A Beautiful Day for Apple Picking...

Earlier this week,
the kiddos and I went apple picking.

It was a BEAUTIFUL morning
for such an activity.
(And I am glad we did it in the morning,
because the afternoon was a scorcher!)

*****************************************

We picked apples at the Alex Haley Farm.

(Yup, THE Alex Haley-
author of Roots-
he bought the Clinton, TN farm later in his life)

Two days out of the year, the farm is open to the public
for free apple picking.

This was the first year we participated,
and I do believe will are going to make this
a yearly tradition.

*****************************************

You can't bring ladders or climb the trees
to get the apples,
but about anything else is game!

I invested in an actual fruit picker
for the occasion,
thought I saw MANY homemade versions
at the orchard.After demonstrating how to use it...

...all the kiddos wanted to give it a try.

Jumping for apples was also
a popular picking method
with my kiddos...

Success!

(We spent about 25 minutes picking apples,
but I think we would have gone longer
except after about 15 minutes of picking,
both Little Wild Man and Baby Girl
had not needed to go to the bathroom!)

*********************************************

After we arrived back home,
with four good sized bags full of apples,
I read some apple books to the kiddos...

...Picking Apples and Pumpkins
by
Amy and Richard Hutchins...

(I only read the first part of this book-
I'm saving the rest for when we go pumpkin picking!)

...One Little, Two Little, Three Little Apples
by
Matt Ringler
and
Apple Trouble!
by
Ragnhild Scamell.

*************************************************

We tasted our apples...

*************************************************

We cooked with our apples...

Little Wild Man and Baby Girl
helped me make THIS
apple dessert...

(By the way, the kiddos didn't like eating it-
it's not the tastiest recipe-
but they did enjoy making it!)
Jungle Girl helped me cut apples for
THIS
Crockpot Applesauce recipe.

(Now, it is EXTREMELY delicious!)

*********************************************

Finally, while Jungle Girl wrote letters to her friends...

...on THIS apple stationary...

...Little Wild Man and Baby Girl worked on their
alphabet skills
with THIS apple yarn activity.

I must say,
it was quite the Apple-tastic Day!