Snow Day

I'm not sure if we're going to be hit by this big snowstorm heading in this general direction. We might be just far enough north that we don't get much snow from it. We got a couple of inches last night, but the weather forecast looks like we'll have mostly flurries for the next few days. Nevertheless, it's very cold and we have plenty of snow.

So, I declared today to be a snow day at our house. We won't be going anywhere and are all settled in to stay nice and warm and have lots of fun. Right now it's nap time for both girls, which is always fun. This morning we had plenty of good times too. What better way to spend a cozy winter day inside than by baking with my favorite almost-two-year-old?

We had some very ripe bananas, or as Miss calls then, "beenahs" that were past the point of eating by themselves. Naturally, they needed to be transformed into Beenah Bread! Miss did a great job mashing the bananas

and maybe eating a little bit too, while Lass supervised.

She helped me measure in the rest of the ingredients and take the batter-filled loaf pan to the oven. I forgot to grease the pan, so the finished product didn't come out of the pan very nicely. In fact, the bottom of the loaf stayed firmly stuck in the pan while the top half flopped out. I am seriously not cut out for this baking thing! I managed to get the bottom portion out in one piece and stick it onto the top piece so it at least looks like a nice loaf. From a distance. Until you cut it. It tastes good!

Then we moved on to some Valentine's Day decorating. I've not really been much of a Valentine's Day celebrater (is that a word?) in the past decade or so. I typically think of the holiday as not much more than a way for greeting card, jewelry, candy, and flower companies to make money. Though I usually get my hubby a card and sometimes we go out to dinner or I cook a special dinner at home, we don't do much else for the day. But now that Miss is at such a fun age, I can't let this cheesy holiday go by without plenty of fitting activities.

Today, Valentine's window stickies. Miss loved these by the way. The last thing she asked for when I was putting her down for her nap was, "Play more hearts??" She kept peeling them off and sticking them back on, and has assigned a particular heart to each member of our family (the swirly one in the photo below is Daddy's).

I don't know what our next Valentine's project will be. I did buy more cookie dough, so we'll be baking and decorating Valentine's Day cookies in the near future. And probably doing some other crafts. Maybe we'll make some cards to send. Who knows? It definitely brings more meaning to this holiday though when I can make it into a fun time for my girl. I feel great about celebrating an overly-commercialized holiday when we do it with homemade gifts and treats and make it into just another reason to give extra love and hugs around our home.

If you are getting hit by the coming blizzard, I hope you'll stay safe and warm!