Spiced Pumpkin Pull-Apart Cupcake Cake {Recipe Time}

It’s that time of year again! Time for pumpkin spice everything!!! Woohoo!!

One of our top favorite goodies to make, besides the classic pumpkin bread, are Spiced Pumpkin Cupcakes. I used to make them topped with a Maple Butter Frosting until Rosie requested a Spiced Pumpkin Cake with a Brown Sugar Frosting for her birthday some years ago. {The link takes you to a post from 2010 on my first blog.} Rosie has requested it a couple times since and I’ve started making it for other occasions.

Recently, my dad asked me to bake something for my sister’s homecoming. Actually, what he asked for was “something with that really good maple frosting on it.” The “really good maple frosting” is actually a brown sugar frosting that tastes almost exactly like my maternal grandmother’s maple fudge. ::swoon:: That stuff is so addictive!

Let Your Kids Eat the Rock Cycle!

 

Awhile back, we learned about Rocks and Minerals. We did read some books, watched some videos, drew pictures, went on rock hunts, and grew our own salt crystals.

In addition to those hands-on activities, if your kids are like mine, your kiddos will also want to do some edible activities. I mean, who doesn’t love snacking while learning??

Today’s activity uses Starburst candies to demonstrate the rock process.

Rocks & Minerals Unit Study

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One of the topics Rosie and Ladybug wanted to study was rocks and minerals. At first I honestly wasn’t sure how much I could pull together for it after covering the basics. As you’ll see on my Pinterest board {Learning Rocks & Minerals}, I found plenty of ideas to keep us busy!

 

Today I’m going to share with you the outline I put together for this unit. Bare in 

mind, some days will look pretty lean but those were days where we had obligations that took us out of the house for a large chunk of time and the one or two activities were all we could squeeze in. {Be sure to check back because I’m going to share our activities in the next few days so you can do them too!}

Top 10 Instagram Accounts

It’s Friday! Hallelujah we made it to Friday!

While our week wasn’t quite that bad, it was interesting. We started school back up this week and, well, let’s just say it takes us a little bit to get back in the routine of it all. Totally understandable. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need moment. 😉

Sassy side-eye from my Little Man.

Do you use Instagram? I started using it a couple of years ago. I like it because it’s all about the pictures. I love photography and taking pictures of my kids, the sunset, the beach, the way that rock looks, or of that random thing over there in that tree. [Really, I’m being serious. My mom used to have a ton of pictures on her camera of the leaves on a massive tree she had in her front yard.] So for me, I love that Instagram showcases pictures rather than focusing on your latest status like on Facebook. It seems that I have passed this trait on to my kids. They love grabbing my phone to take pictures of anything and everything. And yes, they do have their own cameras.

A picture of how cool that random rock in the lake looks.

 

 

Which all leads me to this week’s Friday Favorites: Our Favorite Instagram Accounts to Follow!

1.   natgeotravel — While we may not be able to go out and explore every nook of the world, there are those who get to do it for a living. Nowadays, thanks to the Internet and social media, we can travel with them. The photographers for National Geographic Travel really put themselves in the middle of what’s going on to get these photos to share. We’ve watched a photographer be mere feet away on his hands and knees from two wild stallions as they were rearing up and testing each other’s strength in the Netherlands. They’ve captured the northern lights to share, which made my day since seeing them in person is on my bucket list. Needless to say, National Geographic Travel is a must-follow.
2.    natgeo — If we’re following National Geographic Travel, we can’t not follow the original National Geographic! While the previous account is about travelling the world, this is more about the stories behind the pictures. We love watching and learning about mama monkeys and their baby monkeys. We also learn about elephant conservation and what is being done to help the pandas come back from being endangered.
3.     travellingthroughtheworld  — Have I mentioned I would LOVE to travel?? The pictures they are able to capture from all over the world are breathtaking. I like that the kids are able to see first-hand pictures from around the globe.
4.    foodnetwork — In this house, we love food. We all love to be in the kitchen baking yummy treats and cooking up tasty food. Thanks to the short food demo videos, this is a must-follow for us!
5.    nasa — Since being a kid, I’ve had my head in the stars. I’m trying to pass that on to my kids and the pictures NASA shares really don’t hurt. I love the pictures they share along with learning something new with each share.
6.   ncartmuseum — We are fortunate enough to live in an area with an abundance of museums. A few of those are art museums. I’ll be the first to admit that art museums aren’t my thing. My lack of interest in some of the finer arts is not something I want my kids to learn from me. So as another way to get more exposure, we follow a couple of the local art museums.
7.    nashermuseum — This is another local art museum. For some reason, Rosie wants to go to Duke University (probably because the rest of us are North Carolina State University people 😉 ). She was pleasantly surprised to find that Duke has an art museum on site. So we follow the Duke University Art Museum on Instagram too.
8.    natgeocreative — I love National Geographic and wanted to follow as many of their accounts as possible.
9.    homeschoolscientist — This is the account of another homeschooler. I really enjoy following them because it’s fun to share in the journey of others who are on the same path. It also helps that my girls LOVE science and this account highlights that particular subject.
10.    howtobeadad — This guy never fails to give me my daily laugh. In this new adventure, it’s important to laugh- if only to release tension and stress that’s been building. His posts crack me up, especially the one of the collage of “moments we hope [our kids] won’t remember”. For your comedic relief, I highly suggest following this account.

There are my top 10 Instagram accounts to follow! I love seeing the new posts everyday. Sometimes just scrolling through all of the beautiful, and funny, photos is relaxing and helps me step back from the daily grind for a minute.

And while you’re there, feel free to follow us too @TheHarned5! 🙂

Are there some good ones that I forgot about? Tell me about them! I love finding new things! 

Stay cool (’cause it’s a scorcher here) and have a good weekend y’all!

We survived the Frozen party! All good things, all good things. ;)

*Whew* I made it through the weekend.
And now I’m sitting here with both of my girls home with me. They are tracked out for the next three weeks!! So excited!! There is so much we want to do while they are home, but today we relax. The kids are catching up on some Disney channel while playing with Ladybug’s new gifts and I’m enjoying some snuggles and just having my girls home. 🙂

But let’s back up and talk about the big ‘Frozen’ party that happened this weekend. (Quick side note: This was the first-ever birthday party, with kids, in my own house. This will probably be the last. haha)

The basement ready to be decorated.

As you know, I spent last week getting our large basement room ready for the party. I had also been hunting through three local Party Cities for any ‘Frozen’ decor I could get my hands on.  Stop #3 was the goldmine…and also the furthest drive. 🙂

Everything I had planned on putting up…

I may have a gone a little overboard and now have to return a few things…but better to have too much rather than not enough.