Apple Orchard

Long time, no blog!  My husband got on me today that it has been months since I have posted anything, so I'm getting my lazy rear end in gear and finally updating this blog.  We have had a busy few days, so maybe I'll go back and do a couple of others too.  For now, here is our trip to the apple orchard.

We had planned to go last Friday, but Dorothy woke up really sick and there was no way we could go anywhere.  I hadn't been real hot myself the night before, so we stayed home and watched movies all day (other than taking my son out in the afternoon for some very belated back to school shopping).  Unfortunately, by the time we got around to hitting the apple orchard on Monday, Kevin had to miss out.  Poor guy got to spend the day he took off work dealing with a sick little girl.

 I never would have known about this orchard if not for Malcolm's preschool taking a field trip there.  They alternate years with a pumpkin patch, which I will go on Friday with Dorothy's class.  It is a good size place and from my unofficial taste test of all apple cider doughnuts in the general vicinity, the ones from here are the best.  We brought a dozen home, and I don't expect them to last a full 24 hours.  It's for the best since they don't keep well unfortunately.

As soon as we got there, the kids wanted to run around and play.  They have a nice (fenced) area for the kids with tractors, a wood train and fire truck, a caterpillar made out of tractor tires, a pirate ship, a couple of play houses, animals, and a fence maze.  All great for burning off some extra energy.

 Both kids went straight for the tractors right away.  They were so quick though that it was hard to get many pictures.

 Dorothy drives the fire truck while two other little boys ride in the back making siren noises.

 Malcolm drives the train after telling his sister where to sit.

I made them stay together to do the maze and they got stuck.  Another mom sent one of her teenage girls back in to show them the way out.  I was wondering if I was going to have to go in and get them out, so was very grateful for someone else to do it.  Thank you!

 Malcolm loves this bell for some reason.  Every year, we have to stop by it a couple of times so that he can ring it; and it is loud!

 Dorothy isn't tall enough to ring the bell without help.


 Last night, we watched National Velvet, so the kids were super excited to see pony rides.  We usually go on a week day, and I think they only have pony rides and horse drawn wagon rides on the weekend.  Even though it was Monday, they were treating it like a weekend since it was Columbus Day.

 She was very excited to get the smallest pony, which was still bigger than any she has ridden in the past.

Malcolm had the largest pony, but was also about the biggest kid on this particular run.


After pony rides, we headed in for hot cider and doughnuts.  Yum!  Since Kevin couldn't come with us, we headed to the store next and bought cider and doughnuts to take home with us.  Yum, again!  Then it was time to pick our apples.  Since it was a holiday weekend, we couldn't drive back to the orchard.  They had wagons to take us back there, but they wouldn't let me bring my little wagon with us.  I learned the hard way that it is impossible to wrangle two kids and full baskets of apples, so I usually bring a wagon to make hauling easier, especially when I'm the only adult.  This year, each kid got their own basket to fill up, so we hopped on the wagon and headed out to the orchard.

 Carrying her own basket.  It was much easier before there were any apples in it.

 Getting heavier with red delicious apples.  It's a good things she has freakish upper body strength.

 I was having a hard time getting a picture of both of them together, but perched on a ladder, they had to be close to each other.

 A bit closer.  I wish his eyes were more open, but this is the only other one where she was looking at me.

 Of course, Malcolm had to climb the ladder to pick apples because the ones up high are obviously better than the ones he could reach from the ground.  He made me a little nervous, but did just fine.

 Dorothy had to try the ladder too, but it was (thankfully) too big for her to climb.

 The kids with their haul.  The red delicious apples are on the bottom and the golden delicious are on the top.

 See, sometimes they really like each other.  Actually, they get along surprisingly well, and  I hope they can keep that closeness as they get older.

 On the wagon, ready to head back.  They were both completely over me trying to take photos.  One was simply silly, while the other refused to look in my direction at all.

 At home, they had to count out how many apples they picked (92).  Here they are dancing amongst their bounty.

Playing with the apples is almost as much fun as picking them.  They laid them all out in a pattern line.

If the orchard was closer, we would go more than once during the Fall.  It is such a nice day out.