Girls Night IN!

We were supposed to have a girls night OUT with our SoBo high school girls small group, but since it was going to be a cold and rainy night, we stayed inside! I'm putting up this post because it was a fun and affordable evening that would make a great family party or evening with girlfriends! We had several "Fall" desserts we baked with the girls and while our treats were baking we carved/decorated Trader Joe's pumpkins ( which were only 3.49 a piece!) We baked sugar cookies and had the girls add candy corn and m&m's to decorate them.We also made some delicious "pumpkin bars", the recipe is below :).

 We had each girl chip in $5 to cover their pumpkin ( which they took home) and the supplies for the treats, which made the party supper affordable! I made some practically free "give thanks" and "thankful" signs, by just finding a fun font on my computer, printing the letters nice and big and glueing them on card stock squares. I then hung them on what I hang everything in the world on ;) some twine and clothespins ( I keep the twine and pins up, and change out the signs when we have guests over or for up coming holidays ).

Here's some of the pic's from the evening! I'm thankful for the Staff and our sweet girls, we have so much fun together!  P.S. there's a funny pick of my ever so prego belly next to one of the pumpkins, My belly and Mr. Ford are getting big!

Here's the PUMPKIN BAR recipe we used which was FABULOUS! The cream cheese frosting that goes with it is SO easy and tastes just like "Yummy Cupcakes" (in Burbank) Red Velvet Frosting!

Ingredients

Bars:

• 4 eggs
• 1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 15-ounce can pumpkin
• 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Icing:

• 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Using an electric mixer at medium speed, combine the eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin until light and fluffy. Stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix at low speed until thoroughly combined and the batter is smooth. Spread the batter into a greased 13 by 10-inch baking pan. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting. Cut into bars.

To make the icing: Combine the cream cheese and butter in a medium bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the sugar and mix at low speed until combined. Stir in the vanilla and mix again. Spread on cooled pumpkin bars.

Enjoy!  CJ