Ice Cream Playdough!

Joshua pinched his finger the other day.  Matthew gave him an ice pack.  I make my own ice packs with ziploc bags and corn syrup.  The corn syrup seriously makes THE. BEST. ice packs.  It gets super cold, but never freezes solid.  So they can wrap it around a wrist, or a head, or a toe.  I double wrap them so if the bag gets blood or something on it I just pop off the outer bag, put on a new one, and put it back in the freezer.  We LOVE them.  Anyway, it was rainy so the kids were riding their bikes around in circles in the garage.  Somehow Joshua snuck past daddy and was using the ice pack on his hand while he was riding in circles... can you see where this is going yet?  Inevitably, he dropped the bag.  But instead of picking it up, I have a feeling curiosity took over and he decided to run it over with his bike... again... and again... and again.  Matthew went out to check on him and he couldn't figure out what the noise was at first.  Then he realized it was the sound of the bike tires sticking to the concrete floor as Joshua peddled.  Oops!

So that's how I ended up at WalMart at 8:30pm last night in search of a mop to clean up the giant sticky concrete mess in the garage... and a bike tube to fix a flat on the bike trailer.  (I'm generally a hands-and-knees mopper... but I'm NOT doing the garage on all fours!)  As I was wandering, I happened upon the baking aisle and suddenly remembered a recipe for ice cream playdough I'd been wanting to try.  So I grabbed two tubs of frosting (white and orange) and a bag of powdered sugar.  I'd gotten a couple little ice cream scoopers a while back to go with it too.

This morning after breakfast, I casually threw out the term 'ice cream playdough' and instantly had 3 children running around the living room.  To be fair, the littlest one may or may not have been running from me to avoid having a diaper change...  Anywho.  I told them to pick up and I'd get the playdough made.

Ice Cream Playdough

Recipe from HERE

1 cup frosting (not the whipped kind)

2 3/4 to 3 cups powdered sugar

I added the frosting to the mixer and gradually added the powdered sugar.  I used the paddle attachment and low speed.  Keep adding it until the dough isn't sticky anymore.  That's it.  I pressed it into pyrex bowls so they could scoop it out.  When you scoop it, it looks just like real ice cream (and smells pretty darn close too!)

I pulled the coffee table out onto the patio and taped a cheap-o tablecloth over it.  They brought out all sorts of accessories from their play-food box.  Then I set the stuff out on the table and turned all three of them loose. 

 The kids played (happily together) for almost an hour and a half with this!  One of the cans of frosting had come with some sprinkles and those were a huge hit too.  Next time I'd definitely have more sprinkles!

Here are a few more random pictures of our playtime...

 I really thought she would be shoveling it in her mouth with both hands, but she really didn't.  She'd lick off the fork once in a while, but she really seemed to enjoy playing with it a lot too.  Brielle and Joshua were the ones I caught with a mouthful once or twice!

 Sprinkles!

 They wanted to make ice cream cones, but I hadn't thought about buying cones.  (Silly mommy!)  They problem solved and decided that the cups would work, and I'd try to remember to buy some for next time.

 So focused

Aaah... sweet rewards!  :)  When they finally started to argue - and the temperature was inching up and up - I decided it was time to clean up.  Thankfully, this was much easier than I thought it would be!  They mushed the dough back into the containers and then we put all the dirty dishes into a bucket to go inside to be washed.  I shook out the tablecloth and then hosed off the concrete.  That was it!  I have it stashed in the fridge and we'll be doing this again soon!