Life Gives You Snow Days? Make Snow Ice Cream!

Two words nearly every working parent fears: Snow Day

I, personally, am on snow day #2 this week, which comes on top of President’s Day, then two days last week of staying home with a sick kindergartener. I’m lucky I can work from home but I’m not gonna lie, snow days pretty much suck.

I consider myself a patient mom. I’m an expert multi-tasker, so I can keep up with the office while making sure the rugrats get lunch plus help bundling up for the 10 minutes they play outside before the glamour of snow wears off and the reality of frozen fingers and soggy clothing sinks in.

Then comes the bickering. And the “Moooo-ooom, can you play with me?” And the bickering. And the staring for hours at iPads. Then more bickering. So I do what most moms these days do, I turn to Pinterest for snow day activities. I’ve found some keepers (crayon cupcakes, for example). I’ve found some clunkers (I don’t even want to talk about my attempt at making Frozen snowflakes). But one activity the kids always love is snow ice cream.

Snow ice cream won’t keep them occupied for hours on end. I’m not trying to sell it as some kind of snow day savior. But it’s fun, if a little messy. It’s easy for older kids to do without much help. And everybody likes eating what they make, right?

So here it is: a snow ice cream recipe, culled from several different places on the Web and tweaked by me and my girls for best results. Enjoy!

Snow Ice Cream

Ingredients:

Clean, fresh snow (Never has the “no yellow snow” rule been more important!)

1 cup of milk or half-and-half (depends how creamy you want your ice cream to be)

For chocolate ice cream, try chocolate milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (or more, if you like vanilla)

1/2 cup sugar

Instructions:

1. Gather snow in a clean bowl or bucket. Don’t pack it down! Bring inside and put in the freezer while you prepare the other ingredients.

2. Mix milk, sugar and vanilla until sugar is dissolved.

3. Slowly pour milk mixture into snow, stirring until it reaches the desired consistency.

4. Eat immediately.

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Tags: DIY & crafts, family fun, recipes, winter