Features & Fun Friday #17 ~ Top 5 Pumpkin Breakfast Ideas
1. Homemade Pumpkin Spice Granola >>> Joyful Healthy Eats
2. Pumpkin Pancakes with Caramel Pecan Sauce >>> Julia’s Album
3. Pumpkin Nutella Rolls >>> Wine and Glue
4. Pumpkin French Toast Bake >>> Minimalist Baker
5. Lightened-Up Pumpkin Donuts with Maple Glaze >>> Damn Delicious
I apologize that Features and Fun Friday is a few days late this month (and not exactly on Friday — ooops!), but I didn’t want to miss the chance to round up some awesome pumpkin recipes and share a behind-the-scenes peek of August happenings around Five Heart Home!
Now that August has drawn to a close, I feel like I can legitimately crack open a can of pumpkin! I love baking with pumpkin, and particularly concocting pumpkin treats for breakfast or brunch, so I can’t wait to try some of these mouthwatering ideas!
(Feel free to pin the round-up collage above, but to grab or pin the recipes, please be sure to click through to the original sources…thanks!)
I’m already working on some new pumpkin recipes to share with y’all this fall, but in the meantime, here are a few of my all-time favorites…
{Behind the Scenes at 5HH}
Like the entire year thus far, August seemed to zoom right by. But we made the most of our remaining summer vacation before school started back up. Here’s a pictorial summary of our August. Most of these are iPhone pics, and many of them I’ve already shared on Instagram, in case you’d like to follow along over there for fun all month long!
The beginning of the month found us on a family vacation at the beach. My brother and his family recently moved to Florida, so we decided to spend a few days there with the dual purpose of visiting them and squeezing in a beach trip. This was our first ever multi-hour, two-day car trip since having kids (yes, we’re chickens), and overall, I’m happy to report that it went very smoothly.
Well, it went smoothly until we got stuck at a standstill on the interstate for over 2 hours near the Texas/Louisiana border. We finally had to let the hooligans out of their car seats to stretch their legs. Thank goodness Oma was along for the trip to help us maintain a 1:1 adult to child ratio.
After spending night #1 in Lousiana, we had just a few hours remaining the next morning to drive the rest of the way to Florida. Forward thinking mother that I am, I made the boys do 100 jumping jacks each before loading up in the car.
But finally…finally…we saw THIS!
Welcome to the Sunshine State…as the rain hit the windshield.
By the time we reached the restaurant where we were meeting my brother, SIL, and cute nephew for lunch, the storm clouds had cleared and I rewarded myself for surviving two days in the car with three young children. Happy vacation to me!
The next morning, we woke up to this view from the balcony of our condo. Ah, Florida…you and your white sand and aquamarine water! Don’t get me wrong…I love the Texas coast as well, but the beach scene in Texas is decidedly more brown-ish.
We spent the next several days relaxing, with plenty of time for playing on the beach.
Alas, the day before we were to head home, the middle child came down with a stomach bug. Fortunately, it passed quickly and he even acquiesced to joining us for some family beach pics at sunset on the evening before we left.
We made an uneventful drive back to Texas and boy was it good to be home! But a mere day later, the hubby had to fly to Denver for a work conference. And when the conference was over, I flew out to meet him for a belated long weekend away to celebrate our 10th anniversary. We drove to Vail and enjoyed a few relaxing, child-free days.
Turned out that it was a good thing we got all of that extra sleep. Remember that stomach bug the middle child succumbed to at the end of our Florida vacation? Well, after lying dormant for a week, it decided to strike the other two kiddos a few hours after I flew out to Colorado. And by the time we got home, both babysitters had succumbed to it. Nothing says ‘back to reality’ like stopping at Walgreens on the way home from the airport for disinfecting supplies. We stayed up until midnight bleaching and Lysol-ing every surface in the house.
We must have done a good job because neither of us ended up catching the dreaded illness (knock on wood)! Luckily it was a quick bug, and it wasn’t long before everyone was feeling back to their old selves. Back to the real world of laundry…
…and pirate impersonations.
But life couldn’t stay unexciting for long now, could it? On the eve of the first day of school, my trusty, 7-year-old DSLR decided to kick the bucket. No first day of school photo ops for me!
Daddy was kind enough to snap a pic of the boys after dropping them off at school, and it’s probably cuter than my posed, holding-a-sign shot would have been anyway. This is the first year that little brother is joining older brother at big kid school. Pre-K and 2nd grade…where does time go?!
However, seeing as how I need my camera for more than just kiddo pics — ahem, food blogger — I had get myself a new DSLR ASAP. It came in this past week and I finally got up the courage to take it out of the box, although I still have lots of figuring out to do!
As if August could get any busier, the biggest big boy turned 7 at the end of the first week of school…
It should be noted that the above photo was not supposed to be a “funny face” pic. Those are just the reactions that naturally occur when the camera comes out. You can see that baby sister has learned from the best.
Finally, we wrapped up August this past weekend with a kick-off to the most wonderful time of the year…football season!!!
You laugh, but it’s true.
Have a wonderful Labor Day, y’all! Here’s to pumpkin recipes and (dreaming of) cooler weather. And thanks, as always, for stopping by…I so appreciate you all taking time out of your busy lives to hang out with me for a little while.
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I always love hearing from you! ~ samantha {at} five heart home {dot} com
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Original article: Features & Fun Friday #17 ~ Top 5 Pumpkin Breakfast Ideas
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