Apple Picking

The boys love to go to the apple orchard to pick apples. For that matter, so do I! My sister really wanted to come get apples as well & wanted to go to this particular orchard near me for the view. Good choice don't you think.....

I bought five 1/2 peck bags so each child could fill their own bag. I sent home Miss L & Miss H's apples with them. They were certainly fun to watch as they experienced the apple orchard. My boys were old hat at it & were so fast that I have no photos(!!!) of them picking their apples. ::sigh::

This is a completely random shot of Miss L I took at the orchard simply because of the smile on her face. It's hard to make her smile when I'm trying to take photos! I caught her unaware her & she is just totally enjoying herself. We were the only people here so the kids had full run of the place. Well, the little girls within reason, but they still got to run a bit.

Miss H was bending down to pick a "flower." Miss L saw her & beat her to it....

To the victor goes the spoils or the opportunity to "sniff" the flower. ;-)

When my sister arrived we decided to eat first. It was cold up where we were. I'm glad I made everyone where sweatshirts & such. The wind kept coming up & it had the bite of winter to it. It wasn't freezing, but it was definitely chilly.

I put the girls in their stroller simply to contain them. They had a small lunch. I think they wanted to get back down and just run! They did have a great snack later to make up for it though.

My guys having their sandwiches & drinks. That's my truck in the background. I put three car seats across the back bench (it's an extended cab) and then one car seat up front (one of my boys rides there) with my oldest in the middle of the front. It's not overly comfortable for the boys - especially B in the middle of the front seat - but it is doable & it allows us some mobility when we have both babies.

It's apple picking time! I had to show Miss L that, YES, she could pick them right off the tree and I kept telling her the ones on the ground were "yucky." You can see she's still a bit nervous - is this okay??? Isn't that what her eyes seem to be saying as she leans way in to the tree?

She soon understood that she could pick them AND put them in her little bag. With a bit of help from me, she soon had it filled. She then picked one last apple and carried it around forever! I finally took it from her after we were home for awhile when she had started trying to eat it. All she was getting was skin & apples don't agree with her tummy.

I gave Miss H her bag and a couple of apples to keep her occupied while I helped Miss L. She spent a good 10 minutes or so putting them in and taking them out of her bag. She seemed to be quite happy doing this.

Soon enough it was her turn. I had one of my boys helping Miss L finish up her picking while I started helping Miss H. I had some help with these photos from B while I held Miss H up to the higher branches to pick.

And of course, no apple picking trip is complete without sampling an apple. As you can see, Miss H has not just one but two - one for each hand of course! She didn't get much apple, but she certainly enjoyed trying to!

Before we left we got a group shot of the boys by one of the apple trees. The girls were already buckled in to the truck. We did get a shot of all six kids once we were out of the orchard.

When we arrived back at my house, my sister had a really neat set of pages for "Apple Math" that she had found on the internet. We had the boys all go through that together & I think they had fun although they were chomping at the bit to run off and play together. They had spent all day Saturday together but apparently that wasn't enough time! ;-)

We ended the table time with some apple printing. The boys had a GREAT time with this & it was VERY messy! It probably wouldn't have been something I would have attempted so I'm very glad my sister came & had the kids do it. They had a really great time with it.



Overall it was a really fun day. Busy but fun!