Simplicity, chaos, but so much love!

My sons 8th grade team was playing their final middle school football game and some of the moms wanted to do something special for the boys and they asked me to make some cupcakes for after the game.
So, I made my favorite chocolate cake recipe (posted previously with Scorpion cupcakes) and then my absolute favorite chocolate buttercream recipe:
2 cups unsalted butter
9 cups powdered sugar
2 1/2 cups cocoa
1teaspoon vanilla
1+ cup milk
Dash of salt
Mix and add milk by tablespoon until desired consistency is achieved.
So I frosted with the Wilton large star 1M again.
Then I made some chocolate marshmallow Fondant as follows...
In a microwave safe container, graze with vegetable shortening and add 1 package 10 oz large marshmallow and 2.5 Tablespoons of water. Microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring after each until marshmallows are completely melted. Add 1 teaspoon if almond extract and stir. Add 1 cup of cocoa powder and stir. I take a bag of powdered sugar and stir half of it in the mix. Then I grease counter with crisco, and pour the rest of the bag into a mound on the counter. In the center well of the mound, I pour he mixture from the bowl. Then I knead until I have incorporated most of the sugar. There will be about 1/2-3/4 cup on the counter that I discard. I then wrap the fondant twice to keep air from drying it out and work with a little at a time.
To make the footballs, I rolled into balls and then pulled he ends to shape. I made decorator frosting with:
1/3 cup vegetable shortening
1 1/3 cup powder sugar
1 Tablespoon plus 1teaspoon milk
1/2 teaspoon almond extract.
This I piped with the smallest round tip I had (sorry, can't read the number in it) to make the football stitches.
I colored some of the decorator frosting purple (as this is our school color) and piped a G on one side of the footballs and then '17 on the other as this is their class year.
I was happy with the finished product. Would be cute for Super Bowl!