{Apple Picking!}

Saturday has every reason to be one of my favorite days! David is home, we get to sleep in as late as the kids will let us! And there are usually no "obligations" we have to keep. So today when we woke up (we are spontaneous people, with few exceptions nothing is planned out in advance!) we decided to go to a cheese festival and go apple picking! I have been looking forward to the orchards here because they are everywhere here and I can't help feeling more complete when taking the kids for some good nostalgic fun like apple picking. New York is truly a beautiful part of the country and I can't wait for the fall when all the leaves come alive with color. The weather is gorgeous and I love this time of year when all you need is a light jacket.

I was at the cheese festival when I realized that the girls had escaped the house with their butterfly wings on. Everyone (myself included) thought that they were pretty cute. Someone called them angels and I called them butterfly fairies, but David said he just called us "flies--they all have wings anyways"..... what a funny man!

We saw David's boss at the festival, and she gave the girls plastic bracelets supporting her local softball team. The girls loved them. The girls also scored free snow cones, a coloring book from the local "Christian" group, stickers and balloons. The balloons were a big hit! We watched some of the locals dancing and even though I was game, no one else wanted to make a move with me, so we thought it was time to go.

On the way to the orchard we saw some signs for homemade fresh pies. I wanted one, partially because it sounded good, but also because I know that off all the sweets out there, pies is one of David's favorites. So we stopped, and David handed me the wallet...so I thought we were buying a pie....well I get back in the car with an apple pie and David leans over and asks,

"So how much, $5, $10?"

"No way, it was $18 bucks!"

"WHAT?! You got TAKEN! $18 Bucks, Tiff wow!!!!"

So ok, I splurged when maybe I shouldn't have. David and I talked.... We talked about what was a fair price for a freshly made pie and lets just say I don't think I will be buying any other pies.

The orchard was next and it was cute! We drove up and they had a cute store and farm where we picked up the half bushel bag....$25 for 23 lbs.! Not nearly as bad as my pie splurge considering the "sale price" at Walmart is a $1/lb. anyways.

I really enjoyed myself. I love watching the kids in those moments. Anastasia kept picking apples before David could give the approval to put them in our bag....so we might have just ended up with worms, but she was excited to help. Ereland just decided to pick the ones that were closest to her....the ones on the ground. Eventually they got the hang of it. And Cardin offered his stroller seat to carry the apples for us.

This is Ereland after taking a bite out of a particularly tart apple!

We were "done" for the day until we passed a Creamery on the way home. Had to stop...those are the rules. We got "Calf Tracks" (like moose tracks... if you have ever had that) and Strawberry. Let me tell you what, that was the best dang ice cream I have ever had! Soooooo Good! Good enough to make our $18 dollar dessert more like $26 with an added pint of Calf Tracks for later! Why do I think I just gained 3 lbs? I'll let you know what the damage was later. An enjoyable day for sure! So now we are thinking that when the leaves change we need to make a trip up to Maine for the leaf festival! I think that sounds great!