Apple Picking

This time of the year is so much fun! On Tuesday we went on our annual apple picking trip with the MOMS Club. This is our 5th season apple picking with this same group. There has been alot of fun over the years. And more and more kids.

Lily, Callie, Luke and Anna on the hayride

Sammy is never quite sure what to make of these hayrides...Bumpy, noisy and scratchy. I bet that this time next year he will hold the pure joy and appreciation that all small children have for the rickety wagon pulled by a giant tractor!

Callie, Lily and Luke in the orchard comparing their haul.


If nobody is looking, I think that I will snatch this apple off of the ground, and...

gobble it up!

While the apple picking and hay riding is delightful, I think that the main reason that the moms keep coming back to this farm, is the concluding treat: the most delicious apple fritters, paired with fresh apple cider. My mouth is watering just remembering them.

Lily's First Day of Preschool

Lily started back to school on Monday. With both girls back in school, I ask myself... where did Summer go? It went by way to fast, and I loved having them home with me. Luckily, though, both Lily and Charlotte are so happy to be back at school. Here Lily is before we left for school. Lily continues to have the ability to create endless expressions for the camera. She is so kooky!
Ready...Set...Go!

Getting ready to go into school

Lily with her teacher Miss Monica. Monica was also Charlotte's preschool teacher, so Lily has known her since she was 1.

Hanging her backpack up in her cubby. Remember having a cubby? I loved my cubby in elementary school. Our cubbies were in a coat room...so appealing for all kinds of mischief. Not that I was mischievous as a child...Nope-not me! Pure Angel. Hehe

Lily and Callie after school

The old gang...Lily, Callie, Sienna, Lauren, and Luke.

Lily's School Orientation

Lily had her preschool orientation day last Friday. At her preschool, the children spend two years with the same teacher and classmates. So she was quite at ease, this being her second year. She was thrilled to go back to school to see her old teachers and friends.

Drawing a picture
Playing in the dress up area

Classmates Sienna, Molly, and Lauren

Sammy's First Shoes

Now that Sammy is walking, it was time to get him some shoes. I finally broke down and got him some, when I noticed those concerned looks that my poor boy was walking around... bare footed...in September. Gasp! :)

Here he is trying out a pair.

And he is off!
It was, as if he were saying: Yup Mama, these will do.

Ward's

This past weekend, I took the kids to try some blueberry picking at Ward's Berry Farm. We were too late for blueberries... bushes were empty when we got there, but we really lucked out anyway. When we got there, we went to the U-Pick counter and the cashier said we could pick Raspberries, peaches or grape. The girls LOVE raspberries, so we chose them. After we chose, the cashier told us, that we should we should go and pick them all. So off we went...for raspberries, peaches AND grapes! It was the first time any of us have ever pick grapes right off of the vine. What fun!

Here are a few pictures that I took of Sammy while I carried him in the sling.

Sammy had the right idea in the raspberry patch. Every time I picked a berry, he growled like a wild animal, until I gave it to him to eat. Needless to say, I had an empty basket leaving the raspberry patch.

Lily picking raspberries.

Here are the kids among the grape vines.

Check out how Sammy is reaching for Lily's basket. Just after this picture, he snatched a bunch of grapes out of the basket...and stuffed them in his mouth!

On to the peach orchard.

I love this picture. The girls look so young and sweet.

Sammy finds a peach.

Yum!

It was fun day on the farm. After all of the fruit, we spent the time listening to a folk music band, and then the girls climbed up on the gigantic pile of hay bails.

Charlotte's First Day of School!

Charlotte started back to school on Tuesday! Here she is before leaving for school.

Charlotte had a great first day. She has been extremely happy each day when she has come home. Her teacher says that she is showing great leadership in the classroom.

On Charlotte's first day of school, Lily was lost without her. She told me how she missed her so much, and midday, disappeared upstairs for a nap. She was lonely without Charlotte. By the second day, though, she started to enjoy some special one on one attention from Mom.

After school joy!

Sammy takes his first steps!

Sammy is officially walking. He took his very first steps with out holding on to anything on August 22, and now he is getting steady enough to take several steps in a row. This stage is always so much fun.

Goin' on a Bear Hunt

We are lucky enough to have many acres of conservation land just across the street from our house, with paths, caves and overgrown cranberry bogs to explore. The girls love to go on adventures up there. We go looking for bears in the rock formations that look like caves. While no bears actually live there, the idea of catching one while it is taking a snooze is downright exhillerating to them.

Friends Cal, Collin and Ellie are also nature lovers, so when they visit, they are eager to go exploring.

Monkey

One day a week, all summer, we have been getting together with friends for our "drop off playgroup," where some of the moms stay with a great big bunch of kids, and the others go off to run errands. It has been a great way for the girls to stay in touch with some of their oldest friends, that they won't see as much once school starts.

Charlotte and her buddy Sarah

Lily, Lauren, Callie and Ellie getting silly on the home made water slide.

Lily and Ellie

Here, you can watch as Charlotte conquers the monkey bars, and goes all of the way across for the first time! She has been practicing all year at school, so she was really proud to make it. After, she repeated it until she had blisters.

We are back!

It has been a busy past couple of weeks, and I haven't posted in a while. The next few posts will be looking back on the last two weeks.