Apple picking

Fall is one of my favorite seasons - the air is (sometimes) crisp, college football is in full force, it's the season for pumpkin patches and family fun.  I'm hoping to fill our fall with fun family activities, and when I read about apple picking, I knew it had to be on our list.  A quick Google search turned up an orchard that looked perfect.

Our plan was to go to church, come home for a quick lunch, then head out for apple picking.  We would be home before afternoon naps and all would be well.  What's the saying about best laid plans?  Yeah...they don't work out sometimes.  Karsten was apparently overtired which equated to over crabby. He wasn't listening, was whining and being generally crabby, so we decided he should take a nap first.  Both boys napped for a few hours THEN we headed out to the orchard with two happy boys.  

Karsten thought apple picking was pretty fun.  He started out by delivering the apples we picked to the bag. 

But then he decided to get in on the apple picking action.


Showing Liam what we were picking from the trees. What a helpful big brother!


Scott wins the award for picking the most apples.


Here are a few of the trees we were picking from.


Liam is gettig tired of sitting in the cart watching us pick apples.  He wanted to get out and help!


Headed back up to the main house area to drop off our first bag of apples.  Note - if you go apple picking, be sure to check out their payment methods.  We were in the orchard picking apples when I got a Facebook message from a friend saying the orchard only accepted cash or checks - neither of which we carry.  OOPS - one of us ran to get cash.


Posing for some pictures with the apples.




The orchard encourages (yes encourages!) you to taste the apples.  Scott and Karsten took full advantage of this!




Blowing bubbles.  He was jealous that Karsten got to eat an apple and he just got Cheerios to munch on.  He likes apple but I didn't have anything to cut his up with.


This was an attempt at getting him to smile and look at the camera. I accomplished half of my goal. :)


He found this big stick while we were apple picking and it became his constant companion.  On an unrelated note - Karsten has grown in the past month or so - those shorts used to be at least mid-knee length!  Good thing it's time for jeans!


Then we took a hayride out to the further part of the orchard where they had two different types of apples.  When we got off the hayride, two of these apple pickers were laying on the ground.  They are basically a stick with a metal basket on the end.  Talk about a little boys dream - Karsten grabbed one and was ready to go.  Luckily, we all managed to escape unscathed from the swinging apple picker.




We couldn't take the stroller on the hayride, and Liam was thrilled to escape the stroller.  He wanted to get down on the ground, but we didn't see that going well.  Every old apple or piece of dirt would go right into his mouth!
 

Serious apple picking.


The apple picker HAD to be in the picture.


Look, I was there too! :)


Getting a few more apples before we headed back for the hayride.


The orchard offers free marshmellows to roast over the fire.  If you want smores, you can buy graham crackers and chocolate for $.50 - what a bargain.




This little stinker would NOT look at me.


We had an apple cider slush and the day was complete.  What a fun weekend!  We'll definitely be going apple picking next year!


Our apples.  The small bag is for one of Scott's co-workers, so we really 'only' got the two big bags.  Anyone have good apple recipes?

Fall Festival Fun

One of Scott's co-workers lives on the parade route for the Fall Festival.  They have a parade party every year with lots of fun, snacks and best of all, a great view of the parade.  We had a great time last year, so we put it on our calendar early so we were sure to make it.

We were right by the street so the boys had a great view of the parade.  It was a beautiful day for the parade, the morning was slightly cool, but it warmed up.


Karsten was waving at the color guard as they were starting the parade.


There was a drummer that lead the color guard down the street and Liam was entranced by the sound.


Karsten was a big fan of all of the big characters - they all got a wave from Karsten.


We waved and cheered for all of the cool classic cars that drove by.


This float was by an air conditioning company - the tube he was carrying blasted cool air.  It was a nice surprise!


Karsten was clapping along with us to one of the high school bands.


Karsten said 'hey, that looks like Papa's tractor!"


By the end of the parade, everyone was getting antsy.  It was so nice to be able to get up and wander around.  A big Thank You to Carolyn for inviting us - we can't wait until next year!

It was a great Saturday morning with my boys.  Happy fall, friends!

I remember this...

Liam is at the age where he is getting into everything.  Last night he pulled up on the dishwasher, grabbed a dinner plate and threw it on the floor - all before I could finish the words 'LIAM NO' and grab the plate.  The plate crashed into pieces and he just looked at it like 'hmm, wonder what happened there.".

I remember at this age, Karsten was obsessed with getting things out of the dishwasher when the lid was down.  Looks like Liam plans to follow in those footsteps.



I'm also remembering that this is the age where Karsten no longer liked to sit on our lap during church.  He wanted to stand on the floor or on the seat next to us.  Liam sees Karsten sitting on the kneeler and he wants to do whatever his brother is doing.  It looks like Liam is now at the age where he'll have to start wearing shoes, no more bare feet, especially as we get into cooler days.  

New trick

Liam has been pulling up and cruising along furniture for a few weeks now.  He's getting more daring and is starting to let go for a second before he plops down on the ground.

Tonight he crawled over to Karsten's big truck and stood up holding on to it.  He then took two steps holding onto it before plopping down. When Karsten was learning to walk, he walked behind a little push toy that we still have.  So far Liam hasn't been interested in that toy - perhaps he'll learn to walk using the dump truck!

Wordless Wednesday - Peek a boo!

Science 'periment

Scott did a dry ice lab with his students today and had some chunks of dry ice left over.  He put it in a bowl of water along with dawn and it created all of these bubbles.  Karsten thought doing science 'periments was pretty fun.

Seeing if he could blow the bubbles out of the bowl. Scott showed him how the bubbles didn't mix into the colored water and turn green.  Something about the gas that caused the bubbles not absorbing color.


Liam watching the science fun


Scott showed Karsten that if you put the bubbles on your hands, then clap your hands, the bubbles turn into a dust.




We tried to convince Karsten to let the bubbles grow so we could see how tall they would get, but he was having too much fun popping the bubbles.


I think this was the beginning of a lot more science 'periments at our house!

Fall planting

Since the unbearable heat this summer killed part of our lawn, Scott worked outside this weekend to prepare the lawn and plant some grass.

An area of grass along the highway near our house caught on fire a month or so ago when it was hot and dry.  The grass in that area has now grown back and looks lush and green.  Scott had the idea of burning the dead spots in our yard to encourage quicker growth of the new grass.

I was skeptical because of the logical big problems with this idea, but thought it was worth a try.  Scott got his blow torch out to try to burn a spot.  Unfortunately, it was too windy and made too much smoke that was blowing into our neighbors house.


Since his idea didn't work, he had to go for the old fashioned raking approach.  Good thing he had a helper!
 

Patience

It seems that Karsten has inherited my patience level - and for those of you who know me well, you know that I'm not so patient.  Unfortunately, when you add this to the whims of a 3 year old, it can be a roller coaster at our house.  One moment Karsten will be happy and the next he is whining and crying because something didn't go his way or because he couldn't do something he was trying to do.

At Eden's birthday party, he got a temporary tattoo and decided that he wanted it on his arm.  I didn't think he would like it because he doesn't like to be dirty, so I explained to him what it was to make sure that he still wanted it on his arm.  He said he did, so I got a washcloth and put it on his arm.  I didn't even remove the washcloth before he started crying and saying 'get it off'.

I'm sure you're shaking your head now because you know that you don't just rub off a temporary tattoo.  He proceeded to get more and more upset, so he got a trip to time out to calm down. After the cries and demands of 'I WANT IT OFF' were over, I got some nail polish remover and took it off.  Then the sobs completely subsided and this drama was officially over.  WHEW.



After all that drama and commotion, Scott and I decided to open one of our California bottles of wine.

Happy Birthday Eden!

Eden had her fifth birthday party at Monkey Bizness - aka 'The Fun Place'.  Karsten was so excited to go to a party and even more that it was at The Fun Place.

It seems like it was just yesterday that I was texting David every hour to find out how Jenn was doing and if their sweet little girl had arrived yet.  She took a while to arrive, so I was able to go to the hospital and be there when she arrived.  I still remember standing outside the nursery watching the nurse give her the first bath.  So precious.

And now she's FIVE!


All of the kids had a fantastic time at Monkey Bizness.  Karsten started climbing on this slide as soon as he saw it.


Liam had fun watching.






Weeee!


The birthday girl enjoying her party!




I thought Liam would enjoy crawling over the foam toys in the baby area; however, each time I put him down he tried to crawl out into the area with the big kids!


And when the kids and grown ups were having this much fun, who can blame Liam for wanting to play too!


And then drama struck.  Karsten jumped off a slide and since he had socks on, one foot slid forward and the other went back.  We think he jammed his toe.  He had some downtime then was back playing, just with a slight limp.


Karsten thought it was fun that he could make Liam bounce.


Down another slide.




Daddy and Liam even got to go down the slide.


Eden went down the slide so many times holding the hand of a different friend.  It was adorable - they would get to the top and scream all the way down.


The group shot - it was hilarious trying to get everyone in the picture and looking at the camera.


Eden LOVES monkeys, so Jenn made monkey cupcakes.  How cute are they?


I'd say the cupcakes were a big hit!




Then it was present time.  All of Eden's little friends 'helped' her open her presents.  Her Uncle Ben did a great job wrangling the kids and making sure Eden got to actually do the opening.


And after the cupcakes and presents, the party was over.  I think the birthday girl had a great party.  Thanks for letting us celebrate with you, Eden!