JOYful Moments

Happy Friday!  I'm excited to share the joy filled moments of my week with you today.  We had more smiles than tears, everyone is healthy and had lots of fun plans.  It was a great week and it's now officially Fall.  I'm ready for cooler temps, delicious pumpkin treats, scarves, football and my birthday! 

These were definitely the joy filled moments of the week:

PUMPKINS
I made my first pumpkin recipe of the season.  Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies!!  The cookies were amazing... like fluffy clouds of pumpkin goodness.  I was going to wait until next week to share the recipe, but it's too good to not share right away.  Do yourself a favor and celebrate the arrival of Fall with these delicious cookies!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

(original recipe from Two Twenty One's blog, but I made some changes and my recipe is below)

1/2 c canola oil
1 c pumpkin puree
1 c sugar
1 egg
1 t vanilla
1 t whole milk (yes, 1 t milk :)
1 t cinnamon
2 t baking powder
2 c flour
1 c chocolate chips

Combine wet ingredients.  Add in dry ingredients.  Fold in chocolate chips last.

Let the cookie dough sit for 15 minutes before you bake.  The dough will be runnier than regular cookie dough, but should still hold its shape when you scoop the dough out.  Scoop dough out with a cookie scoop for uniform cookies.  Recipe makes 2 dozen cookies.

Bake at 350 for 10-11 minutes.  Let cool on cookie sheet for a couple of minutes.

And since we're talking about pumpkins...
We scoped out the pumpkins at the store, but decided it was too early to buy real ones. 

KIDS SAY:
Mom, Prince Charming is not listening to me! - Olive
Which reminds me... we decided on Halloween costumes this week!

SOLO Sandy ride while Olive was at school.

It feels like SUMMER again so we had dinner at the club and pretended it was Summer.  The berry salad was delicious.

The grad students in Kevin's department always host a back to school PICNIC for everyone in September.  We had a great time.  Man, is it nice not to be the new people :)  The kids played with everyone and we had a really fun time visiting.

I made my first pot of soup - Taco SOUP - this week.  It was too hot for it, but it tasted delicious.

We've had some crazy big BUGS hanging out at our house.  I love when they find our big windows so we can check them out close up from inside the house.

We went shoe shopping for Olive and she had to have these GLITTER tennis shoes.  She actually gasped when she saw them and it was love at first sight.  It's so fun when your kids start getting older and having opinions about all of their favorite things.

I like to try to coordinate the kid's outfits when I can.  Double DINOSAURS is usually a crowd pleaser for them.  Olive insisted on acting like a dino in every picture.  haha

You know you're a grown up when you get excited to get your GUTTERS repaired.  We've had on ongoing issue that we finally got taken care of this week.  Fletcher was a great project manager.

Poor Fletcher is TEETHING and has been kind of pitiful throughout the week.  When we found something that made him happy we did it a lot - sunglasses, Moana, baths, swings, playing outside, etc.  Anything to distract him :)

Sunset WALKS have been a fun thing this week.  Like I mentioned it has gotten hot again in the Midwest so late night walks have been slightly cooler than our usual afternoon strolls.  The sunsets have been so pretty with all those cotton candy clouds.

BOOK CLUB is always fun.  The each pick out a stack of books and we all pile into the rocker recliner.  We take turns reading books and then they head to bed.  It's sweet moments like this one that make me want to freeze time.

Hope you had a great week!!  What were some things that brought you JOY this week??

In Case You Missed it on Polka-Dotty Place:

Monday: Usborne Love
Tuesday: Zucchini Brownies & Fall Recipes
Wednesday: Creatives Ways to Save


I'm linking up with my friend Beth at Our Pretty Little Girls today along with my usuals.

Linking up with

 ThoughtsforThursday,

HighFiveforFriday, FiveonFriday, and Momfessionals