When Life Hands You Pancakes....

It was National Pancake Day a couple weeks ago...or so I thought.  The February issue of a local magazine published that IHOP was offering free pancakes on February 5.  We took advantage of this offer last year and had a great little afternoon as a family eating out for free, so I told the kids we'd do it again.  Got them good and excited for the indulgence and the fun afternoon. I even invited a friend of mine and her daughter to join us.  She lives farther away, though, so she wanted to confirm this offer before she made the drive out.  She couldn't find any evidence of this offer online.  That made me nervous.  I'd taken the magazine's word for it.  After all, we'd done it last year based on this same magazine's claim and it had been true.  To be sure, I called IHOP and was informed that the magazine was wrong.  They plan to have a free pancake dinner again, but not until March.  So I'd promised my kids, gotten them excited, and now it wasn't happening.  So, I did the only thing I could do, and we created IHOP at home.

I am usually such a healthly eater than plain white flour pancakes are unheard of at our house, but that's what IHOP serves, so that's what we had.  Then I went a step further and let them create faces on their pancakes, just like at IHOP.  It turned out to be a  really fun afternoon with the delicious pancakes and bananas, yougurt, applesauce, shredded coconut, grape jelly, and whipped cream decorated on top.  I think we had much more fun than if we'd gone out.  So, we managed to turn our disappointment around and have a good afternoon.  Doesn't mean we don't plan on going to IHOP on March 4th. :)  You'll still see us there.