Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread Recipe

I LOVE Fall!  It cools off, the leaves change color, and I get to bake PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHIP BREAD - which is SOOOOOO YUMMY!  Every year, right before Halloween, I make a whole bunch of mini-loaves for Ed to take to work.  My kids were upset that the bread was all for dad to take to work so I made another triple batch.  FYI - they freeze great!

2 baskets full of mini loaves going to Xactware tomorrow.

 Several people have asked if I share recipes and YES, I do.  It isn't like I made this up and am trying to make money off of selling them (and I got this recipe from my friend Carol).  So here you go:

Let me know if you have any questions and/or problems.  And let me know if this prints ok - if not, I will try to fix it.

Morgan's Bridal Shower

Ed's niece, Morgan, is getting married in November.  She goes to BYU-Idaho and her immediate family lives in Florida - so I thought it would be fun to have a bridal shower for her here in Utah where both sides of her extended family live (just 3 days after Brecken's birthday).  It was fun to see her and family!

Here is the bride to be.  

There were 43 days until her wedding that day (quite a few less now).

I like these fun little signs - I think it is fun to see when their "story" began.

I also am not big on shower games, but I like this.  Just a bunch of tongue depressors for people to write date night ideas on for the couple.  Then the bride to be gets to take the whole jar of date ideas home for future use.

Of course, what would a party be without food.  With it being Fall, I wanted to do Fallish foods (whatever that means).  I also wanted to have more than just desserts since it was in the afternoon.  So I had a couple appetizers, light lunch foods, and desserts.  

The center of the food was my 

CARAMEL APPLE BAR

I love caramel apples but they are so hard to eat, especially at a shower.  So I cut up apples, had homemade SALTED CARAMEL and APPLE TOFFEE DIP to dip the apple slices in.  Then I had 6 different toppings to dip or sprinkle the apples.  I had:

• pecan pieces
• mini chocolate chips
• mini M&Ms
• coconut
• toffee bits
• crushed Oreos (my personal favorite)

For APPETIZERS I had 

SPINACH DIP with yummy SOUR DOUGH BREAD from Kneaders . . .

and CRANBERRY-POMEGRANATE SAUCE with CREAM CHEESE and crackers.

For the LIGHT LUNCH foods, 

I had HOMEMADE ROLLS . . .

an AUTUMN SALAD . . .

and a  GRAPE SALAD.

For DESSERT, in addition to the CARAMEL APPLE BAR, 

I had HOMEMADE MINI-CHEESECAKES . . .

bite-sized PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHIP BREAD (a MUST this time of year) . . 

and mini CINNAMON APPLE CAKES

served with HOMEMADE WHIP CREAM sprinkled with CINNAMON.

To drink, I had a SODA BAR - my new favorite way to serve drinks.

Of course, Morgan got to open presents!  Yea!

I TRIED to get pictures of Morgan with everyone but I didn't get everyone (I somehow missed getting a picture of Morgan and her Grandma Jane - Ed's mom).

Thanks so much to everyone that came to support Morgan - and thanks for coming down and letting me throw you a shower Morgan!  Love you and so excited for you!

Brecken's Lego SuperHero Party - Part 1, the Set-up

My sweet Brecken is SEVEN today!  Wednesdays are SUPER busy for us so we had his party with some of his friends yesterday afternoon.  He LOVES Legos and SuperHeros so we had a Lego SuperHero party (definitely did more with SuperHeros).  I probably should have taken down the Halloween stuff by the front door but that obviously didn't happen.  

One of my favorite things I made for this party was the Lego brick banner.  So easy.  I cut blue, red, yellow, and green card stock into rectangles and then used foam stickers to attach 6 - 2" circles to each brick.  The foam stickers added dimension.

I made this fun sign and had it printed as a 16x20 and glued it to foam board.

 Gavin was so cute - he came outside and asked if he could take a picture of me with all my decorations - such a sweet boy!

 My entry table was decorated for Halloween so I set this table up just past the entry so I could decorate it a little.  I had Superman/Batman capes for the boys and Supergirl/Batgirl capes for the girls (thanks to my mom for making them for me - wish I had taken a picture of both sides because the Batgirl side is adorable - it is sparkly purple).  I already had the big Superman poster upstairs in the hallway (got it at Tai Pan).  Found a set of Lego SuperHero printables (8x10s) on Etsy that I printed (I had everything printed at a print shop called CopyTec - they would not look so good if I had  printed them) and put them up in fun buckets I already owed (bought them at Hobby Lobby).  I added balloons around the house - it is amazing how much balloons add to a party!

 Each kid got a cape and mask (both reversible) when they came in.

 This is the fun Lego SuperHero printable I bought.

 The kids were going to do a couple things in the family room so I decorated the mantel (I did take down the Halloween decorations there).  I had bought some metal SuperHero signs at Tai Pan and Amazon (have also seen them at Hobby Lobby) that were upstairs with the Superman poster.  Had to add a Lego brick banner here too - should have spaced the Legos out more like out front.  And of course, balloons!

 I had 2 tables set up for the kids to COLOR SuperHero and LegoSuperHero pictures AND to MASTER BUILD with Lego when they first got there - always have to have something simple for the kids to be doing while you wait for everyone to come.

 I LOVE the bright colors!

We had 8 different SuperHero Training Stations set up in the backyard - we LUCKED out with the weather - no rain - just sunshine and 70 degree temperatures.  Each Station had a name and a SuperHero associated with it.

#1 - FLASH COURSE - SuperHero: FLASH

Kids had to run as fast as they could through the cones and then LEAP OVER A TALL BUILDING IN A SINGLE BOUND

#2 - VAPORIZE VILLIANS - SuperHero: SPIDERMAN

Each kid got a can of Silly String (bought at the dollar store) - they were suppose to spray the villains (the green balloons)

 #3 - BATLIFT - SuperHero: BATMAN

I made DUMBBELLS out of a wooden dowel and 2 styrofoam balls.  I spray painted them (with Dallin's help) all black - it is amazing how much spray paint it took.  If I was to do it again, I would tape black bouncy balls to the wooden dowel - styrofoam balls are pricey.  The kids were to show their SUPER STRENGTH by lifting it up.

 4. HULK SMASH - SuperHero: HULK

I had 12 11x11 boxes covered (just the 4 sides, not the top and bottom) in brick paper (bought in a big roll at Zurchers - only needed one roll).  I ordered HULK HANDS (really for Dallin's Halloween costume).  The kids would put the HULK HANDS on and had to knock the wall down.

 #5 - LASSO the VILLIAN - SuperHero: WONDER WOMAN

I bought this bounce back punching bag on Amazon - which was the VILLIAN.  The kids had to try to LASSO it with hula hoops - they just threw the hula hoops at it in hopes of it going around it

 #6 - THUNDER BOARDS - SuperHero:  THOR

Here the kids had to show their strength by breaking through sheets of wood (thin styrofoam that I bought at Hobby Lobby and cut) with their bare hands

 #7 - SHIELD ATTACK - SuperHero: Captain America

The kids each got a Captain America Shield that I made out of cheap red plastic plates (bought at Wal-Mart) and vinyl.  They used these to protect themselves from the Nerf bullets my older sons shot at them.

#8 - KRYPTONITE HUNT - SuperHero: Superman

Wish I had a sign that said BATCAVE - for this one I wrapped our little play house up with black plastic (bought at Home Depot in the painting department for $10) and put green glow sticks (purchased on Amazon) inside.  The kids had to crawl in and get the kryptonite out to save SUPERMAN.

Inside, I had a food table set up (kind of like Cameron's party in the summer) with buildings.  I didn't do tons with the food - I just ran out of time.  And the party was from 4:00-5:30 so hard to feed kids too much and not totally destroy their dinner (which I'm sure I still did).

The food labels got put out after we took pictures.  I had Lays chips (Brecken's favorite) - they were Captain America SHIELDS.  And Ring Pops - they were Flash's POWER RINGS.

We had small Gatorades with Lego SuperHero wraps on them that I bought on Etsy.

We had LASSOS for WONDER WOMAN.  They are just the pull apart Twizzlers pulled about and tied into lassos.  And we HAD to have THOR's HAMMERS (Thor is Brecken's FAVORITE).  Just a marshmallow with a DIPPING Pretzel in it.  

I LOVE the buildings!

Oh, there is one of the food signs.

I just made simple cupcakes and put Lego SuperHero toppers (bought on Etsy) on each one.

We had to have something LEGO as far as food went so we made a couple of homemade pizzas, cut them into rectangles with 2 pepperoni on each (we made cheese too).  Dallin helped me with this and did a great job.

Here are more of the signs I had up.  I love the Lego SuperHero printable prints that I bought on Etsy.

Here is another sign I made.  After they completed their SuperHero Training, they had to diffuse the bombs - just black balloons blown up.  

Here are more pictures of the signs.  The actually turned out GREAT and looked so fun in the backyard!

On all the doors and windows in my dining room / kitchen area, I used black butcher paper to made City Skylines.  So simple and so fun!

Again, I LOVE what balloons add to a party - a definite MUST have!

I made a couple of banners.  One was out of old comic books I bought on Ebay.  The other I made out of colored card stock and SuperHero symbols that I printed.  Love the SuperHero symbol one!

And of course, more of the SuperHero pictures.

I LOVE how these turned out!

More Skyline.

The food table before the food - and in better light.

Entry table again - also in better light.  You can see one of the SHIELDS on the table - aren't they fun!

That is it!  I will post pictures from the actual party soon!