Make a sweet treat on a snow day with our homemade snow ice cream recipe! Snow ice cream is a wonderful treat for the kids and mom and this recipe and video make it easy!
With snow in most of the country I thought I would post these recipes and tips for a fun frugal snow day, including our homemade snow ice cream recipe!
There are lots of great ways to enjoy snow days or make them better for the kids. We have a family tradition of making snow ice cream every year with the kids and they look forward to the first snowfall with enough snow to make homemade snow ice cream. We have one child who doesn’t like milk or ice cream, so we make snow cones for him and I am including our easy snow cone recipe here, too!
Sometimes, people get a little weird about using snow on the ground, but never fear! We have been making snow ice cream for years and nobody has died. Of course, you want to use fresh snow that has recently fallen and not dirty snow or, even worse, yellow snow! haha!
After the recipes, I included some pictures of some of our snow adventures, including sledding, snow surfing when you don’t have hills and igloo building, which we did for quite a few years when the kids were younger!
I put some pictures of our place too! Enjoy!
Tawra
Watch our “How To Make Snow Ice Cream” videos below!
Homemade Snow Ice Cream Recipe
This homemade snow ice cream is a super special sweet treat that kids especially love! It’s a wonderful adventure for kids on a snow day to gather fresh snow to make their own ice cream. Our kids have always loved it and yours will, too!
- Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
1/2 cup milk, sweetened condensed milk or cream
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. vanilla
2 cereal bowls fresh clean snow
Instructions
- Mix milk, sugar and vanilla together.
- Stir until vanilla is dissolved.
- Add fresh snow and stir gently until it is thoroughly mixed.
- Serve immediately. Serves 4.
Our kids love it when it snows because they love making and, more importantly, eating homemade snow ice cream!
Genuine Kansas Weather Gnome
The directions say, “If it’s covered in snow, it’s snowing!”
Easy Snow Cones Recipe
Ingredients
Crushed ice or snow
1 pkg. flavored drink mix* (flavor of your choice)
Instructions
- Mix drink mix with half as much water as the directions indicate to make a thicker syrup.
- Chill 1 hour.
- Just before serving, crush some ice or pack snow into your cup. Tu crush ice, you can use either a snow cone maker or put some ice cubes in a plastic bag and pound with a hammer.
- Pack the snow or ice chips into cups.
- Pour chilled drink mix over the ice and serve.
Notes
First, a stay dry tip: Slip plastic sacks over the kids feet to keep them dry. Put them on over the socks and the put on their shoes. Tie the handles around their legs.
If you don’t have a 4-wheeler get out the lawn mower!
Baby Jack’s First Sledding!
Snow Surfing In Kansas. This is how you have fun in the snow with no hills!
From our snow storm 2 weeks ago
Jack’s first time in the snow (with mom not feeling so great :-)
Elly and BJ collecting snow to make igloo bricks. They used a plastic tub to make the snow bricks.
BJ and David working on the igloo
Elly and Mike posing with the final product.
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love the pictures, beautiful! Great ideas :-)
thanks for sharing the pics and the ideas! … jack is getting soooo big! …
the pics are beautiful with all the snow around the house and etc… the kids look like they are having a blast! …
you have a beautiful family tawra! thanks for sharing this with all of us! :D
rose
Wow these are some beautiful pictures. I live in San Diego and we don’t get any snow here. But it sure looks pretty. Everyone looks like they are having a ball!
Hugs,
Glenda
I absolutely LOVE your photos. You are so blessed! There is nothing of importance that you truly lack. The snow ice cream looks wonderful. It reminds me of reading the Laura Ingalls books and the wonderfully simple pleasures their family had. Thanks so much for sharing.
Just wanted to say how lovely it is to see the picyures of your family enjoying the snow.
The igloo looks great.
We have had more snow here than usual in the UK this year but unfortunately we all seem to go in to panic mode when we get large amounts of snow because it is so rare an event.
By the way I love reading your newsletters & blog.
Keep up the good work.
Donna
I to use the plastic bags over the shoes to keep the boy’s shoes dry. It works great. Snow boots for three boy’s is expensive. This is a very good alternative.
Trash bags make great sleds in a pinch. The heavy contractor bags work especially well. They won’t last more than a day or so, but they work great while they last, are inexpensive, and are something that we all usually have on-hand.
I wish I had grown up in your house. What a wonderful environment! You just prove over and over that it takes love not money to raise a family.
Wondering what to do with that excess snow? Pack it up and send it to Vancouver for the Olympics! We sure could use some for the mountains. I knew we should have saved up all that snow (to Vancouver snow-wusses 3 feet is a lot of snow) from last year for this year.
Tawra, you have lots of good ideas to save, any way to save snow from one year to the next :)
silly story about a 81/2 month pregnant lady tobogganing.
we had taken our oldest son across the lake to a nice hill on his toboggan we had put a wooden back so he wouldn’t fall off since he was pretty young. Well going up the hill with me holding onto the back for balance the back snapped and there I went down the hill with just my belly touching the ground holding onto the piece of wood.
My husband couldn’t rescue me since the toboggan would not stay where it was and it would have run me over.
I was killing myself laughing on the way down and in the snow bank at the bottom. I was glad the bank was there or I would have slid all the way to the house on the other side of the lake.
I found out that day that ski-doo suits or those nylon ski pants and coats make great sliding outfits. no sleds required.
I wouldn’t recommend this as a daily pass time while pregnant but it sure does make for interesting story telling.
Karen you could always ask northern Ontario to share.
26 years ago we took a walk in the bush on July 18 and we had a snowball fight.
Not a lot of snow but enough for a 5 min. fight while in shorts.
We have very little snow this year.
We have 2 snow blowers in the garage and haven’t had to use them yet.
Can’t even sell the excess one since nobody is needing them this year.
Those pictures remind me of when I was a child in southern Ontario. but we went more for snowmen since there were no hills to speak of. Horse drawn sleigh rides were great fun since not many people had the sleighs any more.
I love the plastic bags for feet idea for myself, I tossed my winter boots and then the snow came! Eventually I’ll replace those boots but I will try the plastic bags until then. Thanks!
Great photos of you and your family. We usually have all the snow, but only have a few inches this year (so far) Can you tell me if that is the green blanket that I made for the baby in the photo? If so, how great that you are getting use of it. Thanks for all your advice. I have used many of your snow hints when my children were little. Glad that others are doing the same as I did. I thought those ideas had gone the way of the dinosaur. When my children were little, we always had at least 2 feet of snow in the winter. We would put the kids on the sled and walk to my MIL which was about a mile away. Really miss those days.
Hi Tawra!
I thought your house was beautiful the times I was at your house, but it was nothing compared to how pretty it is in the snow! Even with all that beauty, aren’t you glad that this was not a typical winter for Kansas? We were down for Christmas and it was colder and snowier in KS than in WI!!
Tawra, I just love the snow pictures; thanks for sharing. Your house looks like a Christmas postcard. Seems like you are having a lot of fun. I’d love to live where there’s snow but I’m not ready to trade sunny South Florida. Great place to visit though. I love your newsletter and look forward to reading it every Tues. & Thus. Your books are chock full of great ideas many of which I regularly use. You and Jill are such an inspiration! Regards, Melva
That igloo looks like fun. Great family!
Tawra,
Do you have any updated pictures of the kids? I bet baby Jack has changed so much! We would love to see. :-)
Angie M.
Yeah, I will try to get them on. I did a radio interview in Canada today and realized I didn’t have the recipe on the site yet so I put last year’s post on it. I will get some on here.
Seeing the lawn mower, had a wonderful memory of my Dad when he was in his late eighties, early nineties. He loved riding that lawn mower from the house to the barn which was some distance away. There he would go with his old workhat and overalls. Thanks for the memory. Enjoyed your pics so much.
thanks for posting the pics again .. the kids look like they are having a blast .. :D …
enjoy them while u can .. they grow so fast .. it was just like yesterday i remember my kids little … and i look at them now (one is 28 and one is 20) and wish i could go back in time … just to do some of the neat things we did when they were little …
ur kids are beautiful tawra .. :D :D ..
Rose keep doing the things in your memory.
I did it for real one day when both sons were home and it was fun while we did it. But the boys had to haul me up every time I fell because my old bones (which are not all that old) couldn’t get me out by myself. The next day was not too pleasant either.
But oh the memories are sweet.
Tawra next time you are questioned about how clean the snow is and is it safe to eat the ice cream just tell the person of the old wives tale about having to eat a pound of dirt before you die.
Or ask them what was the first thing you did as a child when you were sent out to play in the snow.
You promptly ate some of it. It is what kids do. They experience much of their lives through taste.
Remember trying to find the biggest icicle you could carry to suck on and make the point as sharp as you could. Those were dangerous and not because of the dirt because of the points.
tawra, the interview was great.
you have a very nice voice. Easy to listen to.
I thought your accent would be more pronounced so was a bit surprised.
thanks for sending it to me.
yes grandma .. i will heed that advice ..
i was thinking about ellie’s b-day and well thought of what we did for my daughter’s 12 b-day and son’s 12th b-day .. adn i realized we did the same thing tawra did .. we had a big sleepover for the 2 of them..
had lots of fun too…
its nice to remember those days … :D
Snow cones were great…we substituted 1/4 c. maple syrup for the sugar!
Hi, Tawra; enjoy your website. We also live in Ks and today we have 8 to 10 inches of snow on the ground already and it is still snowing. most we’ve had in a long while. but it is beautiful. I have been out to replenish the bird’s feed and suet twice already this morning. but that is also fun. :)
My kids love snow just so they can make snow ice cream! What great memories you are making for your kids :-)
This is one of my FAVORITE posts. I love the video. It makes me smile.
Thank you for this recipe. My mom used to make snow ice cream when we were kids but I never knew how she made it. Now I know. We don’t get snow very often in Dallas but I can’t wait til the next one. Thank you so much!!
My mom also used to make snow ice cream and I grew up in enumclaw Washington which is on the foothills of Mount Rainier so we get loads of snow every year however when I try to make it my adult mind simply remembered snow and vanilla flavoring and let me tell you. Tastes horrid LMFAO and there’s a good possibility that that is how she made it because I was born in the 70s so I was an 80s child and my mom was all concerned about my weights from as long as I can remember she has to make me get up in the morning before preschool and do Joanie greggains workout I believe it was called son up or something like that I just remember the intro showing the sun coming up yeah so I’m pretty sure that that’s how she made it no sugar no cream or milk and it was awful when I tried to make it the fire my grandchildren talk about embarrassing LOL now that I know the true way to make it maybe they’ll give me a second chance haha thank you so much:-)