Our Color Vibe day in pictures.  If you haven't done one before and don't have asthma, I would highly recommend giving it a try.  It's not timed and you can walk, run or dance your way through the 5K.

Before the run...

After the run.

During the run.  Don't smile when you run through the color cloud or your teeth will turn blue!

Our team - The Rusty Runners

Her shoe fell off, so she just walked the rest of the way to the car with one shoe on and one off...

While planning my daughter's birthday party, I came across a Creeper Peep recipe and a free printable label at Say Not Sweet Anne.  I'd never attempted to make marshmallow before, much less a homemade peep, but it was so easy!  Here's what I did.



To make the Homemade Marshmallow Creepers, you will need a stand mixer and these ingredients: 

2 1/4 cups of granulated white sugar 
green food coloring 3 packets of unflavored gelatin
1 cup light corn syrup 1 cup cold water
1 tsp vanilla 

Start by making some green colored sugar.  You can purchase this at a store, but it is so easy and cheap to make, why not do it yourself?!  Put 3/4 cup of the sugar in the bowl of your mixer.  Add 20-30 drops of food coloring and mix until the color has spread through the sugar.  Be sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl for an even coating.  If the green is not quite the shade you are looking for, add a few more drops of coloring.  Once the color is even, spread the sugar out onto a cookie sheet to dry.  It looks a little like a lunar landscape if the moon were made out of green cheese...



I let the sugar dry for about an hour before I poured the sugar back into the mixer and used the whisk to break up the clumps that had formed.  A few seconds on low and I had completely granulated green sugar.  While the sugar is drying, I sprayed the bottom and sides of a 9x13 casserole dish with non-stick spray. Once I finished whisking the sugar, I wiped the mixer parts with some non-stick spray.

Next up is the marshmallow making.  Start by putting 1/2 of the cold water into the mixer bowl.  Add the packets of gelatin set it aside.



In a measuring cup, I mixed the remaining water, the corn syrup, and three drops of green food coloring.  I thought it was fascinating how the coloring dissipated in the mixture.



Pour the mixture into a medium size sauce pan and add the rest of the sugar.  Heat on medium high, stirring frequently, until the sugar dissolves. 


Heat the concoction until it reaches 240 degrees on a candy thermometer. This took me about 10-15 minutes.  In the original post, she said it took about 5.



Once it reaches 240 degrees, turn your mixer on low and slowly pour the boiling solution into the gelatin mixture in the mixing bowl.



Once you've got it all poured in, turn the speed of the mixer up to high.  Add the vanilla extract. Let it mix until it is thick and fluffy.  For me, the marshmallow fluffed so much that it began creeping it's way up the blades of the mixer after about 7 minutes.
 


Once it is fluffy, spread it into the greased casserole dish.  Smooth the top with a lightly greased rubber spatula until it is flat.  Coat the top with the green sugar.





Allow to set for about an hour and then carefully turn out and flip over the marshmallow onto freezer paper.  Cover the bottom and sides with the green sugar.     


Use a greased pizza cutter to cut the block in half length-wise.  Sugar the raw edge.  Then use the cutter to slice the halves into creeper size pieces.  Dust the raw edges with sugar.  



Use a greased knife to cut the four legs of the creeper.  Be sure to sugar each raw edge to prevent the marshmallow from sticking to everything!



Now you will need to paint the faces of the creeper.  In the original post, she suggested using a chocolate ganache (her recipe is in the link above).  My daughter has a dairy sensitivity so I whipped up a quick ganache using 2 tsp dairy-free chocolate chips and 2 tsp of homemade dairy-free heavy whipping cream.   Paint it on using a tooth pick and a lot of patience.


 Your creeper should turn out looking similar to this and will taste DELICIOUS!  My taste testers told me that these tasted "way better" than peeps that you can buy.  Mission accomplished!!

Universal Islands of Adventure, Hogsmeade.

Sunset on a warm, rainy day looking over the lake at Islands of Adventure.

Cold and snowy at home.  Flying into Chicago (you can see the city in the background).

Coldest winter in 30 years.  I don't think we need more snow!

Walking home from school.  Someone forgot to bring her snow boots!  That certainly makes walking through the unplowed sidewalk snow a little more interesting.

Close up of the snow in our yard.  The flakes are so large you can see some of the amazing details

Another snowy walk home.  She's knee deep in snow on the school lawn.

One nice thing about gigantic snow piles is that it make climbing up into the tree easier!

We're on vacation!!!  Guess where...

Waiting to board the plane.

Some of the detailed decor around the park.

Having a royal dessert.

Loving the 80s flashbacks!

That's my middle child talking with a sea turtle.

My husband maxed out his score.

It was cold, but my kids wanted to swim.

Did you figure out where we are?  If you guessed Disney World, you'd be correct!  We spent the week at Port Orleans Riverside Resort at Walt Disney World.  The second picture was taken at Animal Kingdom, just around the corner from Expedition Everest.  The third picture was dessert at Cinderella's Royal Banquet at the Magic Kingdom.  The fourth picture was taken in the fast pass queue at Toy Story Mania at Hollywood Studios.  The fifth picture is Turtle Talk with Crush in the Seas with Nemo and Friends attraction at Epcot.  The sixth picture is from Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin at Magic Kingdom.  The final photo is the Ol' Man Island Pool at Port Orleans Riverside.

We dog sat for our friend's dog, Rusty, for the long weekend.

Pluto shirt - see here for instructions on how to make your own.

Sunday School - Leaper's Pointe

Rusty love.

First Grade Art Awareness - Double Nine(ish) Paper Quilt

Done with this year's Girl Scout cookie sales.  Don't worry if you didn't order yet, we'll be doing booth sales soon.

Fun in the snow!  She lost her boot in a pile that was taller than she is.

Glee Karaoke time with daddy.

The job that never ends...

Daisy Meeting - learning about our last petal.

The Harry Potter tablet case I made out of felt.  It looks more like Dilbert than I anticipated, but the girls are thrilled with it.  I was inspired by this post by Practically Functional.  I decided to stitch my felt rather than use glue because it needed to hold up being carried back and forth in my daughter's backpack.

The beginnings of the Scrabble rag quilt I am making for my grandmother's 91st birthday in April.

Busy day at the bird feeder!

I spent the majority of the day hanging out with my friend in the surgical waiting room while her husband had spinal surgery.

 

This just seemed like an interesting juxtaposition.  Leaves and snow...