for ideas.

I loved the craft and I'm looking forward to my next playgroup for more ideas!