Apples!

This week we had the annual preschool apple picking field trip. I love this field trip. I love going to the apple orchard with my excited little preschooler, I love picking apples, I love that it's usually a little crisp outside but not cold, I love apple cider and baskets of local fruits and veggies for sale. Basically, I love it all. Since it's a pretty self-explanatory field trip, I'll let our pictures do the talking:
Josie and her cute friend Brady. Mattie (Brady's mom) and I were getting our babies out of the car and when I turned around Josie and Brady were sitting there making faces at us. Classic.

Josie was all over the place at the orchard. She was in her element. Picking apples and socializing like crazy. It was hard to get a decent picture of her. These two were about all I got.

Sammie was my buddy though so she was much easier to take pictures of. Cute little apple picker.

Josie and her good friend Eaven.

Yum, snack time!

I attempted to get a good picture with my girlies. This was the best one we got. Neither of my girls was really loving this.

Yum! I delicious apple for the ride home. (Apples last year were a disaster. Such a disappointing crop. They were MUCH better this year. Very juicy and delish.)

Josie and her friends playing in the field with the tractors.

Finding treasure.

Finding her inner cowgirl.

Sharing the wealth with our boys.

Yum!

 

I had asked Josie what she wanted to do with all our apples. She was very adamant about making an apple pie. So we waited for Sammie to take a nap and we got to work.

 She's waiting oh so patiently for me to get everything ready.

 Josie was a pro with the apple corer peeler slicer this year.

 Sometimes it's a two handed job though.

 She was blasting through those apples almost as fast as I could cut them.

She was also very helpful making our pie filling. (I was so impressed. I'd expected her to get bored and quit on me but she never did.)

 Pinching our pie crust.

 What a lovely helper!

 And how did our pie turn out?

 Delicious (as if there was a doubt).

I love fall and I love apple season and I love (almost) everything associated with it! I don't know what we're going to do next year when we don't live here and go to this preschool anymore (sob). Hopefully there'll be good apple picking wherever we end up!



Fall!

We've been pretty lucky the past 7 years to have lived places with awesome falls. Indiana isn't quite as picturesque as Vermont, but I'll take it. So far, this fall has proven to be unpredictable. It was really cold for a while and I was sure we were going to be getting snow but, suddenly, it decided to warm up. The past few days we've had delightful weather.  Mid to high 50's with no wind! I even heard a rumor that it's supposed to be in the 60's on Thanksgiving day! Awesome.

Since I know that weather like this is fickle and fleeting, we've been trying to take advantage of it by spending lots of time outside. The other day Noah and Josie decided to start making a leaf pile. They dragged leaves out of the woods and into our realitively leafless backyard (sure, most people try to rid their yard of leaves, but we're rebels over here). They were working together so nicely! If you know Noah and Josie, you know how absolutely rare this is (those two are too alike for their own good).

A few days later, Clayton joined in and the once leaf pile became a huge leaf runway. The kids were in heaven!

Leaf jumping. Definitely a childhood experience I missed growing up in Vegas. Glad my kids get to have it!

 Handsome!

 Love this action shot!

This leaf track, pile, runway, whatever was really Noah's baby. He directed operations and really loved doing this.

 No jackets? In the late afternoon? In November? Glorious!

Sammie came out to play after a while and it was a perfect photo op. I love Clayton and Sammie in this one!

 Sammie's not quite sure what's happening but four kids all looking and 75% smiling. Success!

 My favorite. This one captures their little personalities so perfectly. Noah's absolute joy of being in the leaf pile, Josie's sassy head turn and coy smile, Clayton's pose, Sammie's smile...perfection!

 Sammie wasn't quite sure what to think about the leaf pile.

 "Hmmm..."

 She didn't like when it rained leaves.

 "Mama, I don't love this. Take me outta here!"

We're totally relishing this perfect fall weather. I know it won't last, but we're determined to enjoy it while it's here!

Turn! Turn! Turn!

Growing up in Vegas did not prepare me at all for living somewhere with four real seasons (for that matter, neither did my four years in Southern Utah). When we moved to Vermont I was amazed at how hot 90 degrees felt when you factored in 90% humidity, I was awed with the beautiful fall and felt (and still do feel) that there is no where else on Earth that is as pretty and perfect as Vermont in the fall, was saddened and frustrated with the winter (snow is just NOT my thing), and was rejuvinated and renewed by the spring (June in VT...mmmmm). I knew that Indiana also had seasons, but I knew that they were slightly different than what we'd experienced in Vermont. Well, this week we got a (small) taste of what's in store for us over the next few months. We've had freezing cold days, some snow (WHAT), and days that were so perfect it should have been illegal not to be outside.

I'll start with the snow (since Indiana started with it). Last Friday we got snow. Real, stick to the ground, throw snowballs, build a snowman snow. The kids (and dog) were estatic. I, was not. They couldn't wait to go play in it.
I couldn't seem to find all of Josie's winter gear (I know we have it, I just have to find it) so she had to stay inside with me. However, she loved standing at the window and watching the boys play.
Lately, Clayton likes to 'strike a pose'.
Disco loved being outside just as much as the boys did.
Once the snow covered the ground the boys really got into it. They made snowballs, snow angels, and tracks all over the yard. I should have taken pictures after they came in. It was impressive how much ground they covered.
Sadly for the boys (but not for me) the snow melted the next day. The boys were really upset about this, but I reminded them that in a month or so there would be more snow than they would know what to do with. So all was not lost.

Once the snow melted, I think the state of Indiana realized that it was way to early for snow and, as an apology, this week has been GOREGOUS! Perfect fall days with no wind, temperatures in the high 60's, and plenty of sunshine. Lovely. Today was the most perfect of all. To celebrate what will probably be the last perfect day of 2010, we spent the whole day outside...doing yardwork. Okay, Justin did most of the yardwork, but we helped a little and played a lot! One of our favorite activities of the day was jumping in leaf piles.
I raked this little pile away from the house and Noah sat patiently on the back steps for about 20 minutes (which is impressive seeing as Noah usually can't seem to sit still for longer than 2 minutes) waiting for me to rake the pile big enough for him to jump into. He loved it and spent another 20 minutes jumping in the pile, walking through the pile, and sitting in the pile.
When Clayton got home from school he was saddened to learn that we'd stealthily hauled all our leaves into the woods adjacent to our backyard (such a wonderful alternative to bagging them). However, I firmly believe that when you have access to an enormous leaf pile, you MUST take advantage and jump in it. Which is exactly how we spent our afternoon. We trooped into the woods, found our leaf pile and just went nuts!
I know that this picture is blurry, but the boys were holding hands and jumping in the pile together. I loved it!
This pile was the largest leaf pile I've ever seen. Leaves everywhere! I'm actually really surprised that we didn't lose a shoe or something in that pile. It was perfect - and since it was in the woods and not our yard I wasn't worried about leaves spreading all over. The kids were in heaven!


Even Disco loved it. He'd run right through the leaves, and then nestle right in by the boys.
It was the textbook definition of the perfect day. We spent time as a family, our yard looks wonderful now (and ready for winter), and we made some great memories. I will be definitely be smiling when I go to sleep tonight!
(I realize that the window behind the kids is really fingerprinty and slobbery, but I have three kids and a dog, no matter how often I clean it, the window looks that way pretty much all the time.) I love these three and feel really blessed that we got to spend such a wonderful day together! Days like today are what's going to sustain me in the middle of winter!