Apple Picking

I'm back! Well, I'm trying to work my way back into the habit of blogging. I really enjoyed blogging last winter, but got out of the habit over the summer. We had such a crazy busy summer that I had very little time for anything other than enjoying and surviving it! As much fun as the summer was, I'm glad that it is fall, and that things have taken on a less insane pace. I enjoy routine and structure, and so do the kids. In order to get back into blogging, I thought I'd start with something simple, and share what we did over the weekend.

We started up with our homeschool preschool/tot school in the beginning of September, and our theme for the month has been apples.  It sounds like a simple theme, but there are a TON of things to do and learn centered around apples! I will share more about what we have been doing for school in a later post. In honor of our apple unit, we went apple picking this weekend!

We went on a hayride to the apple orchard.

Naomi was thrilled and got right into picking.

They were dwarf apple trees, which was PERFECT for the kids. The apples were all so low that even Nathan had no problems reaching them. He loved picking the apples too! He was so excited he kept running from tree to tree.

I liked posed pictures. So sue me!

Daddy had to pose for me too!

After we picked apples the hayride picked us up at the orchard, took us on a tour of the farm, and then dropped us off at the pumpkin patch! It was a huge field and the kids had a blast running through all the pumpkins, and trying to decide which was the perfect one for them.

You can see Nathan's little finger pointing that this was HIS pumpkin. He was dead set on it too!

Both kids also went on a pony ride.

We also went through the "mini" corn maze. Here I am smiling. I was not smiling for long. The "mini" maze was freaking huge and we quickly got lost. Nathan was heavy and only wanted me to carry him, and both kids were whining and thirsty. Stupid corn mazes! We FINALLY found our way out. Naomi kept crying and saying, "I'm so sorry, this is ALL MY FAULT!". I couldn't figure out why she thought it was her fault that we were lost. It turns out she was sorry because she was the one who wanted to go in the maze in the first place. I couldn't help but laugh!

The bouncy house was a big hit!

Nathan was so brave and even went down the huge slide in the bouncy house by himself!

Of course my boys couldn't resist checking out the tractor.

There was more at the farm than we were even able to see, but suffice it to say that we had an amazing day! One of the best parts was that they had a little store and restaurant that sold food, donuts and apple cider. One of Naomi's favorite books from our apple unit was called "Cider Making Days". In the book the little girl got to pick apples, eat donuts, and drink apple cider. Naomi had it in her mind that she wanted to do exactly that too. I was so happy that I could make the picture she had in her mind come true. This was the perfect way to celebrate the beginning of fall and our apple unit.