When life hands you snow… make snow cones

Alright, I consider myself a Northern girl through and through. I love the snow and the cold, shoveling, skiing, snowmen, the whole bit. But this has been the worst winter ever with feet upon feet of snow, no melting, and unbearable bitter cold.

The cheerful snowman we built a few weeks ago has been buried alive

We’ve received so many National Weather Service announcements that today’s warning of wind chills in the -30’s and risk of frostbite in minutes just feels like a routine weather report.

My city has literally given up on attracting tourists – our website now redirects them to Key West instead

With a 1-year-old at home and no feasible way to go outside, the whole family has developed a pretty serious case of cabin fever. So this week, I decided it’s time to make something good out of all of this mess. A couple of days ago, I brought in a big tray of snow (like everyone else, I have obscenely large piles of pristine snow covering my yard and patio). Evee and I played in it, measuring and scooping and tossing our snow creations around the kitchen floor. We made mini snowmen using a gingerbread cookie cutter. But Evee’s favorite activity? Eating it. I bet no one saw that coming 😉

So this gave me an idea. Eating snow on its own is plenty of fun, but let’s face it, the real novelty wore off a few months ago. But how about making snow cones? Those are probably my favorite carnival treat, and snow cones have such a tropical, summery feel that they’re sure to chase away some of our winter blues. So I asked the internet whether it’s ok to eat snow and was assured that it was safe, as long as you use common sense and steer away from obviously polluted patches.

Next I wondered where I could get snow cone syrup, and I found out that you can buy it in gallon jugs for just a few bucks from Amazon, etc. But that’s not my style. So I went to the grocery store, bought a few classic packets of Kool-Aid, and we made snow cones!

If only we had those little umbrellas…

I just made a simple syrup on the stovetop (1 cup sugar, 1 cup water, bring to a boil) and added a packet of Kool-Aid. I didn’t do any googling, but I would bet that there are more sophisticated recipes out there. I happened to have a squirt bottle lying around the house which worked perfectly for syrup application. I grabbed a bucketful of pristine snow, filled everyone’s glasses and squirted some syrup on top. It was that simple. The results were quite tasty and everyone had a lot of fun.

Snow cones in the dead of winter help revive that long-lost summer feeling

Bring it on, winter!

Keepin’ it real on Valentine’s Day

At 16 weeks pregnant and caring for a toddler, I’m not really full of energy these days. But that doesn’t mean we can’t get Evee excited about Valentine’s Day! So here are some Do’s and Don’ts about keeping it real on Valentine’s Day without making yourself crazy:

• DON’T be afraid to buy those store-bought valentines! Kids love seeing their favorite characters, so if you don’t have the mojo to hand craft valentines (I sure didn’t) they are hardly going to be disappointed.
• DO be realistic about any creating / crafting you want to do for the holiday, and if you need supplies, buy them the week before. We literally just stuck My Little Pony valentines to a plastic baggy with a heart-shaped rice krispy treat inside. Rice krispy treats take, what, 5 minutes to make? Add another 5-10 minutes if you want to futz around with a heart-shaped cookie cutter (or just cut them into squares because the kids are going to be so busy wolfing them down they will have no idea that the treats have a special shape). BTW, toddlers are excellent at rice krispy treat preparation – or at least at devouring marshmallows, licking the stirring spoon and commenting loudly on every part of the process.

Rice Krispy Treats are a no-fuss way to turn valentines into a toddler win!

• DON’T wait until 8:30pm the night before (i.e. 30 minutes before bedtime) before remembering you’ve got to make valentines for the next day. Or actually, since your valentines are going to be so low-key, it’s actually ok to do this 😉
• DO get your child super excited about whatever you’re doing and let them participate in the activities / valentine construction. They will be WAY more excited to give out valentines that they had a hand in creating!
• DON’T post pictures of 30 gorgeous, homemade valentines that there is no way your preschooler could have possibly helped make on Facebook, bragging about how it took you 4 nights of work while battling a stomach flu. It’s ok to be proud of your accomplishments but you don’t want to cross enemy lines into the pinterest-mommy-battle-arena.

Now this is the face of a girl who is excited to bring her valentines to daycare!

Other than that, we prepped for the holiday by making some gorgeous dried pasta necklaces a few nights before. Evee clumsily used a paintbrush to smear acrylic on dried noodles. She also got acrylic all over herself, but since we only let naked toddlers use paint, clean-up took about 2 minutes. We went out to dinner with some friends, and by the time we got back, the paint was dry and the noodles were ready to string into necklaces! Then we all got to strut around like gorgeous rockstars in our new jewelry all night. Even Princess Daddy sported a pasta necklace. This was an easy, quick hit.

This yarn might as well be holding the goddamned hope diamond, for as proud as Evee was to wear it.

Last but not least, we have an awesome Valentine’s Day date night planned with the whole foursome at Americana Vineyards. You can’t beat that!!!