Snow days and Birthday parties

It is another snowy day here in the Sooner State and I am loving every second of it. Leisurely breakfasts, mugs of hot green tea, hanging out in my jammies all day, time to peruse the internet in search of the perfect summer vacation spot, all with a lovely white backdrop when I look out the window.

However, they have announced already that school is on for tomorrow! Seriously?! I know that we have already missed a record setting number of days, but really? The streets are covered in snow and there is no way my non-4 wheel drive car is even making it out of our garage. Lets hope that Mark makes it back from his morning classes early enough to make good on his offer to chauffeur me to my 3:00 class. What a gentleman! I suppose I should focus on the very few things I do not like about snow days in order to accept the inevitable of being forced out of my happy little snowed in home.
 1) I am so sick of running on the treadmill, seriously most boring thing ever. I could only make it through 30 minutes of the hour I was supposed to do yesterday and I'm avoiding today's hour and 10 minutes run like the plague. I will be happy when the snow melts so that I can run outside again!
2) The kitchen keeps calling to me. "Alllllisonnnnn why don't you come into the kitchen?....You are relaxing on the couch and should eat some more snacks!! We have all kinds of good things for you to munch on while sitting around all day!" So yes, snow days are an enabler for me to bake and eat too much. This is actually not such a bad thing since it seems like I could eat enough for an army with this half marathon training business, but I do feel bad for poor Mark who may have to eat dinner alone because I've ruined my appetite.
3) The puppy is stir crazy because he can't go on walks and despite my efforts he simply will not walk on the treadmill. This makes for a very riled up little dog.

After sitting here pondering what number 4 could be, I give up. There is just too much good about a snow day and too little bad to make me want to re-enter reality.

Last weekend, it was nice in the short reprieve of the snow to get to celebrate my friend Carissa's birthday!

Here we all are playing dress up from my apron collection so that we can whip up a batch of cupcakes in honor of the birthday girl! I decided that since it was Carissa that gave me the Babycakes cookbook that we needed to make something out of there so she could give it a try. I had everything for carrot cake cupcakes, so after checking in with the birthday girl to confirm that she in fact loved carrot cake, we set out to bake. As our dinner reservations were fast approaching we had to leave it to mark who was home studying to get them out of the oven. This would have been fine besides the fact that the recipe made 24 cupcakes and I decided to make 12 big cupcakes and use the rest of the batter for mini cupcakes.....without warning Mark that the mini-cupcakes would have come come out before the big ones. Alas, we we arrived back at the house to frost the mini cupcakes had been burned to a crisp :(
It was too bad but totally my fault to not think to tell him about the faster baking time! Thankfully the big ones turned out just fine. We all though they were the perfect amount of not too sweet.

Carrie Beth helped me to pick a pretty background for the cupcake's close up. The china doesn't get much daily love so I'm sure it was glad to help out! In the interest of saving time instead of making the frosting from the cookbook I bought a jar of the Cherrybrook Kitchen vanilla frosting. It was pretty runny to spread on the cupcake and didn't have the traditional fluffy frosting look but it tasted really yummy. I though it suited the cupcakes nicely because like them it was gluten and dairy free. I think I would have preferred a cream cheese frosting, which is the only kind of frosting I normally like. Overall this cupcake/frosting combo was very good. Not my most favorite Babycakes recipe to date, but still quite delish and I have high hopes for the red velvet cupcakes. Red velvet cake is something that Mark loves and I'm planning on making the cupcakes for Valentine's Day. I even found the all natural red food coloring at the health food store so I'm all set!

 I wonder if this winter really is a freak year or if it will start becoming normal for us to get this much snow so far south? I read that because of global warming the cold jet stream that is normally over Canada has been pushed down lower and lower into the U.S. leaving them without enough snow on their ski resorts and us with way more than we are used to! Funny how people are so quick to say Ha! Look how cold it is, there is no such thing as global warming! When really it is probably causing the crazy cold weather. As much as I love the snow, it is a little disconcerting. We really need to keep doing all we can to keep our Earth healthy! I hope that everyone who has to venture back out into the world tomorrow stays safe!