pumpkin-tastic!

I am not so sure how stay at home moms do it. When I work full time I always dream of what it would be like be home with my kiddos everyday. Then when I do that, I am so deliriously tired at the end of the day that I know I could never do it. I love my children. But parenting is really a team effort.

I am on fall break right now, so I had Thursday and Friday off school. Addison and I hung out on Thursday. Lemme tell you. The terrible twos are starting to come in full force. You know when you are standing in line at the supermarket and the person behind you has the screaming, incredibly poorly behaved children screeching into your ear and you could like to turn around and scare the living daylights outta the kid just to get them to be quiet. Yep, I had one of those kids. We stayed in the rest of the day.

Friday Rileigh had a half day. I was determined to have a plan for the day. Without one, Rileigh would attempt to watch countless hours of television. Not ideal. My plan was to get into the fall spirit and plaster our afternoon with pumpkin. She had been asking about making pumpkin pie, so when she got home from school I had everything out and ready to make pumpkin pie and pumpkin muffins. She loves to cook and our muffins turned out great. We topped some with a cinnamon/sugar/butter glaze and the others with a (to-die-for) cream cheese frosting.

I think it was due in part to the awesome kitchen aid mixer I got as a wedding present all those years ago. I absolutely adore it. However, I am a horrible baker, so sadly it is very underused...but NEVER underappreciated.

Not sure about the pumpkin pie. I can't stand pumpkin pie. Justin loves it however, and rated Rileigh's as out of this world.....We just followed the recipe on the back of the pumpkin can. Do not tell my mother I used canned pumpkin. She would probably disown me....though I am sure I would have made her proud with the homemade whipped cream I made to go on top!

For those interested, recipe for the muffins below:

• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2/3 cup water
• 3 cups white sugar
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a jumbo muffin pan.
  2. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans.
  3. Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
  Cream Cheese Frosting:
  Cream together 1/4 cup butter, softened, 4 ounces cream cheese, softened, 2 cups confectioners' sugar, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract