Making the Most of a Long Winter

This winter seemed to go on and on and on.  Just when I would get my hopes up that the weather was getting warmer, another snow storm would hit.  We even got 2 or 3 snow days, which is usually unheard of in my district.  But I think that every year that I have lived here, I have gotten better and better about not letting the cold get me down.  I've learned how to bundle up properly and brave the winter weather so that I don't want to just sit in my cozy, warm house all the time.  So what did I do to make the winter more fun this year?

First, the best way to enjoy the snow is snowshoeing.  I tried out Meuller State Park to do something new.

Good snow coverage; apparently there is a road there

My favorite kind of snow: beautiful but still sunny

It's always worth the climb to the top to get views like this!

A cool finding, but can you imagine that someone actually
lived in that at some point?  I can't imagine in the winter for sure!

The old water pail is still hanging

and the springs from a mattress

I just thought it was a cool tree all twisted

Never ceases to amaze me

Snowshoeing has definitely far surpassed snow skiing on my list of fun winter activities!

We followed this up with a trip to Cripple Creek to see the Ice Festival. There were some pretty impressive ice carvings by some very talented sculptors.

The Batmobile

The Genie from Aladin

Inside the Flintstone House

There's Barney!

Probably my favorite piece of the whole festival

To make winter fun, it's also important to continue random and not so random celebrations.

Birthday parties at work
(this was actually made by one of my co-workers
and his wife.  They are quite talented bakers!)

Strawberry marshmallows - my first try at fresh fruit

A creative Valentine

Homemade fortune cookies!

More fun when you can put your own messages inside

Cookie decorating with sugar-crazy kids

They love that icing!

Nothing warms you up an a cold day like...

a huge pot of chili!

Enough for the whole admin building!

With two co-workers from New Orleans,
we definitely celebrate Mardi Gras with a
King Cake.  Who got the baby?

Random holiday gifts to let my School Assessment Coordinators
know how much we appreciate their hard work.

White Chocolate Cheesecake Day!

Sharing a new cereal to celebrate.
I would highly recommend this as a dessert cereal!

Peanut Butter & Jelly Marshmallows for PB&J Day
My first double layer marshmallows

I gladly welcomed guests to my home.  Nothing will cheer you up like time with good friends.

There are still days when it snows so much that you have no choice but to stay inside where it's nice and cozy and warm.  

 Those are the days that it's good to have a craft project.  This one was inspired by an idea my mom had seen.

I've always wanted to play with chalkboard paint

I picked a fun color and my mom suggested
the antiquing paint to give it a little more character

In progress

A little added touch

Voila!  A cute little chalkboard made from an old cabinet door.

Even when it snows some more...

I decided to not let it stop me from enjoying one of my favorite treats...

froyo!
It's still delicious even when it's below 0 outside

It continued to snow all the way into May.  I was definitely ready to see the end of that and feel the warmth of the summer sun.  But overall, I felt like I handled the extended winter pretty well this year.  It helps when you get better coats and better shoes and learn how to layer properly.  It makes winter more than purely survival when you choose to still have fun and embrace whatever comes!

Pancake Day 2014

One of my favorite annual random holiday events is Pancake Day!  Every year I look forward to planning what new and creative pancakes I can make and then sharing them with friends.  After looking through tons of recipes and reading all sorts of blogs, I have to make myself narrow it down to a final list.  This year I ended up with:

This is just the dinner list

For anyone who knows about my Pancake Day celebrations, you know that this is not just a dinner event.  It is an all day celebration with pancakes for every meal of the day.  While searching through all of the creative recipes out there, I came across an interesting 2-ingredient pancake.  It intrigued me enough and was easy enough that I decided to try it for my breakfast pancakes.

Just a banana and 2 eggs

Mash the banana and mix well with the egg

Throw it in a hot pan and you get a pancake!

I would say it could win an award for easiness, but not so much on flavor. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't something to rave about.  On to better pancakes!

I wanted people at work to enjoy the pancake fun too, so I asked a co-worker to bring in his electric skillet.  I brought in some regular pancake batter and all kinds of fun toppings to set up a make-your-own pancake bar.

Bananas, strawberries, chocolate chips, sprinkles, and more!

My favorite part of this was getting e-mails from co-workers telling me what they tried.  They made all sorts of fun combinations.

For lunch, I went with pretty much the same thing as last year because they were so good.  It seems fitting to have a pancake sandwich for lunch.

Spinach pancakes with hummus, tomatoes, red pepper
and cucumbers to make..

a hummus pancake sandwich

My adventurous co-workers who were willing to give
it a try and enjoy pancake sandwiches with me!

I made sure to leave work on time that day to allow plenty of time to make the plethora of dinner pancakes.  I am not fast in the kitchen, so I knew I would really have to work hard at somehow getting all of the different pancakes on my list made before people showed up at my house.  I had three pans going at a time and more baking in the oven.  It's a good thing pancake day falls in the winter because I definitely heat the place up with that much cooking going on.

The savory selection

The sweets

The whole list is there!

Fun toppings to make it even more interesting
Avocado Sauce for the Spicy Black Bean pancakes
Tomato sauce for the Pizza pancakes
Syrup, caramel, chocolate, yogurt, sprinkles,
and cherries for all the rest!

Apparently a lot of my friends still like the more traditional sweet ones the best.  They were definitely the first to go.  My personal favorite of the year was the Spicy Black Bean pancake.  I could eat those all the time, especially with the avocado sauce on top.  Yumm!

Because I made so many, pancake day turned into pancake week for me. I think my coworkers laughed at me every day when I pulled out another round of pancakes for lunch.  But you know me, nothing goes to waste!  I finished off every one of those pancakes.  And now I will probably have little desire to eat another pancakes until Pancake Day 2015. :)

The 5th Annual Pancake Day was another great success full of lots of fun and lots of pancakes!