If you live around Portland like we do, chances are you just got dumped on. I woke up this morning to about 7 inches of thick, packable snow—the kind that makes an awesome snowball and doubles over tree branches. So naturally, we pulled an Anna and asked, Do you want to build a snowman? I answered YES! and made both the regular kind out of snow and a marshmallow snowman topper.

Building our first family snowman

Our first family snowman was, naturally, 95% built by me.

When the family headed outside to play in all that snow, Peeper was too busy throwing flakes in the air (“It’s snooooooowing!”) and Kiwi too busy standing immobile and whining (like Randy—”I can’t put my arms down!”—haha!) to help me build my snowman. But no troubles. The snow was deep enough that I made quick work to build this guy.

I had to repeatedly ask Peeper to not wreck my snowman. She was much more interested in breaking it apart than rolling the giant snowballs. But as soon as I got the three segments together, she wanted to help. (Impeccable timing, kid.)

We uncovered a few rocks and picked up branches that had snapped off our trees. Unfortunately Finn snatched each stick arm from the poor snowman. “No, Finn, no!” Peeper wailed as he chewed the sticks. We settled for tiny ones that Finn wasn’t interested in.

And so we built our first family snowman. Peeper dubbed him Frosty—very original, I know.

An edible craft for a snow day

Even Peeper, the snow-lover she is, has to come inside at some point. Since we’ve had more snow days than days of school lately, we’ve had to get creative with finding indoor activities that will keep the kids entertained—and not fighting.

Today, then, we busted out the marshmallows to make a marshmallow snowman topper for cupcakes. (We didn’t actually bake cupcakes; we made cookies. But when Eric went out to the store to get dog food, he got a cupcake, too. So there you go.)

The girls wanted to eat the lil’ guy immediately. It was all I could do to take a picture before they attacked the marshmallows. Didn’t the marshmallow snowman turn out cute?

If you’re snowed in and bored—or just want to make a cute (and edible!) craft, here’s how to make a marshmallow snowman topper of your own.

Make a marshmallow snowman topper

Supplies:

• Full-sized marshmallows
• Twizzlers Pull n’ Peel candy
• Wooden dowels or toothpicks (*if you use toothpicks, help your kids watch out for the sharp ends)
• Edible frosting markers
• Bottle cap

Instructions:

1. Poke a dowel through the flat ends of three marshmallows so you end up with a stack of marshmallows.
2. Poke a dowel into each side of the middle marshmallow for the snowman’s arms.
3. Carefully peel off a Twizzlers strand (or two—especially if you have the multicolored kind). Wrap it around the space between the top and middle marshmallows. Tie the Twizzlers ends in a knot to make the scarf.
4. With a black edible marker, draw circles for eyes and a mouth. Using a red or orange edible marker, draw a triangle for a carrot nose.
5. Fit a plastic bottle cap on the top marshmallow as a hat.
6. Poke a dowel into the bottom marshmallow. This is the stand so you can place your marshmallow snowman topper on a cupcake—or on your lifesize snowman outside!

How about you—how are you all faring in these snow days? What’s your favorite way to keep kids entertained?

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