snow daysssss

Wonderful domestic bliss brought to you courtesy of  snow days, a whole bunch of snow days.   We discovered that the car thermometer does not go below 0, because it was actually -23 this morning.  I know it's colder in other parts of the country, but geesh.

There was sort of a theme running in the kitchen.  Carbs.  

With school this year, and me working full time, it's been awhile since I got my bake on.  

This cinnamon raisin bread was made using our fall back bread recipe- milk bread recipe.

I had been waiting for a good time to make this nutella braid bread after seeing it on Pinterst.  (Here are some pictures, although I just sort of figured it out).  I used the same milk bread recipe (as above) except we were low on  milk and snowed in and used mostly water.  It all worked out.  My braid was too long and ended up being a ring.  It was very average when warm, but was pretty good cooled the next day.
 

And cookies.  Add this to me not visiting the gym much and it's pretty much not a good combination.  Unless you like cookies as much as I do.

Poor Lou, we realized that his little apron was becoming just that, a little apron. 

So, there was some sewing too.  

One day we unpacked my old cabbage patch kids for the kids to play with.  Actually Mandy was mine and Andy was my brothers.  I'm sure he doesn't know I have him.  That's back when they had normal names.

I needed to replace all the old elastic in the pants.  I sent this picture to my mom to see if she remembered them.  She made me and my brother a bunch of clothes for our dolls back in the mid 80s.  They all needed a good wash, but most of them survived all those years in storage.

We've played about every game in the game closet.  Luke ended up with more kids than would fit in his car in Life. He says he does want a large family.

We got Suspend before Christmas.  It's Melissa and Doug, but not their traditional type of toy.  My brother, the physics teacher, introduced it to us at Thanksgiving.  Super fun. I've taken it in to school a few days and the kids really like it too.
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We pressed thimbles onto the frosted glass door.  I don't know how this one door frosts up so much and not the others.  We read about this when we read The Little House books but had not tried it yet.  I thought we'd have to warm the thimbles, but you don't at all.  The little circles added another layer of pretty to the already pretty pattern of frost.

 
The kids and I worked on every 'winter' craft we could think of.  Painting with Epsom salt is one of my favorite winter crafts.  I feel like I've written about it before, but I can't find it.  That little search button on my page doesn't seem to be working.

I've done with project with about every grade and group of kids I've worked with since college.  You just use a white crayon on black construction paper and draw whatever winter scene you want.  The salt will give the illusion of a frosted window, so I usually draw a window and whatever winter scene inside of it.  Mix a handful of Epsom salt -like from the pharmacy for cheap- in some warm water and stir.  I don't have a measurement or a formula.  In fact, I've done lots of experimenting with how much salt and water and temperature of water, etc and it doesn't seem to matter.  If I guessed, I would say we add 3 T of salt to 3/4 c water.  Then, you liberally paint it inside the window.  Liberally, don't over brush, don't be afraid to get that paper wet either.  Lay is flat to dry and walk away.  This takes awhile to dry and let the crystals form.  Do this in the morning and by the afternoon, they'll be done.  At some point, you'll think you've done something wrong and you'll be getting no crystals, I do each and every time.  They're coming.  Be patient.

We made 6 pointed snowflakes again, but my origami paper was at school so we used coffee filters.  We  used  the same directions for getting the 6 points from square papers.  Here are our directions from 2011.  Geesh.  I almost wrote 'last year.'

 This was our first time making prints with ink.  I remembered doing it in high school and my sister sent me with some supplies last Christmas she'd saved from a college class. 

 
The kids carved some drawing in clean Styrofoam.  I think I must have bought some fruit or something on these foams.  It's the same kind that meat comes on from the grocery, but I never want to use those.  So something clean came on these. We used golf tees to do the carving. 

The ink gets rolled on and then you just press the paper on top and lift it off.  Lou's print is the snowman and Bees is the snowflake with dots.  We talked about getting a blue ink the next time we stop by the art shop.

These pictures were left on the camera from the last snow days which were before Christmas.  We actually haven't had enough snow for sledding this time.  A little bit north of us has 2 feet, we have an inch.  Our 'snow days' this time have been for temperature mostly.  Lou and I went sledding with one of his friends.  Bee whined and wanted to stay home, she missed out.  It was the most fun I've ever had sledding!  Next big snow, I'm taking her kick and screaming. 

I also had time that round to do a bit of sewing.  Here's an apron I made my mom for Christmas.  Its uber long!  I must have turned the bottom skirt piece the wrong way.  She'll have to shorten it herself if she doesn't want it so long.  We were snowed in and I had to use fabric on hand.  It's pieced with more fabrics than I like to work with at once but turned out alright.

I've loved these snow days but seriously, if we don't get back to school soon, I'm pretty much going to loose my mind... and patience... and sanity.