HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

“O Lord that lends me life, lend me a heart replete with thankfulness.” 

- William Shakespeare

Wishing everyone a beautiful day filled with love, happiness and of course, a full belly!

A Great Pumpkin Roundup

Hello and happy Thursday! Can you believe that Thanksgiving is in one week from today? We will be spending Thanksgiving with Allen's family and I am so looking forward to it! My mother-in-law always prepares such a beautiful and delicious dinner and I really just love being able to spend time with family and friends. It's so important to me to be able to disconnect from the day to day chaos and just spend some quality time with those that I love. And I look forward to a nice nap as well...those are a rarity these days. J

In preparation for the great Thanksgiving feast, I thought I'd share some alternative dessert ideas to the traditional pumpkin pie. Don't get me wrong...I love a good ole fashion pumpkin pie but I also like to find new ways to switch up a holiday staple. Here are 10 perfectly pumpkin possibilities from around the blogosphere.

PUMPKIN BAVARIAN CREPE CAKE

SPRINKLE BAKES

PUMPKIN CREME BRULEE DOUGHNUTS

SPOON FORK BACON

PUMPKIN FRY BREAD

GIRLICHEF

MIDNIGHT PUMPKIN LAYER CAKE

SWEETAPOLITA

PUMPKIN GINGERBREAD TRIFLE

PAULA DEEN VIA THE FOOD NETWORK

WARM PUMPKIN PUDDING CAKES WITH CREME ANGLAISE

THE BONJON GOURMET

PUMPKIN CREAM CHEESE TRUFFLES

THE GALLEY GOURMET

PUMPKIN PIE PANNA COTTA TART

ROXANA'S HOME BAKING

BOURBON PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE

SMITTEN KITCHEN

SUGAR PUMPKIN ROULADE

G BAKES

If you have any favorite traditional or non-traditional pumpkin desserts, I'd love to hear about them!

A Masquerade Dance Party

Wow, the month of October flew by so quickly this year! We had such a busy month with our Disney trip and a few birthdays to celebrate including my oldest baby, Mia. She turned five just a couple of days before Halloween so we decided to celebrate with a Masquerade Dance Party!

Of course my lil' peanut had to strike a pose for me in her fancy "I just want to dance" party attire J I can't believe how big she is getting on me! I just love seeing her grow into her own little personality and she is definitely my lil' super star.

We are getting ready to do some updates to the dining room so it's an empty space other than my china hutch that is sitting there all by its lonesome so it made the perfect venue for a little dance party. And the hutch made a great display for all of the sweet treats.

The kiddos started out by decorating their own masks and capes and were able to pick out their own silly headband to wear. This turned out to be such a fun activity for the kids and I loved seeing how creative they got with their decorations!

I've never thrown a dance party for a bunch of five year olds before so I wasn't sure how well they would take to the concept but to my delight the kids really got into it and had a blast dancing with each other. Even Mia's lil' sister, Riley, joined in on the fun!

It was a great turnout and Mia had so much fun just spending time with her close friends and family. I love being able to throw little parties like this and creating memories. Now it's time to start getting ready for the holidays and a brand new year. It will be exciting to see what this next year will bring for all of us and I look forward to sharing more aha moments with you in the year to come!