Rays AL East Champions!

They have finally done it! The Rays are in the playoffs this year. We have waited and waited for something like this and now it is here. We have tickets for the first game on Thursday night! I'll be taking my camera.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Since this week is the official first week of fall, I thought I would make some muffins. Makes the house smell good and they are very tasty.
Here is the recipe.
I put in 1.5 C. sugar instead of 2 C. They are plenty sweet.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
Submitted by: Kathy Fannoun
Prep Time: 15 Minutes Cook Time: 20 Minutes Ready In: 35 Minutes
Yields: 24 servings

INGREDIENTS:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 egg
3/4 cup egg substitute
1 (15 ounce) can solid pack pumpkin
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup canola oil
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
DIRECTIONS:
1. In a mixing bowl, combine the first eight ingredients. In another bowl, combine egg, egg substitute, pumpkin, applesauce and oil; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Stir in chocolate chips. Coat muffin cups with nonstick cooking spray; fill two-thirds full with batter. Bake at 400 degrees F for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2008 Allrecipes.com

I'm a Dunker

Sarah only likes her Oreos dunked. It is a talent. A long acquired one, at that. She says that you have to dunk one half for about 3-4 seconds and then bite off that half. Then you dunk the rest. The milk has to be cold and only skim milk will do. Sarah eats 4 when she comes home from school. It is ALWAYS her after school snack. Mommy is in big trouble if we run out! Sarah goes through withdrawal. Seriously!

I Wanna Be a Dog

This is a photo I just took of Chelsea. Tough life this dog has. I wanna be a dog!

Cupcake!

My friend, Amanda, (dalovely damanda) sent this lovely cupcake to me last week. She is such a sweetie AND she was nice enough to realize that there are NO Weight Watchers points in this cupcake. Thanks Amanda!

Labor Day Weekend

We are not doing much this weekend, but sometimes that is a good feeling. Not rushing around all over the place. This past week we finally bought Sarah her shoes for pointe. It was a long time coming, but we finally got a pair that fits. I had to sew all the elastics and ribbons on for her and she actually got part of a lesson with the shoes on Tuesday night. Today she is walking around the house in them trying to break them in and she keeps saying, "aren't they pretty?"
This afternoon, Bill and Daniel went to the Rays game. We only have tickets for a couple more games for this regular season. We are trying to get the post season tickets, too, but man, they are not cheap. I think we will get them anyway. We have waited so long for this!

First Day of School...Take Two

We are going to try this again. Here is Daniel all ready for his first day of middle school. He is SO ready for this. He is SO excited. Not surprisingly, his tummy was a little upset this morning, but we didn't dwell on it and I am sure he will be just fine.
Here is Sarah on her first day of the last year of middle school. I think that is what she told me! She is excited. More excited to see her friends and catch up than the actual school part. We found her schedule on the Parent Connect site yesterday, so even though she doesn't know the order of her classes, she knows who her teachers are going to be.

Can you believe how much taller Sarah is than Daniel? I wonder how long that will last?
Here I snuck a photo of the kids walking to the bus stop! I had told them that I would refrain from embarrassing them at the bus stop with the camera. I couldn't resist this and Daniel caught me! He was trying to hide!
After the bus left from the neighborhood across the street, the kids let me pop this photo. That's because there were no other kids around yet. LOL!
I'm going to be dead for this one if they actually saw me take it! I guess they can just blame their mom for being a dork!