They Ate From the Tree...

of which they were suppose to be picking.

As most of you, my faithful blog readers know...fall is my very favorite time of year! Really, every season is my favorite because I am always ready for the next one but I just love fall. I love the leaves changing, the smell of fall, the cool weather, the pumpkins, the back to school excitement, everything!!! However, despite my love for this season I have never ventured out to pick apples. Well....today we did and we LOVED it.

Apparently we have a fabulous orchard within an hours ride, by car not horse, of our house. The best part was they even had a pumpkin patch. We found our very first pumpkin for the year after careful examination of each and every pumpkin in the patch. Honestly the best part wasn't the pumpkins but the restaurant attached to the orchard in which we partook of a fabulous lunch and noontime dessert. All of this thanks to our friend, Miss Kim, who is also our neighbor and if you have ever been to our house I am sure you have either met her or one of her daughters. She has done this with her girls who are now in high school for a very long time and is now passing her tradition on to us.

Hannah and Megan carefully selected every apple within their picking range and dropped it into our bags. Meg ate and dropped more apples then I could count, every time I turned around the child was chopping on another apple. I wore Kate on my back and she too enjoyed gnawing on a very large apple the whole time. I am sure it was a relief for those two new top teeth that are coming in. We had reached our apple limit in about an hour and then set out for our pumpkins and gourds. (I paused here to sleep last night). We then had a very simple but yummy lunch at the orchard's restaurant. Homemade bread for our sandwiches and dessert at noontime. How much more storybook can it be? Now for the pictures....

The trees were just their size. This is Meg selecting the perfect Courtland.

Kate chomping away on that perfect Courtland that Meg selected!

"Well if Kate does, then why shouldn't I get to eat one?"

Hannah practicing her "apple polishing"skills. Little does she know that her mother was voted "Best Apple Polisher" in her HS senior superlatives...

Meg making her way back to the car after we filled our bags.

"I see one waaaaay out there, Hannah!"

Kate enjoyed the pumpkin selection process too!

Sitting by a cute while little barn. Kate is getting ready to bite someone...she's been doing that a lot lately, but mostly to herself.

My three little girls waiting for their pumpkin chariot to arrive to bring them home after a long day at the ball, I mean orchard.

GONE CAMPING

We have now labeled ourselves "campers"! For those of you who scoffed at the idea of us and camping, we survived and loved it. Charlie wants to make it a yearly tradition. The girls were out of their heads the whole time. I forgot how much I loved it but yet realized there is a whole new dimension to it when you have to do the cooking. That was my least favorite part. We emerged from the woods smelling like campfire, covered in mosquito bites and a little damp but it was sure worth it. Ludington State Park is one of my favorite places on this earth. I was worried that my memories might be over exaggerated but the park lived up to every one of them and I am so lucky to be creating those same memories for my girls.

We had a wonderful camper courtesy of Uncle Keith and Aunt Cindy. We wish we had turned the heater the first night but we forgot-all survived. We made smores, hiked, canoed and had ice cream at The House of Flavors. One of our favorite parts was that our camp site backed up to this grassy hill and several times during the day a group of deer (some with spots others with antlers) would come within teen feet of our camper with all of us standing right there. They were beautiful.

The worst part was coming home to all the laundry we created while were were gone. The last night it poured rain all night so every thing felt damp but it was great to sleep listening to the rain falling on the camper. My husband totally rocked as the "camp daddyman." I am so proud of him but even happier that he actually wants to go back. Next year will be a ton more fun with Kate walking, no more bottles and one less nap. We'll even be able to bring bikes next year. I LOVED IT! Can you tell? I have visions of a retired Charlie sitting out next to the camper reading while I work on knitting a bag listening to chipmunks scurry around our feet.

Not long enough

You haven't had too long of a break. I hope this isn't too soon to make an appearance. But we have so much to catch up on....a new snack, Grandma Linda, Kate learned to clap and Charlie's birthday. So sit back and enjoy our little crazy life from a distance. If you get too close we might suck you in.

First...our new snacks

"If Rudy likes these, why wouldn't I????"

The funny thing about Kate crawling into my pantry to help herself to her own makeshift teething snack is that my dad used to munch on dog treats as well. Let the record show that that trait skips a generation.

For those with a little more mature taste buds, we recently dipped some bananas in melting chocolate and peanut butter and then sprinkled them before putting them in the freezer. A yummy snack if you like frozen bananas, of which I don't.

Grandma Linda popped up for a quick visit to celebrate Charlie's birthday. She always finds the most fun things for us to do. This time she brought us up our very own bowling set. It is a hit and the girls will soon be joining Charlie's Wednesday noontime bowling in the off-golf season.

Kate waited until Grandma Linda came up to do something new. She's been clapping other things for a while but had yet to clap her own hands. Thursday she figure it out and now will do it if you say "clap" or "quack" or anything similar. She can even do it standing up on her own.

And finally yesterday was our dear "daddy-man's" birthday! We've been very excited for this special day in our family. We decorated the house, made him a cake just like he asked for (from scratch-almost), designed cards and presents for him and made him an extra special dinner.

He works so very hard to support his beautiful little ladies, he's an awesome teacher, playmate and night time story reader. I am so thankful my girls have such a GREAT daddy. And I am thankful to call him husband, friend, encourager and provider. There is no one I would rather serve then him!

A little boat ride on Grandma Kathy's lake with some time to fish while our dinner settled before our yummy strawberry cake!