February birthdays can be kind of a bummer. I know because I have one–and so does my son. So I try to throw parties for him that make people with summer birthdays jealous. There will be no awesome tail gate sledding party for you, Gemini. Ha ha!

This year, my son wanted a winter picnic party on the ice (take that, Cancers). Also requested were, marshmallows, glow sticks, a cake shaped like a 6, and popcorn. All birthday wishes granted! I wasn’t too sure how the cake would turn out, but it seems there is nothing more frosting can’t solve.

I stumbled on these glow swords at Target, and wow! were they a big hit! I had planned to have some sort of balloon game with glowing balloons (a la pinterest), but you need 1. clear balloons (not just white ones), 2. super bright glow sticks (not the skinny, cheapy ones from target), and 3. actual pitch black, not 7pm.   Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

The kids didn’t seem to mind.

Before the epic glow battle, we built a big fire and roasted marshmallows. By the way, roasted marshmallows in your hot chocolate is the best thing ever, which is also how my son described his party.  I have to agree–nothing better than turning 6 with a giant fire on a frozen lake!

We celebrated my little boy’s fourth birthday this past weekend–a week late. On his actual birthday we were all too sick, or if not sick then too crabby, to do much of anything.  But this week we were better! We ventured out of the house! And we had a sledding party!

My son actually came up with the idea (is he secretly reading crafty blogs?) while we were in Hawaii oddly enough. And it seemed perfect: the sky had just dumped ridiculous amounts of snow on the midwest. But then we got back and it was 40 degrees and you could see the grass! In February!  The day before the party it snowed a few fluffy inches, just enough to fly down the hill on. Thank you weather.

It was a small party, so making favors was a pleasure rather than a production. We made vanilla marshmallows, which we packaged in waxed paper bags all prettied up with snowflakes. I doubled my friend Lily’s recipe for hot cocoa mix only used regular sugar and threw in a few teaspoons of salt for good measure.  Some of the hot cocoa mix went into jars I scrounged up and with the rest I made a vat of hot chocolate for the party. And then made a vat of whipped cream to go with it.

Obviously, I stole the tail gating idea from Courtney and actually I think this was the first time I’ve ever even been to a tail gate party. Not a lot of sports fans in the family.  It is awesome (if you didn’t know). And it is super awesome for a little kid’s party. They just come and go when they please, while you help yourself to another spoonful of whipped cream in your coffee. dontmindifIdo.

Slowly everyone’s toes froze and it was time to go home. But before that there was much sledding and snacking and frosting on faces. I say it was a success and my big four year old boy says so too.

I suppose there are people out there who don’t care for peeps, but I’ve never met them. Most people I know eat them this time of year with abandon and many have their own special way of enjoying them: I like mine stale, for instance (just like my mom), and I had an old boyfriend who liked to burn the little bunnies with his lighter before he ate them–so tough.  But this year instead of buying my peeps, I thought I’d make them. They’re just marshmallows sprinkled with sugar, how hard could it be?  Not hard really, after you royally screw up a couple of batches and have to throw them out, run out of colored sugar (by the second chick), have a small sugar induced meltdown, suck it up and make your own colored sugar (just throw some white sugar and a couple drops of food coloring in a food processor–nothing to freak out about), and come to terms with the fact that every other bunny you make will be a mutant, so no, not hard at all. The most important thing is not to over whip the marshmallows. They should have very soft peaks and can even still be a little warm. I used martha’s marshmallows for piping recipe, which is strangely lacking in the flavor department, so add vanilla extract (or peppermint or licorice or pineapple or whatever your little heart desires), but other than that it was great–and she has piping directions here. Oh and they are freakin delicious, fresh or stale.

I keep forgeting to say thank you for all the congratulations and kind words from all of you about my pregnancy. Thank you so much! It is so wonderful to hear and much needed as I’m freaking out a bit about having three kids under three. Better go eat some more peeps.