I obviously have never been a little boy and to be truthful I was a little nervous when I was expecting Erik as to how I would cope as a Mom to a boy after our girls. My qualms were unfounded. Such sweethearts my boys are even if they do keep me on my toes both in mind and body. Erik often will have facts and quiz me during the day. I took him grocery shopping the evening before his party so that he could decide which chips and soft drinks we should buy. He decided on “Sahara” chips as it had a picture of a desert on the package. As we walked down an aisle, he would stop to inspect a package of macaroni or some sausage and explain his world to me. He told me about how the Crusaders invaded Jerusalem and quized me to see if I knew what prehistoric species are still living after the “turmoil of the dinosaurs” as he calls it. I fortunately had been pop-quized on the subject before and so I passed. If you do not happen to know that the alligator and gar are both prehistoric…and he went on to explain that from the scales of the gar, indigenous people made arrowheads. FYI
As we were in the baking section there was a package that had a picture of macarons. He stopped and very dramatically exclaimed, “This is what I have always wanted for my birthday!” And yes, indeed it would be have been a great idea as his cake was to be a hockey cake and so the macarons colored black could have been little pucks. But my time was running short and so I promised that we would try to remember next year. Fortunately he was perfectly pleased with the melting snowmen.
I happened to have about one pound or half a kilo of gingerbread dough still in the freezer leftover from Christmas. This helped speed things up considerably. You may find the recipe to the gingerbread here. I thawed out the gingerbread dough so that it was still cool but not frozen and rolled it out and made cutouts with a round cookie cutter.
Melting snowmen
24 round cookies (ginger, sugar or a cookie of your choice)
2 egg whites
powdered sugar
12 large marshmallows cut into halves
50 g/1 and 3/4 oz dark chocolate, melted
Buttercream
Basic buttercream (from the book, Maailman Parhaat Kakut by Barbara Maher)
125 g/4.4 oz unsalted butter
250 g/8.8 oz confectioners sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1-2 tbsp milk or cream to make it more pliable
a few drops of red and yellow food coloring for making the orange noses
Separate the egg whites from the yolks and mix enough powdered sugar with the whites so that the frosting becomes a soft white with some consistency. Make sure that it is not too thick so that ou are able to squeeze through a parchment paper icing bag or a plastic bag with the tip cut off.
First make the outline of the puddle for the melting snowman on each cookie. By the time all twentyfour outlines have been made, fill it in with zig zag line of frosting. You do not need to fill in every spot as the frosting will spread out. If needed, use a palet knife or a butter knife to help spread the frosting out. Place the marshmallow where you would like the head to be. Next melt the chocolate and make an icing bag out of parchment paper. Spoon the melted chocolate into it and make button, eyes, a smile, and stick hands.
Next make the buttercream and color it a desired orange. Make another icing bag out of parchment paper or use a plastic bag with the tip cut off, give each snowman a carrot nose and a scarf.
During the first few minutes of the party, the house was quite quiet and I was just beginning to wonder if the next two hours would actually pass in considerable peace. I shouldn’t have wondered. As they warmed up we barely had to come up with party games as they had a fast paced game of indoor tag so that their cheeks were quite rosy from the exercise. Even some of our girls got involved and soon there were about eleven kids zipping about. I know that photos below are not quite in chronological order with the previous post of Elma and represent the next generation when they were children, but I promise that I will get back to Elma and all of the interesting stories that belong to her era. When these photos of my Grampa and his cousins arrived in my inbox, I felt like they could have just as easily walked in my door for a wild game of tag with their irresistable grins. I kind of felt like I had Thing One and Thing Two come over from the Cat and the Hat, but just add in Things Three through Nine to the count.
“There comes a time in every rightly-constructed boy’s life when he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure.”
– The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
“A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow.” -Willian Shakespeare
And I do believe that they might have like my melted snowman gingerbread cookies just as well as Thing One through Nine did at the party the other night.
tableofcolors 
I LOVE your melting snowmen. The macaron’s would have gone nicely with the hockey theme but those snowman cookies are adorable. Your son sounds very mature and I am sure the party was a total success. The Anderson photo’s are wonderful, I love their smiling faces and the photo with the two children sparring is really nice. I do enjoy seeing all of your photo’s of your family,
Thank you Suzanne, after surfing the internet for ideas I thought that they would be the perfect thing to tickle the funnybone of a bunch of six-year-old lads 🙂 I thought the boxing boys was a fun photo…my Grampa is the one on the left with his cousin Don on the right.
How fun to be able to enjoy (and imagine) the birthday party from so far away. Yes, all those other young boys would have loved snowmen too! Sounds like you’ve been reading (or listening to) Dr. Suess lately:) Hugs…
Yes, we have been listening to Dr. Suess lately….Love hearing your voice on the recording. Reminds me of storytime on the sofa on Morgan Ave. ❤
Who cannot like your melting snowmean? They look so adorable. And the happy faces of the children are precious. Happy birthday to your boy. Children, they do grow up so fast.
Yes, children do grow up too fast. I have been looking at my oldest ones during the past few days and wondering where the years went as they aren’t so little anymore. We’ll have to try hug them even a little bit more often. 🙂
I absolutly love the melting snowmen!!
Thank you Mel 🙂
How timely was the arrival of the photos. I am sure that even now Grampa would have had enormous fun at Erik’s party, if he had been able to attend.
Hi Gallivanta! Did you notice that Gramp answered your comment in the one below? 🙂 We would have loved to have had him indeed!
I have seen his comment now. Thank you. The photos remind me of all the stories my parents tell us of the fun they had with their many cousins. My father and his cousins got up to a lot of mischief!
Yes indeed Galivanta, Grampa would have loved to be at Erik’s party! Also, sadly two of those Anderson cousins have passed away. But their smiling faces live on.
Love, Grampa
Yes, we would have loved to have had you join us ❤ So thankful for the photos, they certainly are treasures and have been enjoying this adventure into family history and all the stories with it.
Loves those snowmen but I LOVE those smiling scamp faces on those boys maybe even a bit more….and your quotes are wonderful about friends and boys.
What you wrote about being just a little worried about a baby boy after girls reminds me of our first born, a boy….I had come from a family of three girls and no cousins here in Australia. I remember thinking …how do you play with a little boy?
But all went well. We grow into our motherhood 🙂
As always, I love your posts L.
Visiting from a soggy Sydney, Australia summer day…it is so meant to be hot and not the sort of weather where I wear my lamb skin slippers, with shorts 😉
Alexa-asimplelife
Yes, I love those smiling faces of the boys as well. They are so in the moment and genuine and looks like they have had great fun together.
So true, motherhood is all about growing with each child and situation. So glad you stopped by. Happy weekend Alexa!
The melting snowmen are pure genius – they look fantastic. And I love the images of the Anderson cousins – they look so typical – a bunch of boys having fun hanging out together.
Boys are a delight to have around when they’re little, and I always found the boy’s parties to be far easier than the girl’s ones. The boys entertain themselves with physical activity, but the girls were always looking for the next game we would play.
The idea for the melting snowmen came after doing a little google-searching and thought that they might tickle of the funnybones of 6 year-olds 😉 Yes, I love those pics of the grinning boys. They look like they are enjoying the day.
We truly had fun with our boys at the birthday party and perhaps that is true that they are not so focused on party games. I think they may have been satisfied playing tag for an hour and a half. But then it was good to do a little something else in between as the noise level was rising. 🙂
What a wonderfully intelligent little one you have! I can see why he was pleased with the melting snowmen-they look so creative and delicious! I’m loving the old family pictures that you shared. It’s always so fun to take a trip down memory lane.
Thank you Heather, he is certainly a fun one to have a conversation with 🙂
Erik is the Man! Recently I’ve read the article about Finish school education and was surprised and impressed. Now it’s understandable why your kids so smart.
🙂 Yes, we are lucky to have a good educational system. I have certainly been pleased with it.
What gorgeous, cheeky faces on those little cousins. I’m certain they would have loved your cute melting snowman cookies! And what a clever cookie is Erik! Fun post, thank you Laila.
Thanks Ardysez, I think those boys are quite cute as well! And I can see some familiar traits in some of them that can be seen in the younger generations as well. 🙂
I love those old photos! And your snowmen. I have two daughters and I’m so happy I have a grand daughter! I wouldn’t know what to do with little boys. But I’ve heard they’re wonderful in a very different way, and they love their mamas. There’s something to be said for that!
I think you would have been a wonderful mom to a boy if you would have happened to have one…I suppose it is something that those little ones help us learn…and yes they do love their mams ❤ Enjoy your grand daughter!
What an adorable idea, I love the look of your melting snowmen 😀
Thanks for sharing such happy, smiling photos!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Thank you Uru…thanks for stopping by!
What adorable cookies!!
Thank you Bernice!
Those snowmen are amazing – what an ingenious idea!
Thanks Ginger…google and pinterest are great sources for fun ideas 🙂
Those are the cutest little cookies!!
Thank you Patty! 🙂