Morning at the apple orchard

One of my favorite fall memories from when I was a kid was going to the apple orchard.  For some reason, the thing I remember most was the area they had set aside for kids with straw covering a patch of ground.  There was always loose change in the straw for the kids to find.  I don't know if that was at Broom's Orchard or somewhere else, but I hope we can find somewhere that still does that for Ainsley. 

The helmet didn't add too much!

J.D. walked right up, as if he knew just what to do, and stood there!

Clint was a good sport!

Sunday morning, Ainsley and I took off for Carlinville to meet Dad, Abby, J.D., Aunt Sudi, and Clint at Broom's Orchard.  It was a nice morning and we got there not long after it opened, so there wasn't many people there.  J.D. immediately saw the tractor and playground equipment, but he was strapped in his stroller and didn't make it very far!  

Trying to find the "good" trees!

J.D. was itching to get out of the stroller!

We picked a few apples.  They were picked over pretty good, but we managed to find a few.  J.D. would pick one off a tree, take a few bites and throw it on the ground.  It was so cute!  Ainsley loved being outside and took everything in.  

Grandpa helping Ainsley

She liked the leaves more than the apples.

Let me see if I can pull that apple off.....

This apple's pretty tasty!

We were walking out of the apple trees and a guy walked beside us and kind of chuckled and said:  "I guess you don't have to worry about an apple falling from the tree and hitting her in the head!"  I just laughed and told him that I had just said that.  I'm glad that some people can make a joke out of Ainsley's helmet instead of just stare at her.

I ran the apples back to the car while everyone else went on a hay ride.  I'm sure J.D. loved it!

I can't believe that next fall, Ainsley will be walking around picking apples off trees and taking big bites out of them! 

Last weekend was Drake's third birthday party.  He got lots of good gifts and loved blowing out his candles.  We had to sing "Happy Birthday" three times for him, and he had to blow out his candles three times!  I swear, that kid is just like his Mom!!! 

I think this was after the second singing of Happy Birthday and he was still just hamming it up!



Ainsley trying out Drake's new slide

 

Ryder likes it too!



Typical Ainsley face....what YOU lookin' at?

He started preschool last week and hasn't been in trouble yet.  I don't know how much longer that will last....he's pretty ornery!  I was talking to Jennifer the other day on the phone and she was at the gas station pumping gas.  She said that they've switched Drake's car seat and he can unbuckle himself from his new one.  A minute into our conversation, I hear a very loud horn honking and Jennifer immediately says:  "Oh, Drake's got out of his seat again".  She stops pumping gas, opens up the door to the vehicle, and I can hear him just giggling.  She yells at him, gets him back in his seat, and tells him not to do it again.  We finish our conversation as she's pulling into her garage and she parks the vehicle, and tells Drake he can undo his belt and get out.  Ten seconds later, I hear someone laying on a horn.  Yep, Drake was in the driver seat honking the horn again.  Their neighbors have to LOVE them!