Fall Fun

Last night the big boys went to a church sleepover for all the boys. They played tennis and carved pumpkins and watched a movie. Here are their fall creations.

We're up to our eyeballs in apples--10 bushels. We're making applesauce like crazy.



Have you ever gone picking apples in an orchard? We do every year. It's such a nice fall tradition: "testing" apples to see if you like that tree's produce, the kids running under branches or yelling for mom and dad to "look at this one!," filling the baskets and pulling them and a kid in the wagon, looking at the bee hives, enjoying tromping through the orchard and being in the country and breathing a sigh of relief that time slowed down enough to allow you to amble. It's romantic and satisfying way down deep inside.

Then we come home and fill the house with wonderful apple smells for an entire week.



Well, this year we set out to repeat the experience. We hopped in the car with our sights set on an orchard 45 min. away. The crop in the area where we live was decimated by cold so we just decided that we would enjoy the drive to the distant orchard on such a beautiful day. An hour later we had not arrived at our destination. We followed the directions, but no orchard. We were in the country, still enjoying our trip, but decided to follow the road a bit longer. Of course, there were no gas stations or stores, so we stopped at 4 or 5 roadside pull-offs during the excursion to let the kids relieve themselves. When we finally did find a gas station they only had a port-a-potty out front. We pulled to the side of the road just down the way.

By now we were two hours into our road trip and ready to get there. The potty breaks were getting annoying and the roads were narrow and windy. I was nauseous and cranky. The kids were whiny. Jon was unsuccessfully looking for football games on the AM radio.

We had finally given up on the original orchard and had set our sights on one down the road. By the way, we were now in another state. We called a friend to Google the orchard we knew of. Three friends and six calls later we had our directions. He hung up and announced that it would be another 45 min. and that we would get there about thirty minutes from closing. Groan.

So this is the mindset we were in when we saw this:



They had one of these...



And one of these...



Oh, and did I mention that it was a gas station too. How convenient for us.



The guy in the red shirt owned the produce market, the gas station, and an orchard about 10 miles away in the country. No one ever ventured to his orchard so he bought this roadside spot. Well, the guy in the red shirt got rich off us. We bought 11 bushels on the spot and fed the carousel quarters until we ran out.

Maybe we'll go find a pumpkin patch next.

Plunder

One great reason to have 4 children is the booty that you haul home every October 31st. We found that Popcorn (our little lion) was the cash cow, combining cute and shy. Mix those two qualities and you're sure to get an extra piece and sometimes a whole handful.



Beyond that, they all have nice costumes. One horrid creature thing passed us and I told her, "Honey (we're in the south), you might just want to get a little more sleep and use some good detangler." Our crew was at least recognizable: a lion, colonial girl, Batman, Ben 10 (neighbor) and a very adorable monkey that kept raiding the overfill stash that we kept in the wagon.



The gang.



A very cute pilferer.



The loot! This was our big pile before we weeded out all hard candies, pixie sticks, taffy and gum. That stuff goes to the office. And what is left mostly contains good chocolate.

My personal stash is full for the year. Yea! for junk food. I think chocolate should be made a food group.