Tag: party

Warding Off The Early Winter Blues.

Since moving back north, I find the short days and lack of sunshine disheartening at times. When I lived here before, I struggled with depression, occasionally. I had small children, plus, worked full time with other peoples’ children, so I chalked it up to exhaustion, and post partum depression, at the time. The entire 12 yrs. that I lived in the south I did not experience it, even during some brutally difficult times. Yesterday,I woke up, feeling not the greatest, went to the gym, to help quell the gloominess, and was truly surprised when it didn’t help. At all. I tried implementing every self care technique in my arsenal, throughout the day, down time, music, meditation, yoga, even smudging, but I just could not shake it completely. It lasted through the entire day, and was even hanging on a bit when I woke up this morning. The difference today is that it was much more manageable. It has been snowing here for a few days. Don’t get me wrong, I love the snow.

Here’s me, loving the snow.

Usually. Yesterday I loathed it, but today I made a conscious decision to find the fun in it. So…we cancelled today and had a sledding party. Because we school year round, and have a large family, we can do this, on short notice, pretty much whenever. I realize though, that not everyone can, so you may have to save yours for a weekend. We made Banana Nut Pancakes for breakfast, and made a list of all the things we love about winter while we ate. Then we went out sledding on the hill beside our house.

L.L. Bean Tobaggan. This thing really goes!

This tobaggan is from L.L. Bean. My parents bought it for the boys. My father loved teaching them how to wax the bottom to protect it, and of course, make it go faster. It can hold all four of us at once, and it flies, once you get a good path carved out.

After our fingers and toes were numb we came back inside and made hot chocolate.

We used a quick microwave recipe, that comes together in five minutes and cleans up very easily. Because, today was really about self care, I took every shortcut available to me and focused on spending my time relaxing, and having fun with the boys.

Recipe:

  • 3 1/2 cups of milk
  • 1 pkg. vanilla instant pudding
  • 3 heaping tbsps. of cocoa powder
  • pinch of cinnamon
  • 2 tbsps. maple syrup

Mix all ingredients in a microwavable bowl, and heat for 5 minutes, stopping to stir midway through. Ladle into mugs. Add marshmallows, peppermint, or other preferred toppings.

Next we made paper snowflakes, and tossed some easy sticky buns, made from crescent rolls, in the oven.

Not gonna lie, these improved my mood more than anything else;)

Here’s the Recipe:

  • 1/4 c. brown sugar
  • 1/4 maple syrup
  • 1 tsp. molasses
  • 4 tbsp. plant butter
  • 2 pkg. crescent rolls
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 walnuts, crushed

Preheat oven to 350* Unroll crescent rolls into a full rectangle, pinch seams closed. Mix half the butter with cinnamon, spread onto open rectangles, roll up from short end and cut each roll into six slices. Mix remaining butter with brown sugar syrup, molasses and cinnamon and walnuts. Spoon 2 tsps. into cups of muffin pans, and set one slice in each slot. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until done. Let cool, before eating, syrup comes out very hot!

Finally, we settled in to watch a winter themed movie. The kids chose Cool Runnings, which we have watched so, so, many times, but still laugh at. John Candy is always funny. We stuffed ourselves with popcorn and sticky buns, and had a great time.

This was how we spent our day warding off the early winter blues. How do you cope with the bleak, sunless days of winter? Let us know in the comments, and share your sledding pictures with us on insta @canigetaramen. Happy Winter! Thanks for reading.

Washed Out Halloween

It’s pouring down rain, today. It shows no signs of stopping in time for trick or treating, tonight, with a 90 percent chance of rain, in the forecast. Of course, the small one is disappointed. I hate it when kids are disappointed. I’m scouring my cupboards, looking for ways to salvage this drowned out Halloween, for the kiddos, with a last minute party. It’s the end of the week, and I really don’t want to go out in this downpour for supplies. I have the youngest one sitting down watching “The nightmare Before Christmas”, so I can scope out my kitchen for solutions.

It’s pouring down rain, today. It shows no signs of stopping in time for trick or treating, tonight, with a 90 percent chance of rain, in the forecast. Of course, the small one is disappointed. I hate it when kids are disappointed. I’m scouring my cupboards, looking for ways to salvage this drowned out Halloween, for the kiddos, with a last minute party. It’s the end of the week, and I really don’t want to go out in this downpour for supplies. I have the youngest one sitting down watching “The nightmare Before Christmas”, so I can scope out my kitchen for solutions. Next, I’m heading to Pinterest to find some easy decorations to diy for the indoors. This would be so much easier if I had already decorated my house for Halloween, but we don’t get trick or treaters out here, so I didn’t even bother. (Regrets.) Of course, we still buy the candy for the older boys, and us.

From what I can tell, without a trip to the store, I can make cupcakes, apple filled donuts, and maple almond popcorn . I have extra apples on hand for snacking, and everything I need to make mini pizzas. And maybe some fries. I can work with this. Next, we’ll have the boys choose some movies and music and we’re good to go. When I say “party”, I am not talking about an, impress the neighbors, invite everyone over, kind of party, but “Oh, crap, Halloween’s cancelled, now what?” kind of party.

First step, cake mix. Follow instructions on the box. Bake, then let cool.

Next, Pick your icing color, we went with purple. All I had on hand, in the red and blue families, was burgundy and teal. I mixed them together, and hoped for an acceptable purple.

I had a bit of fondant, lying around, from other cake decorating endeavors, so I used that, and a few fondant sculpting tools, to form these raven skulls, to top the cupcakes with. Here is the finished result:

Not perfect, but for a last minute cupcake, not bad?

Next, I’m going to make apple filled donuts. This, I’m getting the boys involved in, because they’ve skated out of most of the work; and I still have a lot to do before I’m done. I’m getting one to cube the apples, very small, and one to prep the canned biscuits, for the apple filled donuts. I will get the oil heating, and make apple filling myself. The small fry can mix up the cinnamon sugar to roll them in. We should have this done in just a few minutes.

Apple Filled donuts:

First, grab a can of biscuit dough, heat oil in small pan, for frying. Fry biscuits, a couple at a time, turning over often to make sure they don’t burn, but still get cook all the way through. To be honest, every time I make donuts from biscuit dough, I struggle to get the middle done before the outside gets too brown. The only time I don’t have this issue is over a campfire in a cast iron skillet. It might take some adjustments to get them just right. Remove from oil, and roll in cinnamon sugar.

Cube apples, very fine, then add to small pot, squeeze a bit of lemon juice over top, then add 1/4 cup of sugar, and a tbsp of cinnamon. Cook down until apples are soft, add a tsp. of cornstarch, continue cooking until sauce is thickened. Remove from heat, let cool. Fit a frosting bag with coupler, but no tip. Fill with apple filling and insert into side of donut. Fill each one, until filling is visible from side view.

The last treat we’re going to make today is maple almond popcorn. Then it’s just an easy dinner, of mini pizzas, fries, and we’re done. Time to party.

For the Maple Almond Popcorn:

First we’ll need about six cups of popped popcorn, made in the air popper. I use my lasagna pan to bake it in the oven, at 250 degrees. Then, Toss a stick of butter, 1 cup of sugar, and 1/2 cup of maple syrup into a saucepan. Cook until sauce thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon, then add a tsp of baking soda. Sauce will expand, so make sure to use a big enough saucepan. Remove from heat, and pour over popcorn in pan, top with sliced almonds. Bake at 250 for about 25 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool before digging in.

Then it’s just fries, and mini pizzas. The fries are just potatoes drizzled with olive oil, baked at 450 degrees, and topped with salt, and cracked black pepper. Now, in our house mini pizzas mean, a pizza bar. We pile everything on the counters and let people do what they like here, because there are so many varying tastes when it comes to pizza. I went with mushroom bacon and egg, on a whole wheat tortilla, topped with greens, tomato, and sweet and hot peppers. The boys are more inclined to your basic cheese and pepperoni, maybe a few mushrooms or peppers. I’m showing you mine here, because it’s more interesting;)

Whew! Now that all the work is done, it’s time to settle down with some Halloween movies, and spend some time with the kiddos. Here’s our short notice Halloween spread for the family to enjoy while we’re scaring ourselves silly, and waiting for the rain to stop.

So, let us know about yourselves. Did your Halloween get cancelled, too? What creative solutions did you find to salvage the holiday for your small ones? Let us know in the comments, or share your ideas on insta, don’t forget to #canigetaramen.