Sunday night through yesterday, we were up to our necks in the stomach bug and not feeling well around here. Not this mama, but Maxim and Hubby and then, Nate felt under-the-weather yesterday. So, the boys and I stayed home and watched a good amount of t.v. in pajamas. Here’s to hoping we are over that little bug. #momcantgetsick

Since I didn’t post yesterday about my weekend recap, I am MORE than ready to share all about our past weekend today! AND. I have a recipe for you to try…just in time for Halloween!

For starters…the recipe. Nothing fancy, but oh, they are good. 

Graveyard Bars.

Graveyard Bars…or chocolate chip bars 🙂

Graveyard Bars

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

2 sticks (1 cup) butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar, packed

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1 10-oz. pkg. Nestle’ Toll House semi-sweet chocolate chips

Peeps ghosts and gravestones

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. In a large mixing bowl, combine the butter, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla extract until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one. Gradually beat in the flour mixture. Fold in about half the bag of chocolate chips. ( I used the Nestle’ Toll House Halloween semi-sweet chocolate & orange colored morsels.) Grease a 9×13 pan and spread batter into the pan. Sprinkle the rest of the bag of chocolate chips on top of the batter. Bake for 18-21 minutes. When cool, make rectangular slits into the bars and remove the rectangle pieces of chocolate chip bar. This is where you can “taste-test” the bars to make sure they are good. 🙂 Add Peeps ghosts and gravestones. You have yourself a Halloween graveyard! *This is the Nestle’ Toll-House chocolate chip recipe on the back of their packages.

These little guys add the perfect touch to the chocolate chip bars!

I was hoping to share with you all of the other pictures I took when making these delicious bars, but they were deleted from my phone. #storageproblems

These Graveyard Bars were the perfect thing to bring to Grandma Helen’s Fall Party last Friday. And they are so good, that I bought two more bags of Halloween chocolate chips because I intend on making them again this week!

Speaking of Grandma Helen’s Fall Party…this is one of my favorite things my family does every. single. year.

We get together at Grandma Helen’s and have the great-grandkids dress up in their Halloween costumes and ring Grandma’s doorbell so they can “trick-or-treat”. We started this ten years ago, when Nate was just a baby. My family is always looking for an excuse to get together and since we live an hour away, I always knew we wouldn’t be able to go trick-or-treating at my parents’ house, nor my grandparents’ house. So, we came up with the idea of having a Fall Party, so Grandma Helen, my parents, aunts & uncles…yep, the whole family…we could all see each of the kids in their Halloween costumes.

The kids “trick-or-treat” Grandma’s door, then we all enjoy pizza, snacks, appetizers, and a great night full of family fun. That usually involves the cousins all running around and playing, while the adults settle in for a tough game of Mexican Train Dominoes.

Grandma Helen’s trick-or-treaters 🙂

Grandma Helen with many of the great-grandkids (missing eight other kiddos!)…we’ve got a lot of kids 🙂

Abbie and the peanut butter ball Eyeballs she made 🙂 The kids LOVED these!

These CrAzY kids!

The cousins playing a card game

A favorite game we play…Mexican Train 🙂

No. Grandma Helen does not smoke or have a fog machine. It just looks a little hazy. #photographerproblems

We had a wonderful evening, enjoying all kinds of good desserts and food, and being together. We left Grandma Helen’s with full bellies and happy hearts. 🙂