Ice-cream Social

Billy and Mariah found Jolena in the kitchen.
How was your week in South America, Jolena?" Mariah asked.

"It was fantastic," Jolena said, looking up from what she was mixing. "I learned a lot!"
"What did you learn?" Billy asked.

"I perfected my triple flip," Jolena replied. "It's good practice when you land in the pool during summer workouts, but it isn't quite the same as landing on snow."
Jolena was stirring something in the bowl.
"What are you making?" Mariah asked, eyeing the bowl.

"All that snow made me think of ice cream," Jolena answered, "so I decided to make some as soon as I got back."
"You're making ice cream?" Billy asked in surprise. I thought ice cream only came from the store!"

"We have a special ice-cream freezer," Jolena explained. "I'll show you. I'm making this with yoghurt (YO-gert)." Jolena stirred her mixture a little bit more. Then she was satisfied. "We need the ice-cream freezer now," she said. "I'm glad you're here. It takes more than one doll to carry it in from the freezer in the garage."

Billy and Mariah helped Jolena carry the ice-cream freezer container to the kitchen. It was comfortable to hold by the handle and the outside, but it was very cold on the inside. They were careful not to touch it there, because they didn't want to freeze their vinyl fingers.

Mariah held the container while Billy helped Jolena connect the paddle to the motor. They followed Jolena's instructions to help attach the motor to the container.

Jolena plugged in the ice-cream freezer and turned it on. The paddle started turning. Then she poured the ice-cream mixture into the container through the hole in the cover.

"Why do we need to use this machine?" Billy asked.
"Well, Jolena began, "a lot of this ice-cream mixture is water, and when water freezes, it makes ice crystals. If you just put the mixture into the freezer and leave it until it's frozen, you will end up with something you can't eat with a spoon or put into a cone. It will be hard, like an ice cube."
"Like a popsicle?" Mariah asked.

"Yes," Jolena said. "That's why, when you make popsicles, you pour the mixture into plastic cups and put a popsicle stick or plastic spoon into each one."
"What's an ice crystal?" Billy asked.

"We saw some on the car windows during the winter, Billy," Mariah said.
"Yes, Jolena agreed," and I saw some in Argentina last week."
Billy pretended to close his eyes and tried to remember the windows of the car during the winter. He thought about the car and how cold it was. Then he thought about how one of his human family members used a scraper on the windows. He saw this with his mind:

"So what does the ice-cream freezer do?" Billy asked, pretending to open his eyes again.
"Watch," Jolena said, as she showed the other two dolls what the ice-cream freezer was doing.

They could see the paddle going around and around. "The container is made with two layers," Jolena explained. "Between the layers is a special liquid that can freeze so it's very, very cold. That's why it was in the big freezer in the garage."

"After you put the ice-cream mixture into the container and turn on the motor," Jolena continued, "the paddle scrapes the inside of the container over and over, as the cold from the container freezes the mixture. The paddle keeps mixing the ice cream, so the ice crystals can't form."

"That's interesting," Mariah said.

Billy nodded.
The three dolls left the ice-cream freezer working and went to do some other things. From time to time, one of them would check on it.

"Hey," called Billy from the kitchen when he checked on the ice cream. "It's getting bigger!"

Jolena and Mariah came back in to see.
"It always does that," Jolena said. "I don't know why, but it grows."
"I'll bet Mandy knows why," Mariah said."

The dolls could hear from the other room when the ice-cream freezer stopped. That meant it was done. Mariah and Billy helped Jolena remove all the ice cream to freezer containers.

"Now we have to let it sit in the freezer for several hours to let it harden before we can eat it," Jolena said. "Thank you for your help!"
After the dolls carried the containers of ice cream to the freezer, they washed the countertops because they had been walking all over them. When they finished cleaning up, they went back to what they had been doing before.

When the ice cream was ready, Jolena invited the other dolls to help pretend to eat it. They sat out on the porch in the shade.

"Now maybe we can find out why the ice cream grew when it was freezing," Jolena said, as they all enjoyed their ice cream.

Billy turned to Mandy and said, "Yes, Mandy! We noticed that the ice cream grew while it was freezing. Do you know why?"

"Water grows when it freezes," Mandy said, "but that isn't the main reason the ice cream grows."

"Churning the ice cream––that means letting the paddle stir it around and around while the ice cream freezes––churning mixes the air in with the ice cream, so it grows."

"Like blowing up a balloon?" Billy asked, sliding off his perch on the back of the couch so he could pay attention to Mandy.

"Well, maybe," Mandy agreed, "if you think of thousands of tiny balloons making up the ice cream."

"That's really cool," Billy said.
"No," Mariah said. "That's really cold!"

Their mouths were really cold when they had finished pretending to eat the ice cream.

(Veronika would like to remind real children that they should not stand on the countertops, but if they ever do have to, they should not be wearing their shoes and should wash the countertops afterwards.)

Cast--
Veronika: Götz Classic Kidz Vroni
Mandy: Götz Happy Kidz Katie 2015
Jolena: Götz Happy Kidz Lena in Aspen
Charlotte: Götz Happy Kidz Anna in Paris
Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll Best Friend
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily at London

Ice Crystals photo by Osman Rana (@osmanrana) on Unsplash.

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Note: No dolls were harmed during production of this blog. All dolls shown are Götz Happy Kidz, Classic Kidz or Little Kidz. If you like these stories and are willing, please make a donation of any amount to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital or any organization that supports pediatric cancer research and treatment. We are not affiliated with St. Jude in any way other than these donations.

"The Doll's Storybook" is not affiliated with Gotz Dolls USA Inc. or Götz Puppenmanufaktur International GmbH.
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