Allow me to introduce you to our newly turned 4 year old B-Man, formerly Baby Brooks (but will always be BB if you ask his daddy). For the past 3 years, we have done the obligatory cupcakes or cookies for his class birthday celebration. Although I may groan about it, not recognizing what I get myself into sometimes, I secretly love doing it. But this year I vowed to do something different. Tired of the fake-colored, sugary store-bought treats, I feverishly searched Pinterest for “alternatives to school cupcakes”. While I did not find exactly what I was looking for, partly because I did not know what I was looking for, I did come away from my search with some ideas.

1. I wanted to do something fun for the kids and something B could help me make for his friends. That’s how we came up with the kabob idea.
2. I wanted something decently healthy, so fruit was the focus.
3. It also had to have a “birthday flare” to it, so of course, sprinkles came to mind. And what could I douse in sprinkles, that would also fit on a kabob? One of Brooks’ favorite treats, MARSHMALLOWS.
4. Thus, 1+2+3 = Birthday Kabobs!

These treats were super easy to make, and a really fun way to get your kiddos involved; only if you don’t mind them eating the project along the way, as evidenced above. Also, for those fans of the show Umizoomi and Milli’s pattern power (in your best singing voice), this activity provides a great opportunity for your kids to learn about patterns. And yes, I realize I missed a blueberry on one – oops!

Here’s what you need to make the kabobs:

• Assortment of whatever fruit you like that can be skewered. We used strawberries, bananas, blueberries, and canned pineapple chunks.
• A bag of big marshmallows
• Sprinkles
• Chocolate candy melts – you can find these at your local craft store in all colors. I used the white chocolate party melts.
• 8″ treat sticks – also found at local craft store. They look like the white cake pop sticks.

And here is how:

1. Wash hands 🙂
2. Have your marshmallows ready to dip, and pour the sprinkles out on a plate or any shallow pan with sides.
3. Melt the chocolate candy according to the directions on the bag. You have to work kind of fast before the chocolate hardens again, but even if it does, just nuke it again to melt it.
4. Dip the ends of the marshmallows into the chocolate, then the sprinkles, and set on wax paper. Repeat for as many as you need. We made 20 kabobs, but probably had 25 marshmallows to begin with. They seemed to disappear along the way.
5. Wash and prep the fruit. Trim the tops off the strawberries, and slice the larger ones in half. Cut the bananas into one inch rounds.
6. Skewer the fruit and end the kabob with one of the birthday marshmallows. Brooks helped me with making the marshmallows but I skewered the actual fruit, while he helped me with the pattern.
7. Enjoy! I will admit I was a little nervous about Brooks’ friends just eating the marshmallows and leaving the fruit on the stick, but I was pleasantly surprised that every kid (all 19 of them) ate every.single.bite. of the kabobs. And the teachers enjoyed them too. They were a hit and Brooks was so proud to be able to say he helped make them!

Note: you can make these ahead of time, and refrigerate them for the next day. Just be sure to tightly wrap them so the marshmallows don’t dry out.