Tuesday, September 30, 2008
The kids didn't have school today because of Rosh Hashanah. We get almost all of the Jewish holidays off here which is kind of nice for us. Anyway, I decided to take the kids up to see Melanie (who is husbandless this week) and go apple-picking. Melanie said she knew this great little orchard close to her home that had a great train the kids could play on and hay rides and apples to boot. So that's exactly what we did.
Upon our arrival we were greeted by three very friendly horses that practically kissed us and even let us pet them. The twins were thrilled and Caleb was a bit wary. Another preschool group was there and one of the horses started sniffing and licking one little girl like she was a lemon meringue pie. It was pretty funny. Eventually we meandered over to the train Melanie had mentioned and Caleb was especially thrilled with it. But of course, all of the kids had fun climbing in, on and around the little wooden train.
We waited for quite some time for our turn on the hayride only to find out it was only for "preschool groups." Hey! Six of the nine kids in our group were preschool age and I was extremely frustrated with the driver as he drove his empty trailer down the hill to pick up another group of little kids. Would it kill ya to give us a ride down the hill and thrill nine little children for all of thirty seconds? Sheesh! So much to our chagrin we loaded up two radio flyer wagons with babies and walked ourselves down to the apple orchard. The kids immediately took off with their little bags and left me and Melanie in the dust. Justus kept turning around and shouting at me, "Come on Mommy. Pick apples."
It only took about five apples to fill each little bag so the apple-picking part of the day didn't take us too long. Everyone filled their own bag, except for the twins and Caleb, and everyone picked their own apple to eat. Then we loaded everyone back into the wagons and dragged them back up the hill. Ugh! 100 pounds of dead weight in a wagon on a muddy dirt hill. I'm so glad I wasn't a pioneer.
 
The twins were especially adorable today in their little overalls, exploring everything there was to see. Justus picked that pumpkin all by himself and then spent a good ten minutes or so trying to dust all the dirt off of it. And check out his little face as he trys to get a bite of his apple in the wagon. Man, he's cute!
  
And what can I say? His brother is just as darling. Jericho kept picking those flowers and trying to eat them, of all things. Thank goodness he found something better to feast upon in the orchard.
  
And here are the three little boys, picking their own apples. I love seeing them tippy-toe stretch up to the apples and watching their chubby little grubby hands trying to yank an apple down off the tree.
And check out that smile on Denver. You don't get a smile like that from him very often these days. He's all about keeping his lips closed tight and not showing his teeth. But I guess he had enough fun picking apples today that he felt kind enough to share his teeth with us. And by the time Melanie and I had all nine kids loaded back in the car and into the air-conditioning we were smiling that big too. Man, did those kids wear us out!
posted by Shana # 11:35 PM 
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