New Year's Eve Penguins

Most years, Chris and I have had a party on New Year's Eve. We invite everyone from meeting and normally we get a fair amount of people. We roast a turkey, everyone brings something along and we eat, play games and just generally have a great time being with friends. The kids take naps during the day and are ready for a late night with their friends, too. This year, I decided to work on a project with the kids, a little something to add to the festivities of tonight. I found a recipe on allrecipes.com and I thought it was so cute we had to try it. It turned out to be pretty tricky and maybe a little frustrating for both the girls and I. In the end they were pretty cute but I think that the girls are going to need a little more fine motor skills before we attempt them again. (Since they lacked the coordination to do the cutting or filling without smashing the olives, that job was mine and the girls just assembled the penguins. So, without further ado....the Penguins.

First, the ingredients. Jumbo Olives, Small Olives, Flavored Cream Cheese (room temp), carrots, toothpicks.

Slice the carrots into circles and take out a small wedged piece. Set wedge aside for later.

Next, slice off the front of a Jumbo Olive

Fill the olive with herbed cream cheese and discard the piece sliced off

Remember that wedged piece of carrot you set aside? Well, now you insert that into the back of one Small Olive, remembering to put the pointy side out so it looks like a beak. The hole from the pitting will be on the opposite side of your 'beak'.

Finally, you'll run a toothpick down through the head, into the body and anchor it into the carrot slice so that it makes the penguin's feet. It's important that the hole of the jumbo olive be laying on top of the feet and not at the neck of the penguin. He'll topple over if you invert it. (Don't ask me how I know that...)

That look of concentration was truly needed-it was tedious work

Creating

Ruth's finished product

We're heading down to my parents house tomorrow for dinner, so I think these little guys are going to come along there, too (we made enough of them). I'm planning to wow the family with my dedication to the furthering of the kids arts and crafts education. (giggle...snort...snort...giggle...)