Pumpkin Banana Smoothie

With our 90 degree October weather here in California, we have to convince ourselves it's really fall by 

making all things pumpkin.  Since it's too hot here to snuggle up with a blanket and a warm cup of 

something delicious, we decided to cool ourselves down with this refreshing pumpkin banana smoothie.  

It did the trick! For those 10 minutes it took to sip that smoothie, it really did feel like fall.  And it's so 

easy! You just dump everything into a blender and blend until smooth.  

Pumpkin Smoothie Recipe

Blend together:

1 cup frozen pumpkin puree

1 cup vanilla almond milk

1 banana

2 tbs brown sugar

1/4 tsp cinnamon

Top with your favorite whipped cream topping, some chocolate shavings, and a bit of cinnamon and enjoy!

Glitter Pumpkins

These glitter pumpkins are fun, easy and cheap to make. I made some mistakes along the way that I am sure you are all too smart to make yourself. But, just in case your brain works like mine, I'll share a couple tips for avoiding those same mistakes for yourself. I did two different kinds of pumpkins. Some I wanted to be candles, and others I just wanted to be glittered on their own.  If you don't plan on turning your pumpkin into a candle, that's easy. Just spray the pumpkin with spray adhesive on one surface, then transfer to a different surface and dump glitter onto the pumpkin. I did not transfer my pumpkin to a different surface the first time, so I have a very glittery manila folder now where all that glitter stuck to the spray adhesive.

If you want to make your pumpkins into candles, use whatever candle you plan on placing inside to measure how big of a circle you are going to cut on the top of your pumpkin. I would recommend cutting the top off and scooping out the insides of the pumpkin before you glitter.  I glittered first, then ended up having to re-glitter, because all the glitter came off in the process of cutting and scooping. No big deal. So, cut first, then place the top of the pumpkin back in place, spray with adhesive, and glitter away. Pop your candle inside and light that sucker up. Cheap Fall decor!

 

Pumpkin Patch

If you're looking for a fun pumpkin patch in Orange County, Zoomars in San Juan Capistrano is a great place for kiddos. We took Silas there last week, and he had tons of fun. On top of having a great selection of pumpkins, they have a petting zoo, a train, pony rides, a maze, a play structure, and lots of photo ops.  Not to mention, San Juan Capistrano is a great place to spend the day. Lots of great restaurants, antique shops, and the Jewel of the Missions. If you need any good restaurant recommendations, I have lots!

 Have fun!

Halloween Scenes

Last year on Halloween, Silas was still young enough that I could make him do whatever I wanted.  For as long as he would cooperate, I set up various scenes and placed him in them. My intention was to do these scenes every month for his first year of life, but once he learned to roll over, that dream was dead. At two months, however, he was the most cooperative little baby, and we were able to put together these fun Halloween themed scenes. He had two costumes last year. I made his nerd costume (very easy!), and someone gifted us the Batman costume, which was too cute to pass up.

If you are up for making your own Halloween scene, it's very easy.  I just used random fabric, tablecloths, or sheets that I had around the house for the backdrop, the ground and the yellow moon. I crumpled up and twisted craft paper strips for the spooky tree and cut out bats from black construction paper.  To finish it off, I added some random Halloween decorations I either had on hand or had bought in the dollar section of Target. Throw your kid in there and have some fun!

You could even make your own animated gif:

If you want to see our other Silas scenes, you can click here.

Halloween Cupcake Topper Printable

 To celebrate Halloween we have created these cute, free printables for our readers! These can be used for cupcake toppers or party tags for a sweet halloween treat.

Directions:

Right click on the Halloween tags and save the image for the printable template.

Print on card stock and cut out, or use this 2 inch circle punch. 

You can then hot glue or tape these tags to lollipop sticks or wood sticks. They can also be attached to these paper straws like we used for our toppers.

In addition to using these as cupcake toppers, you could also attach them to a Halloween gift or party favor. You could hole punch them and attach a string to tie them onto your item, or print the template on these circle labels and stick them right on.

We hope you enjoy!

Happy Halloween!!

        

Pumpkin Cupcakes

I know you are probably being overwhelmed with everything that has to do with pumpkins right now, but this is one pumpkin recipe we couldn't resist sharing with you.  These cupcakes are perfect for any holiday party, but we will definitely be making them for Halloween so we can show off these adorable toppers.  Check here for the free printable.  

And now back to the pumpkin cupcakes... Did I mention they have cream cheese frosting? Mmmm...

Pumpkin Cupcakes, makes 18.

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon coarse salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 cup packed light-brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

4 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin puree

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk the brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter, and eggs. Add the dry ingredients and whisk until smooth.  Finally, whisk in the pumpkin puree.  

Divide the batter evenly into a lined cupcake pan.  Bake at 350°F for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.  

And now for the cream cheese frosting.

1 cup butter
8oz. package of cream cheese

1 2lb. bag of powdered sugar, sifted

1 tsp vanilla1-3 tbsp milk

You'll want the butter and the cream cheese to be at room temperature.  

Using a mixer, combine the butter and the cream cheese until smooth.  Slowly add the powdered sugar while mixing. Mix until smooth and then mix in the vanilla.  You may or may not need to add in the milk.  If it's too thick, add 1 tablespoon at a time until you reach the desired consistency.

Pipe on the frosting and sprinkle with cinnamon.  Throw on your favorite holiday topper and enjoy!

Mr. and Mrs. Corn

Need a good couple's costume idea?

Well, here's a little flashback Friday for you. This was a fun one that I threw together a couple years ago.  I was Candy Corn and Nick was Pop Corn. Hence, Mr. and Mrs. Corn. This was a very easy costume to make.

For my candy corn dress, I used a white shirt that I didn't wear anymore and sewed a strip of orange and a strip of yellow fabric to the white shirt. It was totally imperfect, but it worked. I also wrapped a party hat in white, orange and yellow construction paper to top it off.

For Nick's popcorn costume, I just used two pieces of poster board and connected them with string so one hung in the front and one in the back. I cut red strips of construction paper to glue onto the poster board, cut the top to look like a popcorn bag, and then crumpled up yellow construction paper to look like popcorn to hang out of the top. In case anyone wasn't sure about what he was, I cut out the letters  for the word popcorn to glue to the front.

Easy as can be!

And for fun, here's a picture of all our costumes that particular year.

Go get creative!