An Apple A Day

Yesterday the girls & I went apple picking with R and her kids, plus some extras.

It was great fun.

And just what the doctor ordered for E.

She was still complaining that her tummy hurt.

I think that it was mostly her muscles bothering her from so much dry heaving.

Apple picking was just what we needed to get her mind off of her tummy.

And you couldn't have asked for a better day.

Blue skies.  Few clouds.  Perfect mid-September weather.

Here are all the kids heading down the row of apple trees.

We had just had our tractor ride to an area of the orchard.

We were wanting to pick Jonamac apples.

The really funny thing was the trees had hardly any apples on them.

D is following S down this row of trees.

E and the boys were in another row.

Can you see there are no apples on the trees?

This is not normal.

There were lots of apples on the ground.

Can't take those.  Yuck.

I can't even remember how many times I said to R, "Where are all the apples?  I can't believe there are no apples on the trees!  This is not normal!  There's always lots of apples on the trees!"

She probably thought I was a broken record saying the same thing over and over again.

Sorry R.  Thanks for putting up with my disbelief over no apples on the trees.

So after the 1st row of no apples, we finally started to see a few apples in the 2nd and 3rd row we went down.

Most were way at the top of the trees.

So boys being boys, they decided to climb carefully on the trees to get some of those apples.

The girls loved the idea.

And before we knew it all the kids were in the trees.  Oops.

We did tell them only 1 kid per tree.

This was after finding 3 of them in a tree.

R reminded them that we didn't want to hurt/break the trees.

Sweet S up in a tree trying to pick an apple that is way up high.

Success!  She got the one she was going after.

But, shhhh!  Don't tell anyone the kids were climbing the trees.  Something tells me climbing the trees would be frowned upon.

In our defense, the trees were only climbed because those were the only apples we were finding.

The tractor really should have dropped us at a better part of the orchard to pick.  So there.

Finally the boys ventured up a few more rows and we hit the jackpot for apples.

Lots of apples. So we picked and picked.

R tried to tell her kids and her 2 extras to only put 6 apples in their bags.

Now that's funny R.  Silly R, you can't just put 6 apples in a bag.

The kids had fun.  And R & I had fun too.

At one point M, Rs' son, didn't know where he left his bag.

R told him to go find it.  She said it in her sweet southern "you better go find that back right now M" tone.

Off M went and sure enough found his bag a couple rows away.  He had forgotten it in his haste to climb a tree to get an apple.

After we had picked our fill, R & I had all the kids stand together to pose for a group apple picking picture.

They were so funny.  All I'm going to say is it is hard to get 6 kids all looking at the camera when they are in various stages of eating apples and holding bags of apples.

Ds' face makes me laugh.  Think her apple is a bit sour, maybe?

And S with her hand on her hip.  Love it.

Now, the kids were such good sports with the regular group picture that I decided to play with them a bit.

Next I told them to all put their arms around each other and lift one leg.

They fell for it.

Just starting get their legs up.  They really were so funny.

Uh-oh.  Starting to lean.

They were so willing with that pose, I came up with another.

I told them that now we wanted them to stand with both arms up in the air.

And again, they fell for it.

Arms up.  Happy apple pickers.

I decided to push my luck further to see if I could get them to do another pose.

And again it worked.  This time I told them to turn their backs to us and on the count of 3 to turn their heads and look at us over their shoulders.

1, 2....................................

3!!!!!

Such a happy, fun group of kids.  And oh so willing to let me make them do some funny poses.

I tried for one more pose and then got some grumbling.  I gave up easy, knowing that I got about 3 more poses out of them than I thought I would.

M & J.  They have been thick as thieves since Kindergarten.

Good buddies.  And pretty sweet boys too.

E likes playing video games with them.

Love this picture of J.  Lost in thought on the tractor ride back down the hill.

Happy apple pickers.  Happy Apple Eaters.  Happy kids.  Happy moms.

These are the times that matter.  Memories being made.

I think group apple picking is a must from now on.

With all the applesauce I am making, we are going to need more apples in a couple weeks.

And I haven't even made an apple pie yet.  More apples will definitely be needed for sure.

potd #259.  Lucy.  My constant couch companion.