Friday Favorites

Happy Friday!  We had a really busy, fun week and are so excited to have a week off for Fall Break next week.  Bring on the Fall fun!  The best parts of our week were:

1. Fall Fest week!  Our city has a giant Fall Fest every October and we love to go one night.  We usually scope out the weather and pick out the best night to go after school.  We ran into several of my students and the kids saw several school friends.  We tried lots of yummy food and it feels like Fall has officially arrived in the Midwest.

We searched high and low until we found the Dubai Chocolate Covered Strawberries that Olive was so excited to try.  It was really fun to try, but I think we'd all pick regular chocolate covered strawberries.

Leo preferred the games + french fries.

Kevin and Fletcher rode the ferris wheel.  I loved the addition of flags this year.  Their river views and up top photos were so fun.

2. In exciting news... my plan worked!  Mr. Mittens & Pumpkin love each other!  Mr. Mittens doesn't want you to know it, but I keep finding these two brothers snuggling together.  He's the serious to Pumpkin's sweet.

3. It was time for my quarterly BFF road trip dinner.  Our usual restaurant closed so we had to find a new spot.  Procopios Pizza & Pasta was yummy!  It was so fun to catch up, eat a delicious dinner and grab ice cream.

4. Trader Joe's chocolate croissants are amazing.  I can't wait to go back and restock.

5. Pumpkin is the sweetest cat ever.  He's so soft and so snuggly.

6. Surprise Fall gifts from friends!

6. A baby shower for a friend. I love snacky meals like this and buying tiny baby girl clothes.

7. It's harvest time in the Midwest!  I love when it works out for us to be home when the farmer behind us harvests his fields.  It was very dusty so we watched from inside this year.

8. Whiskers for days!

9. We had a family birthday party one night and brought home balloons for the cats.  Pumpkin approved.

10. My parents dropped off homemade warm cinnamon rolls.  They didn't last long!

11. I showed up to work on Monday morning accidentally matching my assistant.  We were so excited!

Then I walked across the hall to find out that we were matching x3!  It made our day!  Kindergarten is our jam!

12. A surprise text from Kevin - It's triple points day at Qdoba.  I'll pick up dinner for us on the way home!  Yes, please.  This is the perfect burrito bowl IMO.

13. Leo turned 5 1/2!  This year I'm trying hard to find little ways to celebrate each of the kids.  They love hitting their half birthday so I let them each pick out a favorite homemade dessert, add a candle, sing and they are thrilled.  Leo chose Monster Cookies for his dessert.

14.  The week before Fall Break + a full moon + observations.  Our team lead gave us all these moon pie treats and made us laugh.  Whew!  We are ready for a week off.

I hope you have the best weekend with your favorite people.

I'm taking a break for Fall Break.  See you back here when our break is done.

Linking up with Momfessionals

Field Trip Friday

Happy Friday!  It's been a busy week so I'm recapping one fun thing from our week.  The kindergarten headed to Kentucky for a trip to Cate's Farm.  Leo and I got to ride the bus together - his class and my class and we got to see each other as we went from station to station.  And we wore matching shirts.

The kids got to pick out their own pumpkins from the patch.  The only rule was they had to be able to carry it back to the bus.  I was a little sad to miss doing this with Leo (our classes were at different stations at different times), but he assured me that "Mrs. Hughes can be my mom for a little bit!"

He loves his teacher so much and so do I!  We hit the jackpot with Mrs. Hughes.

The playground was so much fun.

A humid lunch on the farm.  I got to eat with Leo after I got my class settled.

Giant farm slide with a bumpy landing.

Flying with your bestie.

Climbing on hay bales.

So much corn.

He could have stayed at this station all day.

I'm so thankful I got to spend my field trip day with Leo and that I was able to be a teacher and a mom just fine today.  Some days it's a tricky balance, but this was FUN.

Quick Pumpkin Bread

I tried a new pumpkin recipe this Fall.  It doesn't have any oil in it and it was so good!  Plus, it's easy for the kids to help make this recipe.  We have already made it twice this Fall.  I started with this recipe from Keeping It Simple Blog and made some changes.

We opted to make 2 loaves instead of 1 and added chocolate chips to one.  Both were so good.

Recipe:

1 2/3 c flour

1 1/4 c sugar

1 c pumpkin

1/2 c melted butter

1/2 c warm milk

2 eggs

2 t cinnamon

2 t pumpkin spice seasoning

1 t vanilla

1/2 t baking powder

1/2 t baking soda

sprinkle of salt

1/2 c chocolate chips

Mix dry ingredients.  Add in wet ingredients.  Line 2 loaf pans with parchment paper.  Evenly pour batter into two loaf pans.  Add chocolate chips to one and stir around.  Bake at 350 for 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Let cool and slice.  This bread is so yummy!  Perfect to make with your kids or perfect to share.

Fall Break Faves

We're back to reality of work and school today after a week long fall break.  

The break came at the perfect time.  We all needed some days to rest, recover and enjoy a trip to Wisconsin.  I'm so thankful to be on pretty much the same schedule as my kids so we can all be off together.  It made me so happy to not have to set alarms, get to do what we wanted during the days and enjoy all the extra time together.

I was so excited to:

1. See beautiful fall leaves in Wisconsin.

2. Organize/declutter/clean out our garage.

3. Drop off consignment items to my favorite store that only accepts items during school hours.  It was great to be home during the day to take care of stuff like this.

4. Switch all the kid's closets to Fall/Winter.  Now I need to do mine.

5. Ordered new winter coats for all the kids.

6. Haircuts for several of us and a claw trim for Mr. Mittens.

7. We were home on harvest day for the farm behind our house.  The boys were so excited.

8. We made some fun plans with friends and family.

9. My house got dusted and decorated for Halloween.  The kids love to help decorate.  We dusted together and decorated together.

10. All of my house plants had a spa day where I watered, pruned and gave them some extra love.

11. I prepped a Fall gift for the kid's teachers.  I'll do a blog post about it later this week.  I try to send in something small once a month for the teachers with a note of appreciation.

12. I took care a ton of the to dos I had been putting off like getting an oil change, cleaning out freezers, reorganizing pantries, and taking care of school things for the kids - spirit wear, projects and calendar things.

13. Halloween costumes are finalized, everything has arrived and has been tried on.  We are ready for trick-or-treating.  I even bought our candy and hid it so it lasts until the 31st.

14.Returns are all caught up on, bathrooms are all cleaned and laundry is done.  Whew it feels good to be all caught up at home.

Bring on all the Fall festivities from now through Thanksgiving!

Perfect Pumpkin Muffins

I have a really yummy pumpkin recipe to share with you today.  My family loves all things pumpkin and they agree that these are some of the best pumpkin muffins I have ever made.  They were really easy and I bet you have almost all of the ingredients on hand if you love to bake Fall treats.

I started with this recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction - My Best Pumpkin Muffins Recipe

and made a few changes.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 c flour

1 t baking soda

1 1/2 t ground cinnamon

1 1/2 t pumpkin pie spice 

1/4 t ground ginger

A sprinkle of salt

1/2 c vegetable oil

1/2 c sugar

1/2 c brown sugar

2 eggs

1/4 c Buttermilk*

1 small can of pumpkin (or 1 1/2 c pumpkin puree)

toppings - cinnamon & sugar and chocolate chips*

 * these were my changes to the original recipe

Directions:

Sally has very specific directions, but I just dumped everything into a bowl and mixed it really well.  It turned out great!  I sprinkled some with cinnamon sugar, left some plain and added chocolate chips to the rest.  Spoiler alert: Every muffin variety was delicious.

Scoop into a mini muffin pan.  This recipe made 30+ mini muffins so I had to use two pans.  I did use the original baking directions of starting at 425 for 3 minutes and finishing baking for about 12 minutes at 350.  I almost always make mini muffins because they bake so much faster and this was the perfect bake time for mini muffins.

I made these twice last week and we devoured them!

I bet your crew might enjoy them, too!

Fall Snack Mix

Happy Fall!  Are you a fan of candy corn?  Or maybe the candy corn pumpkins?  I like a little candy corn every fall and my kids LOVE both of them.

My mom started making this snack mix years ago and it just tastes like Fall.

I added the 2 ingredients to my grocery pick up list this week - candy corn and roasted, salted peanuts.

Layer them in a container and enjoy!

I like 2/3 peanuts and 1/3 candy corn.

My kids love the candy corn so it starts out more half and half of each and then ends up peanut heavy after they eat the candy.  It's the perfect snack mix of Fall or for tailgates.

Enjoy the easiest Fall snack!

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday, friends!  I hope you've had a good week.  Our week was BUSY.

Did you catch my blog posts this week?

Early Fall Outfit Inspiration

Potty Training the Easy Way

Family Favorite Chicken Fried Rice - my family licks their plates with this meal!

 

Now onto my favorite moments of the week:

1.  Fall Festival

Our city has a giant street fest every Fall and we enjoy stopping in one night every Fall.  The kids weren't very interested in food so we got one snack, did one ride and played some games.  We bumped into some friends and my sister's family and the weather was perfect.  It was such a fun evening!

We tried funnel cake fries for the first time and they were delicious.  We just wish the serving size was bigger :)

2. Fletcher turned 7 1/2!

We celebrated Fletcher's half birthday with a plate of cookie halves.  He loved it!  It's the easiest half birthday tradition.  Grab your kid's favorite treat, cut it in half, add a candle and sing to them.

3. Career Day

Fletcher opted to go as a fisherman.  He said he had no idea what he wanted to be when he grew up because he was only seven, but he did know that he loves to fish.

Olive was torn between a librarian and a 2nd grade teacher so she combined the two.

4. Homemade Salsa

We finally had enough tomatoes, peppers and a few other things from the garden to make salsa.  I still have some kinks to work out, but I love seeing this container of homemade salsa in the fridge.  We're hoping our tomatoes do even better next year to make more salsa.

5. Story time

We had a blast at story time again this week.  Leo is participating more and more and we both look forward to going together.  I love that he gets introduced to new toys, new music and gets practice listening to a teacher for an hour a week.

6. Smiley faces

Remember how I told you last week that Leo could now make smiley faces??  He spent a good portion of this week drawing smiley faces :)

7. Spooky

The kids helped me decorate for Halloween this week!  We do sweet Halloween decorations.  Nothing scary or gross.  The kids love these teeth.  Leo kept asking me to put his teeth in haha.

8. School Lunches

The kids love when I put their favorite foods in their lunch - Cheeto Bones, their favorite sandwiches, cheese cubes, Scotcharoos and caramels.

9. Blankets

Leo loves these two striped blankets.  They're his favorite things to snuggle with.  Both of my boys have opted for special blankets over special stuffed animals and it's my favorite!

10. Helper

Leo is the best shopping helper.  He prefers to sit in the bottom of the cart with all the food.  Then he helps me load and unload the cart.  I know I'll be sad when he's too big to ride in the cart.

11. Favorite Flowers

Our whole property is lined with these sweet little flowers this year!  I know they are a weed, but you can't convince me that they aren't the happiest tiny flowers.

12. Winning

We celebrated one of our cousins turning 16 with family and Notre Dame won!  Win-win.

13. Fall Blast

Our church Fall festival was last weekend.  We had the best time with friends.  The boys loved the first responder section, everyone had fun on the rides and we ended the night with fireworks and candy.  It really was a blast!

This takes me back to Fletcher's toddler days when he was obsessed with fire trucks.  Time flies!!

Olive loves a double decker bus!

14. School Fall Fest

Kevin took the big kids to their school Fall Fest.  It was lots of fun!

 

15. Sunday Snooze.

It got a little too quiet on Sunday afternoon and look where I found Leo...napping in the sunshine.  Sweet guy doesn't nap anymore so he must have been worn out from all the fun this week :)

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!!  My crew is on Fall Break next week so I'm taking a blog break to enjoy them. I'll see you back here on Monday the 16th.

Linking up with Momfessionals