Snow Day Fun

We just came to the end of the great ice storm of 2011. I love to have a snow day, it's a great excuse to sleep in and stay home and just take it easy. I do have to get over the idea we are going to actually get much of what I planned done and just enjoy the time spent doing things we don't always have time to do.

We started out making bunches of banana pancakes with yummy buttermilk syrup. I know buttermilk syrup may sound strange, but try it, it really is very yummy. The pancake recipe originally started out from Martha Stewart, but nothing I cook actually stays the same as the original recipe. Here is my version:

Banana-Buttermilk Pancakes
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups buttermilk
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 large ripe bananas, mashed

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Whisk in buttermilk, egg, butter, and banana until batter is well combined. Cook on non-stick griddle at 350 or in a large non-stick skillet lightly coated with oil. Serve with Buttermilk Syrup.

Buttermilk Syrup
1 cup sugar
1 cup buttermilk
5 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Bring sugar, buttermilk, and butter to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil for 1 minute. Whisk in baking soda, vanilla, and cinnamon.

You can use the buttermilk substitute trick, 1 cup milk with 1 T lemon juice or vinegar and let sit for a couple of minutes, but the pancakes are really so tender made with the buttermilk.

I tripled the recipe and I still ended up with only a couple of pancakes by the end of the day. They munched on them all day.

We spent a lot of time out in our yard playing in the snow/ice. We had several inches of snow on the ground before the storms and the rain snow mix mad the top layer of snow hard. Which made for a lot of fun.

The first picture Mia is standing on the crisp layer of snow/ice, the second picture she fell through.

The kids figures out they could peel the ice off the leaves, for some cool ice impressions of the leaves.

Kirsten made a face sculpture in the ice layer.

It was nice to just enjoy the past several days sleeping in and just enjoying the time spent together. Back to the usual tomorrow.

Merry Christmas and a little Christmas music

I hope you have wonderful Christmas and you find a time to sit down and relax during this busy season. Here's Karin and her violin teacher giving me a mini Christmas concert.

Kirsten

Kirsten never ceases to amaze me. I love the funny things she writes. I was digging through my piles, organizing and filing. I found this and I am going to put in Kirsten's school paper box. I wanted to document it before it gets buried in a box.

My Dad
My dad is the best,
Even if I'm a pest.

I would be very sad,
If my dad would go away in a cab.

This might be the end of my poem,
but it isn't the end of my love for my dad.

April Fools

I started a tradition of making an April Fools dinner the past couple of years. Family Fun magazine is a great source for some creative ideas. This year it was Chicken NOT Pie and Jello drink, all of which were a good visual fake. The Chicken NOT Pie is vanilla pudding with carrots, peas and corn made out of softened starbursts, and banana chunks as chicken. I made Jello and put it in glasses for the drink (Kirsten quickly figured out it there was something up with the drink since we always have just water). The kids thought they were really getting Chicken Pot Pie (I did make Chicken Pot Pie as well as the Chicken Not Pie, since everything else in the meal was not very healthy). I wasn't as creative with the rest of the day unlike in the past, but the kids have come to expect at least an April Fool's Dinner, so it takes some creativity to fake them out.

A view of my day

This a typical of view I see most of the day.



I have thought about for some time that I really need to document my days running around with 4 kids in 4 different schools. I am sure there will be a time when I will appreciate all the chaos and running around my life involves now, but at this time I feel like I never get anything done. So this is what today was like:

6:53 am alarm goes off, hit snooze
7:00 am make sure Karin is up, and hit the snooze button at least 2 more times, I am really struggling with getting up
7:20 am finally get up, make sure Karin is ready and has emptied the dishwasher, say a prayer with the kids that are awake.
7:30 am Karin goes out for the bus
7:40 am get in the shower. I am really supposed to do this before Karin gets on the bus. I was really good about this at the beginning of the year, but I have been slacking off. Get dressed. Get Ava dressed after tears, have Mia change her clothes because she put on her own concoction. Put on makeup. Kirsten is very independent and is dressed, eaten and most likely practiced the piano, while helping her sisters get ready for the morning (sometimes this is helpful sometimes it aggravates things). Do Kirsten, Mia and Ava's hair. Load up with backpacks, coats and Ava's field trip permission slip and money. We remembered her show-n-tell that we forgot yesterday.
8:20 am take Ava to Holy Cross for Kindergarten, quiz Kirsten on her spelling words while driving. I really need to leave closer to 8:15 to avoid being a couple minutes late.
8:40 am arrive home and fold some laundry, get Kirsten on the bus, finish blow drying my hair, start some laundry. Give Mia her medicine (she showed up with Scarletina Saturday night, no other indications, just the rash) Mia and I have a little while before we need to get to Library Storytime. So I checked mail and google reader for the blogs I follow. Then we put together gift bags for her preschool birthday celebration tomorrow from the collection of toys that I buy on clearance. We wrapped a birthday present for Spencer, Mia's best buddy whose birthday is tomorrow. Collected library books and sorted the things from North Canton, from the items from Stark County Library.
10:15 am leave for Storytime with all the North Canton Library books (I have occasionally turned books into the wrong library.)
11:15 am leave the library and pick up Ava and go home, eat lunch and more laundry, change in to workout clothes for walk to Y.
12:15 pm Leave for 2 mile (I think) walk to the Y (got to get some exercise in somewhere, and the weather is actually nice today), arrive at Y and change Mia into swimsuit.
1:00 pm sit in bleachers by pool waiting for Mia's swimming lesson, we are actually 5 minutes early, get Mia in lessons and go upstairs to watch, help Ava with homework, play Mastermind and play in block room.
1:50 pm get Mia from lessons change back into clothes and get Ava & Mia in jogger and walk home.
2:35 pm arrive home, change back into regular clothes, get kids snack, gather up books for other library and get into the van to go pick up Karin, pick up Karin return home, Karin changes into black clothes for Strings Dance Troupe, put her hair in bun and take her to Oakwood (the other Jr. High) for practice.
3:25 pm go to Stark County Library to return books and pick up book Kris has on hold, return home and start thawing meat for dinner. I am currently obsessed with Italian Wedding Soup and I wanted to make some. I am not sure the younger kids will eat it because there is spinach or escarole in it.
4:15 pm Kirsten gets home with a reminder that there a fundraiser at Chick-Fil-A for school, at least I am saved from making dinner and I can keep typing this post.
4:50 pm gather everyone up to go pick up Karin, pick up Karin and head to Chick-Fil-A for dinner, Kirsten gets to see her gym teacher that left to teach at another school and we made her day (she came home sobbing the day they announced he would be leaving to teach at Oakwood, apparently all the kids were sobbing on the bus ride home). Mr. Herbruck is pretty creative and the kids were always playing some fun games. Kris met us there and then had to leave for an audit at church.
6:00 pm eat, return something at JoAnns and go home, make some calls about Enrichment and Mid-Week activities.
6:50 pm take Karin & Kirsten to church for activities and talk to a couple people and return home.
7:45 pm start making brownies for Mia's preschool birthday celebration and Karin's Orchestra concert, start kids getting ready for bed.
8:45 pm prayers, brush teeth and get kids in bed, put marshmallows on brownies (we are making some good rich brownies)
10:15 pm make tags for Mia's treat bags, finish brownies and finish this post, I will probably go to bed in an hour or so...

Not all days are this hairy and Karin' s orchestra concert is tomorrow so I will eliminate the need to take her between her school and the other Jr High 3 times a week. I am really looking forward to Spring Break, but even that is not all bliss because Ava's Spring Break is different from the other kids. I am looking forward to some time to sit down and read and less running around. I am sure I will miss these days when my kids have left home.