Melissa's best pancake

So I seem to have fallen in love with pancakes for dinner again. They are so delicious and with my new love of turkey bacon I can't stop. Having had trouble in the past with finding the perfect pancake I decided to post this here. Trust me, after you try this you will be wanting them for both breakfast and dinner.

Here goes:

Melissa's buttermilk pancakes

1.25 c flour
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
.25 c sugar

1.25 c lowfat buttermilk
.25 c oil
1 egg
1 t vanilla

Optional- chocolate chips....yum!

Mix the dry ingredients together then add the wet. Of course you know not to overmix and the other joys of making pancakes so I won't bore you. Please try these them let me know what you think!

When it snows...

and snows...and snows...!

Here in Colorado we've had 70 degree days intermingled with 12 inches of snow. It has been crazy. So this post is just pictures of what we have been up to this crazy "Spring".

We blow bubbles.

We play Queens.

We sled.

We go on wagon rides.

We paint.

We read.

And on occasion we use mom's belt to dress up like a Samurai.

Charlotte's 4th Princess and the Frog birthday party

We just today wrapped up Charlotte's 4th birthday month of fun. Yes, a full month. It started with our trip to Disney World, got put on hold with my wicked sinus infection, and wrapped up this weekend with her friend party and her real day of birth celebration yesterday. Whew!

Anywho, she wanted a Princess and the Frog party and no matter how much I pushed her towards a really cool Alice party she refused. She would try to please me and agree to the Wonderland themed party but then I would see in her eyes she really longed for a Tiana (the new Disney princess) party. So since I was sick all month and not feeling the whole frog New Orleans party (I mean voodoo and beads for 4 year olds is not so appropriate) I loosely based our theme on the movie. We went with frogs, crowns, and daisies. Simple and still adorable.

So the party started with the invites from my great friend Ruby Dorcas. Aren't they great???

She also helped me find these cute paper dolls online, from Deviantart:

I wish I had time to put this out on party day, a "Pin the frog on the princess" game". I had this picture of Charlotte printed up and used my Silhouette Quickutz machine to cut out frogs. Same as the classic pin the tail on the donkey game but for a Princess and her Frog:)

Kelley from Kelley Kakes  made the cake. I just told her that we were having a frog princes party and that Charlotte wanted the inside purple. She did a fabulous job! To top it off the cake tasted even better than it looked, as if that were possible. Iy you are in the Denver area I highly recommend using her. So good! But I think the picture says it all... 

Here are some of the goodies I made: white chocolate covered strawberries, double stuffed oreos, and pretzels. 

 

The cookie recipe was Allrecipes "the best rolled sugar cookies" and I really think they were! I chilled the mixture for a couple of hours before rolling. I then cut then into flowers, inserted the sticks and baked for 8 minutes. This left me with a nice soft cookie. 

I then frosted them with this recipe that I whipped up:

1c powdered sugar

2t milk

2t honey

1/2t vanilla (you will want to use clear vanilla if you want white icing)

assorted food coloring

First I lined the cookies using leftover melted white chocolate I had on hand from the candies. Next time I will just line then in frosting, or not at all, but I did like how it kept the frosting in place. I then put the icing in a squeeze bottle and began frosting. Pop any bubbles you may have with a toothpick. 

Some more simple decorations:

Hope you enjoyed our "Princess and the Frog" party! I know Charlotte did!