Apples, apples and more apples!!

So last week when I made apple dumplings my Greek neighbor, Albert, happened to stop over and I sent him home with an apple dumpling. He had never had one and showed up at our door an hour later with stars in his eyes asking me how I make them and what kind of apples I use. Fast forward to yesterday..... about 1:00pm the doorbell goes off and it's Albert with a case, yes a case, of 100 Granny Smith apples! He owns a local diner and asked his vendor to get him a case. I was shocked! He didn't want money for them and his only request is that I teach the girls how to make apple dumplings one day. Soooo, guess what I'm doing today? I pulled out my largest crock pot and filled it with apples for sauce and I have a double batch of apple crisp cooking away in the oven. He's never had apple crisp either so I'll be sending a batch over to him later. So now I only have 50 apples in my fridge, lol. Hmmm, I wonder what I'll make tomorrow!

It's hockey time!!!

Wohoo, it's almost hockey season!! Now, I really could care less about NHL hockey but for some reason we got hooked on minor league hockey a few years ago and now it's become one of our favorite winter activities. The girls absolutely love going and have so much fun while we are there. We have the same seats for every game so we know everyone that sits around us and the girls have a blast cheering with everyone. Our team is of course our local team, the Reading Royals. They are training a few miles from our house and Sunday they had a meet and greet session after practice so we decided to surprise the girls by going. Before we went in to meet the players daddy had another surprise for Rylee, her very own jersey!! She was so excited and had every player sign it during the meet and greet. There are a few returning players but it's mostly a new team so hopefully that's a good sign that this season will be better than last year. Pre-season games start next weekend so look for lots of pictures soon! LETS GO ROYALS!!!

Rylee and daddy showing off their new jerseys while waiting for the players to come off the ice.

With Scott Langdon, one of last years returning players

With Rob LaLonde, another returning player.

Apple Dumpling recipe.....

Wohoo, someone actually reads my blog AND asked for my apple dumpling recipe, lol!! I know I have a few faithful readers, but these are people I actually know so I'm very excited to have a reader that I've never "spoken" to! Okay, sorry for the excitement, it's raining here and I'm dealing with my first cold of the season so I'm a little drugged up at the moment, lol! Anyway, there really is no "recipe" for my apple dumplings, it's just kind of one of those things that gets passed down through the family, but I'll try my best to estimate on the quantities. This recipe is so stinking easy there's no way you could mess it up unless you burn the dumplings......

You'll need...

Pie crust, homemade or store bought. If using store bought get a couple of packs.

Apples...baking work best because they hold up during cooking. I usually use Granny Smith
but used Jonathon the last time because local Granny Smith aren't ready yet. Peel, core
and slice the apples.

Butter....the real stuff if possible

Brown sugar.....the darker the better.

Cinnamon.


Roll out (or unwrap) the pie crust. If using store bought use one pie crust per dumpling. Place peeled and sliced apples in the middle. Top with about 2TBS butter and 4TBS. brown sugar and then fold the sides of the pie crust up to the top until they all touch. Sprinkle with cinnamon and bake at 350 degrees until the crust is golden, usually about 45min. The brown sugar will melt out, scoop that up and drizzle it over the top when serving warm.

Let me know if you make them and how they turn out!!

The "official" start of fall...

Nothing announces the start of fall like having good old fashion apple dumplings for dinner. The kind that drip with brown sugar when you lift them off the tray, not the cheap ones in the store. Yes, I know what you're thinking, who eats apple dumplings for dinner, right? Well, I was raised Pa. Dutch and it's totally normal in that culture. In fact it's like an annual rite of passage and I look forward to it every year. Dale is still getting used to it, okay, he still thinks it's strange but he just smiles and goes along with me. I still remember the first time he went to my parents house for dinner and my mom served apple dumplings, I thought he was going to fall out of his chair. So anyway, last Friday we headed up to Green Dragon to get our apples. Green Dragon is like an outdoor Amish farmers market meets flea market kind of place. The Amish grow the BEST produce and it's dirt cheap up there. Plus it was a nice night to be walking around outside and the girls had fun watching the Amish buggy's pull in and out. Sunday was apple dumpling day and they were delish! I made them a little big, in fact so big that we couldn't even finish the tray AND I still have apples left over for another batch. Here's a picture of my hard work before we cut into them! The brown stuff on the bottom of the tray is all the brown sugar that melted out of the dumplings.

By the way, we eat ours right out of the oven with milk poured over them. It's the only way I know how to eat one, I don't think I've ever had one cold.

September Update....

Wow, I've been so busy that I haven't updated in almost a month!!
Let's see, the girls are in school now and doing great!

Rylee loves all day school and is having fun buying everyone milk with my money, lol! Her school has a lunch account program that allows us to deposit money ahead of time.
It's great for the kids because they don't have to carry money with them
every day but she doesn't get the fact that it's still money! All she knows
is that she pays for her lunch by placing her finger on the pad so of course
when a new friend asked Rylee to buy her an extra milk Rylee said okay.
Of course I put a stop to it right away and there's no more buying rounds of
milk for the class, lol! If "blanks" mom wants her to have an extra milk
than she can pay for it! Anyway, other than that Rylee is doing great
and every day has been "green" so far. She fills out a chart at the end of each day, green is good, yellow means she was warned about something but stopped, red means it was a bad day
with multiple warnings and blue means the teacher and or principle will be calling soon.
Man, if she ever gets blue she should just find a different bus stop to get off of because
she won't like living here anymore, lol!

Miss Avery had her first school field trip yesterday and absolutely
loved riding the bus! We went to a local orchard to learn about apples. We also
took a hayride, picked an apple and then went to the pumpkin patch to
pick a pumpkin. It was a very fun morning but VERY buggy! I've been told that she's extremely shy in school but she's getting better. I knew she would be shy, that's just who she is.


And I'll end my little update with this picture. I hit up a HUGE consignment sale this week called Just Between Friends and scored big time. Word of advice, if you ever have
this close by check it out! I got SO many things that look brand new and even some stuff with the original tags still on them dirt cheap! Example....brand new Gymboree fleece pants WITH the $22 store tag still on them....$3.50 at the sale!!!!! Brand new shoes for Rylee, store tag reads $16.95.... $5.25 at the sale. Can you say SCORE!!! Anyway, Miss Avery went with me and was such a good girl during the hour I spent shopping so I let her go through the toys to pick something out. She picked out a real working vacuum cleaner. It's cordless,rechargeable and has a place to empty out all the dirt when she's done with it. Price.....$6.00! It's a Bissel so I'm sure someone spent a nice chuck of change on it brand new.

Germs...

Ugh, this past weekend was not a good one! It all started Thursday around 11:00 when the school nurse called to tell me that Rylee wasn't feeling well. So, I pick her up thinking it will just be one of those 24 bugs, WRONG!! Whatever is going around is one nasty intestinal virus and it lasts for days. Rylee is pretty much over it now but Avery is still out of commission. I feel so bad for her, she just doesn't know to run to the bathroom so half the time she doesn't make it and anything she eats goes through her within an hour. The poor thing has absolutely no energy so she's been laying around all weekend taking naps. I called the doctor Sunday night and I think I'm going to take her in if it doesn't get better by tomorrow. She's a little underweight to begin with so it's not like she can afford to lose a few pounds.

Pre-school!

Well, Avery is hopefully having fun at her first day of pre-school
right now! She was a little clingy at first but after a few
minutes she left my side with no tears and
went over to the play area to meet some new friends.
So now I have no excuses, that elliptical is waiting for me.
I loaded my MP3 with some new songs to get me going, lets see
how long it lasts, lol!

1st grade here I come!!

Rylee is officially a 1st grader now! She must have been excited because she was up at 6:45, 15 minutes before her alarm clock was set to go off. She got dressed, made her bed and was in our room before I even got up. I'm sure she'll have some good stories to tell when she gets home, she was in afternoon kindergarten last year so this is her first year for lunch at school and recess with her friends.

Miss Avery will start pre-school tomorrow. She seems excited about it but

I have a feeling tomorrow morning is going to be a rough one. She's a

shy little girl and I anticipate lots of tears when I drop her off. Stay tuned for

pictures of her on her first day as a pre-schooler!!

Summer fun at the pool..

With the future weather forecast looking a bit chilly and school starting next week I think our pool days are severely numbered. I grabbed my camera today so I could get a few end of summer shots. Hopefully the weather will hold out today, the pool is having the last moonlight swim tonight and the girls really want to go. We've missed every one so far for various reasons so it will be neat to see how the girls like swimming at night.

Miss Avery and her noodle, she thinks she's an Olympic swimmer when she uses this...

A rare sighting of Rylee above the water..

She could jump into the pool for hours...

Rylee practicing her new talent, a back dive off the wall

Friday night fun

What do you do with two bored kids on a rainy Friday night? Take them
to Ozzy's of course! This was our first time there, it wasn't anything special but the girls had fun and burned off some extra energy in the process. We stopped at Cold Stone on the way home, yummy!!



In the two story high kids gym...

We got a game of mini golf in after the rain stopped

If only they could get along like this all the time......

Gosselin sighting...

Last night Dale took the girls to the Reading Phillies game while I was at work and they ran into the Gosselins while they were there. Well, nine of the Gosselins, Kate wasn't there for obvious reasons. Yes, we are fans of the show (minus Dale, lol!). We live in their hometown and now we live about 15 minutes from their new house. It's funny to watch the show because they go to so many local places. Our girls get their hair cut at the same place as the Gosselins, we shop at the same stores, etc. Most of the paparazzi pictures are taken at places within 2 minutes of our house. Anyway, so last night they apparently rented a box close to where Dale and the girls were. Rylee was so excited to meet Maddy, in fast she's spent the entire morning watching re-runs of the show. Dale said that Jon was very nice and Rylee and Avery got to talk briefly with the kids. TLC was also there filming so there's a slight chance that the girls will also be on the show!!

**Disclaimer-the two asian girls in the picture are not Gosselin kids, they are our nieces. I have been asked about this twice already, lol***

After a long day at the pool.....

Seems Miss Avery just can't keep up with these long days at the pool. The poor girl passed out while sitting on the couch just 10 minutes after we got home yesterday afternoon. She must've worn herself out trying to keep up with the big kids, lol!

Hersheypark happy!

We decided to surprise the girls with an overnight trip to Hersheypark on Wednesday. Now, we have known about this for a few weeks but kept it a secret, man was that hard! Anyway, so we got up on Wednesday morning and acted like it was just an average day. I secretly packed while Dale ran to get the tickets. Around 1:00 we told the girls to get in the car and they noticed the bags in the back. We told them that we were going to a different pool, one kind of far away. When we got to Hershey Rylee noticed the street lights (they are Hershey Kisses) and said "Hey, we're at Hersheypark!!" I told them that the rides were closed and that we were just going to a hotel to swim for the day. So we get to the hotel, check in, swim a bit and then get ready for dinner. After dinner we told them that we were going to a big playground. Well, they got SO excited when we pulled in and parked. Of course Rylee accused me of lying to her but she got over it real fast! We did Chocolate World and then headed in for a few hours of rides before the park closed. (You get into Hershey for free the night before if you buy full day tickets) The next morning we got up, checked out and went to Bob Evans for breakfast (Carmel praline banana pancakes, YUM!!) before heading back to Hershey. We had perfect weather and spent most of the morning in the water park before doing more rides. It was a long day and the girls passed out within 10 minutes of getting in the car, lol!

Rylee and Avery as factory workers!

Miss Avery in the wave pool

Rylee rocking her new Speedo. I think she's beyond "girly" suits, she likes racing suits better now. I also think her arm muscles are bigger than mine, lol. Yep, she's my little swimmer!

On our way home after a long day

Pocono Race

Well, once again Dale went to a race and it was rained out! This seems to be a pretty consistent thing, lol! Anyway, the two other guys that went with Dale couldn't make the trip back the following day so my dad and I decided to go on Monday. Good thing we went because we had a great time and were treated to much more than just a race. We had pit passes and garage passes that gave us access to pretty much everywhere and everything before the race AND after the race we were invited to Victory Lane to celebrate with Denny Hamlin, the winner. How cool is that?!?!? When we got home we realized that we were standing right behind Kenny Wallace as he was doing the post race report and because of that we were on TV for about an hour!!!!!

Me with Kurts car before the race.......

Joe Gibbs being interviewed after the race.

He owns the winning car.

My dad with Kenny Wallace....

Our private picture in Victory lane with Denny Hamlin, the winner.

Last nights meet

Rylee had her final swim meet last night and it was so close but we lost :-(

Rylee did great as usual and I swam and beat the 18 year olds twice! I even came from about 20 feet behind to pass the other team and win in a relay. Ha, take that!! This old mama still has it in her!!

Our final record for the season stands at 5-1, not too bad! Hopefully next year we can win the league championship!! Anyway, here are a few assorted pictures from the evening.

Rylee and the gang getting ready to hold the flags for the national anthem before the meet......

All of them up on the blocks during the anthem. Rylee is in lane two.

Miss Avery acting goofy and trying on a pair of goggles.

Rylee taking a break in between races.

Well, that's the end of swim team for this summer. We have the team party tonight and then we get a break until November when it all starts up again.

Rylee is really excited about swimming for Wilson this year, hopefully she'll enjoy it!!

On that note, it's hotter than you know what outside so I'm going to log off and head to the pool for the afternoon! Ahhh, spending the summer at the pool is hard work but someone has to do it, lol!!!

Aunt Hopes party....

Aunt Hope came home from Oregon for a visit, YAY!!!!
During her visit we had a picnic at my parents house so Hope could see everyone, here is a picture of her playing with the kids......

Hope you had a safe trip home and we can't wait to see you again!!

Rylee's first swimming video

Ugh, I feel like it's been forever since I updated. We're in the middle of swim season right now and it seems like we're always at the pool for either practice or a meet. Our last meet of the season is in two week and then we get a few months off before age group swimming starts. Age group is something new to Rylee and she seems really excited to do it. I, on the other hand, grew up on the age group team and know how loooooooong those meets can be so I'm not quite as excited. We're talking 3-4 hour swim meets every Saturday from November until February. Add to that a few invitations that last all day and there's not much time for anything else. And that's not including practice three evenings a week. Ugh!! But, it's the next step in the sport so we'll support her as long as she wants to do it.

We had yet another meet tonight and Rylee did awesome! Her butterfly has improved 100% since the beginning of the season and her backstroke looks great as well. In the beginning of the season she was turning over onto her belly WAY too early while doing backstroke and getting disqualified so I showed her how to look for the backstroke flags and then count her strokes. Now she knows that once she crosses the flags she has 10 more stroke until the wall. Anyway, here's her first swimming video. Hopefully it works, this is the first time I tried to add a video to the blog............

If you're in the area two weeks from now stop by the pool. We have our last meet that night and if we win we'll be undefeated and win our league!!

Swim meet pics.

Yes, I was a good mommy tonight and I remembered to take my camera so here are a few pictures from the meet earlier tonight. Oh yeah, we won 250-231, it was a close meet!!

Up on the blocks, getting ready to start...

and she's off......

Her freestyle looks amazing for a six year old...

Rylee in the middle doing the team cheer before the meet.

Go Wyo. Hills!!!!

Mmmm, blueberries!

YES!!! They are finally ready! We headed out to the local "pick your own" place this morning after swimming practice to pick the first blueberries of the season. It worked out perfectly since Rylee is always hungry after practice. I swear, they really should weigh the kids before and after they go into the fields because both Rylee and Avery ate two pounds while picking, lol!

Rylee while hunting for the perfect bush

My hormonal three year old being miserable

chowing down on the way home
See the marks on Rylee's hands? That's how we know what she's swimming in the meet tonight, lol!