Valentine's Day Treats: Ladybug Pretzels and Heart Fruit Kabobs

Being the mom of a preschooler, we are not at a loss for parties.  Her class holds a party at least once a month, if not twice.  Every holiday gets its own bash, and the parents have the opportunity to send in snacks for the kiddos to enjoy.

Since I've come across SO MANY CUTE IDEAS (pardon me, I get a bit excited about such things) on Pinterest, I love having a reason to try out the creative new pins I find.  As opposed to being that weird 30 year old woman putting together Pilgrim Hats, Clementine Jack-O-Lanterns and Reindeer Cookies (which I, in fact, did).

So, for Little Chica's Valentine's Day Party (which is today),  I made the following 2 pins:

Source: Uploaded by user via Stephanie on Pinterest

Source: blogs.babble.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

AND THEY TURNED OUT SO GREAT!  On past Pinterest projects, I've been thrown for a loop.  Some are deceivingly more difficult than the pin lets on.  There has been many nights of cursing, weeping and gnashing of teeth over a creative snack I tried to recreate from a pin, but all things went awry.

There is no pressure greater than volunteering a snack for your preschooler's class party, only to have it blow up in your face the night before.

As you can imagine, I'm glad these 2 lovelies came together somewhat easily.  Here are some helpful suggestions from my experience:

My Heart Fruit Kabob creations

The Fruit Kabobs were actually the more difficult of the two, as punching the cookie cutters into the melons is not quite as easy of a task as it may seem (especially this time of year when there is not as much "fruit" to seed ratio in the cantaloupes, leaving me with less fruit space to work with).  I'd suggest cutting each melon into 1-inch slabs (roughly the width of the small heart-shaped cookie cutter you will use).  That way, it's easier for the cookie cutter to punch through.  I was not thinking and used skewers instead of popsicle sticks (hoping that my mistake won't be sending several preschoolers to the emergency room with bleeding gouges).  I am not serving mine with a dip, but I think they'd go particularly well with Cannoli Dip!

My Ladybug Pretzels

The Ladybug Pretzels ended up being my favorite. I thought they'd be super involved, with the melting of chocolate and all. But since you can melt the red chocolate wafers (found at stores like Michaels) in the microwave, it's easy to quickly dip the pretzels, let them cool/harden on wax paper, then come back and dip the bottoms in the milk chocolate.  I used a leftover skewer dipped in the milk chocolate to quickly make the brown polka dots, and the white frosting is the tubed kind you find in the baking aisle at the grocery store.  Next time, though, I might melt a few white chocolate wafers and make the whites of the eyes in the same manner as I made the brown polka dots.  The frosting was harder to manage.  For the eyes, I put chocolate jimmies (aka "sprinkles) that were cut in half into the white frosting.  Again, me not so good at the frosting, so I tried to steer clear of it as much as possible.

Check out Part 2 of my Valentine's Day Treat Posts: 

Surprise Cupcakes and Red Heart Rice Krispy Treats!