I read this tip in FamiyFun magazine and I thought it was worthy of sharing.  To make birthday parties go more smoothly, the writer suggests  scooping ice cream into cupcake bake cups on a cookie sheet and slide them in the freezer prior to guests arrival.   At cake time, just pull out the cheet and place one ice cream on each plate.  No more lines of kids waiting for their ice cream!  This is an easy way to keep things moving at a busy birthday party.

After reading this, I also thought - why not just use Hoodsie Cups?  Same concept.  But then I thought that this alternative method would allow you more flexbility to serve up specialty flavors and not just chocolate & vanilla.  Plus it would probably stretch your dollar a bit more if you had a whole lot of kids on hand.