Edible Pine Cone Owl Snacktivity

The girls came in from playing in the rain last night, bedraggled but invigorated, and ready for a snack.

I decided it would be good time to try making edible pine cone owls.  We've made plane old pine cone owls before, of course, but now that the girls (ages 9 and 10) are getting older, they are ready for greater challenges.

First I showed them how to make edible pine cones following instructions from Handmade Charlotte, using pretzel sticks, Chocolate Toast Crunch cereal (our substitution for the Chocolate Fiber One cereal from the original recipe), and Nutella and peanut butter dough (click the link for the recipe and instructions).

Once we had our pine cones constructed, we let them firm up a little in the fridge (the dough gets soft when handled), while we prepared our owl making supplies - using...

...mini Oreo and Reese's Pieces for eyes...

...chocolate Tootsie Rolls squished and trimmed, with kitchen scissors, for wings...

...and orange and lemon Tootsie Rolls, also flattened and trimmed, for the beak and feet.

All of which...

...we carefully stuck to our pine cones...

...with small blobs of the left over dough.

Naturally, by the time the girls had finished crafting their owls, and a few extra pine cones (they are so much fun to make), they (along with their older sibs) had consumed enough pretzels, cereal, candy, and dough, that we decided to save their snacks for later.

We have a stormy weekend forecast, so there should be plenty of opportunity for working up appetites, and burning off all that sugar, while playing in the rain.