falling for fall

The orchard is one place I love to go during the fall.  However, it's still a little too hot to quite enjoy it to it's fullest, and savor the true moments of fall.  But what the heck- we thought we would give it a whirl anyway!

Well, actually, I was really trying act like a great mom and continue with the apple lessons Sloan was learning at school.  They were having apple day on monday (cooking apples on cinammon and sugar toast) which I was able to take off work and be the helper for! 

Which, by the way, was hysterical watching the kids just sit there and interact by not really saying anything at all to each other! - not to mention the things they say!  For instance, they were trying to guess what the white stuff was inside the clear mayo jar- so one girl yelled out, "ranch dressing!" haha!! (the "ranch dressing" was just sugar).
But, anyway... knowing I was going to be the helper I already felt compelled to be super mom and take the girlies to the orchard to show them how apples grow on trees and then get picked off. 

The idea sounded simple enough...

Well, that would be true if it were just your ordinary apple orchard on a cool fall day.   

But, of course, we went to Boyd's...

which has a pony ride,

*please note: only sloan rode the horse... Chayse was a little frightened of the pony, not to mention the man leading her! I think she was more affraid of him, than she was the pony! (doesn't surprise me... she's just now warming up to some of the men in her life!)
And then there was the train ride...

which of course rode all around the orchard and brought light upon the fact there were other interests to partake! (such as the slide, playground, petting zoo, play tunnel, stacks of hay to climb...)

well... late breaking news... we were not going to pay a whopping $10 per child, on top of $7 per adult (just to go in with kids) for the play area.  How crazy!!!??? I mean, really? Just to watch (on the inside of a picket fence mind you... verses standing on the outside of the picket fence- and still watching.)  - Or maybe I'm just a little tight?

anyway...

I thought better and saved our cash!

Only later to spend it on the apples we picked and mini pumpkins we also purchased.  (We used the one with the stem still attached to take to class.) 

we also forked it out on the amazing apple cider doughnuts (which I noticed the next morning had small bite marks out of each one...?)  Sloan blames Chayse, and when I ask Chayse, she shakes her head no, but still says, "uh-huh"! hhmmm...? Tack that one up on the things I'm started to accuse Gary (the cat) of!!

and we also had to splurge on the apple cider, candy, popcorn, and of course... honey. 

honey? I know... why the honey...? you'll have to ask Sloanie that one! She's shown it to everyone who has stepped in the house, or around the house for that matter! She's called everyone she sees over and takes them inside, walks directly to the pantry, pulls out her jar of honey, says a brief little something about it, puts it nicely back in place, and runs off to play.  All in all- she's just your ordinary normal girl!! right?

as for the pumpkins... we opted for the mini's since Sloan didn't like how heavy these were! 

{Pumpkins? what pumpkins...? Popcorn?... now we're talkin!}

Good thing, since they were 40 cents a pound! Too bad mine didn't grow in our garden this year! Maybe we could have had our own pumpkin patch sale- and raked in the dough!!

The $5.49 pumpkins at Kroger seemed like a much cheeper option!

(even though the stem did not make it through the bouncing, rolling, turning, stopping and bumping around in the trunk of the car!- See Ryan, these are the times it pays to have a messy trunk!)

Either way, my cureosity was peaked and I had to determine how much they would have cost had we baught these same ones at the orchard...

13.8 pounds

and 10.6 pounds...
exactly $5.52 and $4.24... (if my math is correct)
I know... after all that complaining I was doing! Obvisouly I made the wrong decision and wrong investment on pumpkins! I should have stuck with Boyd's! Better luck next year! (well, come to think of it... Boyd's white pumpkins weren't this large...!)
Ok- so now you know why my husband is in charge of the cash in our house! If I were in charge of bills, we would have sunk long ago!  But, at least our home sure would be nicely decorated, and our backyard would definatley be level!

Well, now that we have straigtened out the money and cost concerns about the pumpkins... let's move on to the next subject...
the scales? really?... no wonder I was sneaking around the house with the scale that night... if Ryan had only known what I was doing, I would have never heard the end of it!! Same goes for the monkey glue!  Did you notice the orange pumpkin's stem is nicely put back together and looks as if it was never destroyed during its commute home!
Now that you are fully aware of my issues, I'm sure Sloan's honey issue comes as no shock! She must get it honestly... from her dad of course!

Speaking of Sloanie...

She had her first soccer game practice Saturday.  I guess at age 3 they just run around with a ball and play red light, green light! But she sure was a stylin 'Tiger', no matter what they did!
And just look at those mad skills... kicking on top of the ball trying to fake-out everyone!! She knows what she's doing! Either way, my unathletism skills must have been more dominiant than Ryan's I guess!
Perhaps we have better luck with Chayse! Maybe she will get her skills from daddy!?

hhmmm.... well, maybe....?
nope, sorry Ryan... I think Jim's athletic skills stopped with you!  I guess those 'food loving' genes are a little more dominant!!  (no wonder they're best friends!)

Stay tuned for our sweet treat we made with our orchard apples!