Since we celebrate Thanksgiving with my side of the family, my Mother-in-law likes to have a pre-Thanksgiving celebration at her house. It’s great because it lengthens the holiday and we get to celebrate the holiday with everyone! This year she asked me to bring a dessert so I decided to bring pumpkin bars! They are easy to make and absolutely delicious. They are the perfect fall treat and would be a great addition to any celebration you might have. Or great for relaxing at home and watching movies (which is what my husband begged me to do instead of bringing these for everyone to enjoy haha!)

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• 2 C sugar
• 1 C salad oil
• 1 large can of pumpkin
• 2 C flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg

Directions:

Mix eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin in a large bowl until combined.

Sift or mix flour, baking soda, ginger, baking powder, salt, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Combine wet and dry ingredients. Mix well.

Pour into a greased 12×18 inch pan and bake at 350º for 25-35 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool.

Frosting:

• 6 oz package cream cheese (room temp)
• 3/4 stick softened butter
• 1 tbsp milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 4 C powdered sugar

Beat cream cheese, butter, vanilla and milk together until soft. Slowly add powdered sugar until correct consistency to spread.

Spread the frosting and cut into bar shapes.

Enjoy! These will definitely be a fall staple in our house from now on. If you make these I’d love to hear how you liked them!

XOXO- Kelly

One of the best things about living in New Jersey is being so close to New York City. We get to experience all of the amazing things the city has to offer, while being able to live in the quieter suburbs. My favorite thing to do in the city is most definitely getting to see some pretty amazing shows. Ever since I was a little girl and my Grandma took me to Radio City to see the Christmas Spectacular, I was hooked. So when my Mom told me she wanted to take my sister, Ashley and I to see Aladdin I was beside myself with excitement. To add to the thrill of it this was going to be Ashley’s first Broadway show ever! We impatiently counted the days and this past Sunday was finally the day! We had such an unforgettable time with each other and the show was even more fantastic than I imagined (if that’s even possible!)

We had tickets to the one o’clock show so we decided to grab an appetizer at The Heartland Brewery while we were waiting to head to the theater. Ashley had her very first Shirley Temple which she loved and we decided to order the warm giant pretzel with honey mustard. It was so delicious and literally the biggest pretzel I had ever seen!

After we finished our drinks and pretzel we headed over to the New Amsterdam theater!

Walking to the theater! During the walk Ashley couldn’t stop saying “Wow, I just love New York City!” She was enamored with the sights, sounds, and buzz of the city. I don’t blame her 🙂

When we walked into the theater and the usher brought us to our seats I couldn’t believe my eyes. We were four rows away from the stage. FOUR. It was the closest to the stage I’ve ever sat.

We settled into our seats and got ready for the show to begin!

Finally the lights went dim and the curtain went up! You’re not allowed to use your phone but I was able to snap these photos of Ashley when she saw the performers come out and the show begin. Her face says it all. I think this will be the first of many shows Ashley attends.

The show was beyond incredible. The singing and dancing was impeccable and the scenery was incredibly elaborate. I was pulled into the story from the moment the first note played from the orchestra. In the end, I couldn’t help but cry. Like I said, you’re not allowed to take pictures but here are some from the Aladdin the Musical website.

I can’t say enough great things about this show. If you are in New York I HIGHLY recommend you check out this show. I promise, you will not regret it!

After the show, my Mom was so nice and bought my sister and I a magic lamp ornament! I started this tradition to buy an ornament for the Christmas tree whenever I go on vacation, or to a really fun place that I want to remember. My idea is that our Christmas tree will be a tree of memories. So each year when we are decorating and unwrapping each ornament, we get to relive that memory all over again. It’s really fun and this magic lamp is the perfect addition to my collection!

The entire day was fabulous. My Mom, sister and I are so close and I really treasure the relationship we share. Understandably we are all very busy so it’s not often we get to spend an entire day together. Being able to do something so special together and to be able to include Ashley was amazing. We laughed so much and really enjoyed each other’s company. I’ll fondly remember this day for the rest of my life.

XOXO-Kelly

My sweet girl turned five this past August. How did that happen? I honestly cannot believe how incredibly fast these past 5 years have flown by.This birthday of Ashley’s was especially emotional for me. This was the first full year that Ash wasn’t an only child and she really amazes me with how great of a big sister she is. She is so gentle and loving with her brothers and is always willing to help me out. I thank God for her every single day and I feel like the luckiest woman in the world that He chose me to be her mommy.

When we went to Disney World in April and we had a really fun experience with Cinderella. Adam and Collin were eight months old when we went and understandably there wasn’t a whole lot they were able to participate in. One night we went to dinner at Cinderella Castle. Before your reservation you are escorted into a beautiful room to meet, chat with and take a picture with none other than Cinderella herself. Earlier in the day Ashley had gone to Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and was dressed up like Cinderella so she was beyond excited to meet her. When we walked in, it was picture perfect. Cinderella gave Ashley the biggest hug and Ashley was just in awe of her. Bill and I were each holding one of the boys as we watched Ashley have an adorable conversation with the princess and all of a sudden Cinderella turned to us and excitedly said “are they twins!?” I told her yes and she rushed over to them! Collin smiled ear to ear and reached out to her. Now, normally the characters aren’t really supposed to hold babies but Cinderella absolutely insisted. She exclaimed “give me those boys!” I said to her “are you sure?!” and she replied ‘Yes of course! Give them to me!” I couldn’t believe it. I was unable to stop the tears as Cinderella sat down, held each baby on her lap and Ashley to her side. The boys just loved her and she was incredible with them. It was such an amazing experience and a memory I will treasure forever. The next night we had dinner at a restaurant called 1900 Park Fare in the Grand Floridian Hotel. It was called “Cinderella’s Happily Ever After Dinner” and while you’re dining Cinderella, Prince Charming, the Evil Step-Mother and the Ugly Stepsisters visit at your table for pictures and autographs! So we sat down to eat and beautiful music started playing. Cinderella and her Prince waltzed into the room and started visiting tables. Cinderella spotted us and I realized it was the SAME Cinderella from the night before! She rushed over to us and squealed “My boys Adam and Collin! And my princess Ashley!” I could not believe it. She remembered the boys and they certainly remembered her. Ashley was speechless. I felt so honored that someone who sees thousands of kids a day remembered us. It was true Disney magic and these interactions literally made our entire trip.

Needless to say, since then Ashley has been enamored with Cinderella so I wasn’t at all surprised when she told me she want to have a Cinderella birthday party. I was so excited because I had already anticipated that is what she would want and my wheels had been turning thinking of invitations, centerpieces, games and desserts! Everything turned out beautifully and it certainly was a party fit for a princess!

I loved everything about this invitation. I loved the glitter and the gold scrolling around the party details. It felt very regal to me and that was exactly the look I was going for. We used the picture of her dressed up as Cinderella from Disney!

For the centerpieces I couldn’t find a picture of exactly what I wanted so I improvised. I printed out pictures of Ashley in her Cinderella dress from Disney, and a picture of Cinderella herself (the same one that was on the invitation). I printed out a big 5 in the font I wanted on card stock and used that as a stencil. I bought some scrapbook paper in a package that came in different shades of blue and I traced and cut out the 5 on some light blue paper. I then cut out a frame in a darker blue and glued the 5 to it. To finish I outlined the 5 in blue glitter and hot glued everything onto very small wooden dowels. I stuck some floral foam into fancy small buckets I got from Party City for .99 and stuck the dowels into it. I completed the look with some shredded light blue crinkle paper. I adore how they turned out!

Our friends actually own a bounce house so we like to borrow that for Ashley’s parties. The kids LOVE it and they burn off so much energy so it’s an excellent addition to the party.

I love this picture of Ashley, mid jump!

As a surprise for Ash, we hired Cinderella to come to her party! This woman is so great and we have had her before for Ashley’s 3rd “Rapunzel”birthday. She is so sweet, does a parade with the kids, reads a story, does face painting and sticks around to sing to the birthday girl. Ashley was beside herself when Cinderella appeared in the yard. My heart practically burst wide open when Ash ran to her and gave her the biggest hug. Bill even got a little chocked up!

After Cinderella greeted everyone, it was time to get down to business! Cinderella led everyone in a princess parade!

Ashley had such a great time with her.

My beautiful baby with her face painted.

After they sang, danced,heard a story and had some face painting, it was time for dessert! I envisioned a beautiful blue and pink dessert table set with the most princess-y desserts I could think of. I printed out a beautiful personalized Cinderella banner from an Etsy shop and I think it added the perfect touch.

I added some Cinderella toys we had to the table for a little extra theming. For dessert we had:

Fairy Godmother’s wands

The wands were pretzel sticks dipped into light blue candy melts with white sprinkles. These are SO easy to make and always such a huge hit. We never have any left. The great thing about them is they can be made a few days in advance which is huge for me. Anything I can get done ahead of time is a big help. I make them and store them in an airtight container in the fridge. The candy melts are really easy to work with and dry quickly. I love these and try to incorporate them in every dessert table I do!

Next we had pumpkin cake pops!

These were also so easy. I made the cake pops and dipped them into orange candy melts and used some sparkly green gel icing for the leaf and stem. These can also be made in advance!

Rice Krispie treats are an absolute favorite among our guests and I couldn’t think of a cute way to tie them into our theme. All of a sudden it popped into my head! Glass slippers!

I used a shoe cookie cutter and pressed them into the pan of Rice Krispies and voila! I added some blue sparkle gel icing around the edge to define the shape. They were cute and tasted delicious. These flew off the tray almost as fast as I put them out.

I like to have symmetry on the table so I knew I needed one more dessert. I really couldn’t find anything I loved so I began wracking my brain. I then found a blog on  that made Cinderella Princess popcorn and I KNEW that’s what I wanted to do. I made the popcorn according to the directions on the package then stirred in some blue candy melts, sprinkles and mini marshmallows! Everyone LOVED it. My brother-in-law kept coming up for more! I was thrilled.

I poured it into a blue bowl I purchased from Party City and set it on the table. I think it really completed the desserts and I loved how we had a variety of things to choose from.

Last but certainly not least was the cake!

My good friend Dani has made cakes for every special occasion I’ve ever had. I started working with her for Ashley’s first birthday party and will continue to work with her as long as she is baking! Her cakes are not only SO beautiful, but SOOOO delicious. I’ve seen a ton of cakes where they look gorgeous but aren’t very tasty. Her’s are both and I love the work she does. I have a vision and I usually send her some crazy sketch I make and she 100% delivers. I can’t say enough great things about her! I just love the bows and ribbons on this cake. It was exactly what I wanted and I love how it turned out.

We sang and my sweet girl blew out her candles. I CANNOT believe she is 5!

After the cake and dessert we had one more activity for the kids- a pull-string piñata!

Ashley was so excited about this and was seriously waiting all day for it. I was happy no one was waving around a huge dangerous stick to break it, but still got the whole piñata experience. The kids had a great time and that made all of the hard work beyond worth it!

Happy 5th Birthday my beautiful girl! We love you more than you will ever know! ❤

XOXO-Kelly

The kids are finally bathed and asleep after a candy filled, perfect Halloween and Bill and I are about to watch his favorite Halloween movie- Mr. Boogedy! I couldn’t have asked for a better day. We woke up and I made the kids a special Halloween breakfast. Even before I had kids I dreamt of doing things like this. I would always think about all the fun things I would do for my children to make the holidays special for them, and now finally being able to do all of the things I planned so many years ago, is a really wonderful feeling. Ashley was absolutely thrilled when she saw her breakfast waiting for her, she talked about it all day.

It actually came out even better than I had hoped. I made ghost pancakes, ghost bananas and an fruit bowl made out of an orange with a jack-o-lantern carved into it. I really love how everything turned out. For the pancakes I prepared the batter then put it into a Wilton squeeze bottle so I would have more control of the batter and be able to make the details for the ghosts. For the eyes and mouth I used Hershey’s milk chocolate chips. At first, I put the chocolate chips right in the pancake before I flipped them. I then I realized they were melting when they were cooking and you couldn’t even tell there were chocolate chips in the pancake. I figured out a better way to do it was to press the chocolate chips in when the pancakes were fully cooked and finished, but off the pan and cooling. The pancakes were still warm enough to slightly melt the chips into the pancake, but still hold their shape and make a nice face. The ghost bananas were so easy, I just cut the banana in half and again used the chocolate chips pressed into the banana for the eyes and mouth. For the orange jack-o-lantern I sliced a little bit of the orange peel off the bottom to make the orange be able to stand up. I then sliced a larger section out of the top and used my knife to slice into the orange diagnoally to remove the fruit from the inside and hollow it out. Once it was pretty clean inside I used a paring knife to carve the face. I sliced up some strawberries and filled the little bowl up. That was my favorite part of the whole breakfast. The kids really loved it and we all decided that this would be our new tradition and I would do this every year on Halloween for them. I can’t wait 🙂

After breakfast we just relaxed. Since Halloween was on a Saturday this year we had lots of time to kill before we went Trick-or-treating. We hung out in the living room, watched some Halloween movies and planned out our Trick-or-treat route! The boys took a nap so they would be charged up for the night and when they woke up we put on our costumes and headed out!

Collin wasn’t too thrilled when we wanted a picture, but he cheered up pretty quickly!

The kids got SO much candy, I can’t believe it. Bill and I both agreed it was just as much, if not more than we remember getting as kids! They had so much fun and even the boys seemed to really enjoy themselves. Halloween 2015 was one for the book for sure. Now, bring on the Christmas music!!! 🙂

XOXO-Kelly

As I told you before, my obsession for fall and Halloween is no secret. I milk this season for all its worth and this week we were all about pumpkins! Ashley decided she wanted to carve our pumpkin with a scary face, so I looked online for some inspiration, she picked the face she liked best and we got to work.

Pumpkin carving is absolutely one of my favorite past times. This year I put on a Halloween Pandora station and set everything up for us. Ashley was so excited and everything was perfectly festive. We had a great time and I love how our pumpkin turned out!

The next day we still had pumpkins on the brain, so I decided we would do some salt dough pumpkins! They are so easy to make and look incredibly adorable.

I mixed 1/2 cup of salt, 1/2 cup of flour and 1/4 cup of water. We kneaded the mixture until it formed a nice dough. If yours is too sticky, add a little more flour and if it’s too dry, add a little more water. This recipe worked really well for us and I didn’t need to add anything. Ash loved being able to help me add the ingredients and mix!

I let her roll it out and she did a surprisingly good job! I finished it off to make sure it was about 1/4″ thickness. 

I pressed the kids hands into the dough and cut out a pumpkin shape (complete with a stem!) around the handprint. I had a little dough left over so I decided to make one with our cat’s paw print as well :). I baked them at 200º for about 3 1/2 hours. All the information I found said to bake for 3 hours but ours were still a little soft so I left them in a bit longer. We used acrylic paint from Michaels to paint them.

We painted the whole thing orange and then I used a small paintbrush to fill in the handprints with black. I really like the way the acrylic paint worked. It covered the pumpkins well with only one coat and dried nicely with no bumps or creases.

I added some green for the stem and voila! I’m going to add some Halloween ribbon and hang them up. I think they are so cute, it’s going to be hard to put them away after the holiday! I made another batch to make a set for my mom and my mother-in-law. I’m going to wrap them up and attach a cute card saying “From your 3 little pumpkins!” I know it will be a huge hit. What are your favorite fall crafts? I’d love some ideas for what to make next!

XOXO-Kelly