Apple picking...

Last year we went apple picking with my sister and her kids. It was so much fun that we really looked forward to doing it again this year. And with our first theme for schooliing at home being apples, it fit right in! The orchard we went to last year didn't have any apples this year, so we found a different one. We tried Raven Hill Orchard in Julian. Nanny came with us. We packed up the car and headed out in the morning. It was chilly so we wore sweaters! It really hasn't been that chilly here so sweaters was a nice change.

We found the orchard and bought 2 bags to fill. It was great. The kids remembered how to pick apples off the trees from their lesson last year (lift and twist). I didn't remember, but they did. We found Empire apples, Jonathan and Golden Delicious. They were all yummy. Smaller than the ones in the stores but those are a little nicer because there isn't much wasted after a tiny apple, when the kids eat them. We walked up and down the aisles of apple trees searching for big ones, when we found some there were bug bites in them or they were beginning to rot. It was a fun game of hide and seek with the apples.

Towards the end of our apple picking experience, we ran into the owner making apple cider for a bunch of people, so we sat and watched for a while. What a treat! Ben and Hannah watched for a while.

After picking apples for a little over an hour we headed to the car for lunch. We just ate in the back of the car. The atmosphere was perfect for a tail-gate lunch. The winery next door was having a festival so there was a little music and even some funky people walking around. After lunch we headed to Julian for some apple pie at Mom's. There is always a huge line out the door and today was no exception. We waited for a spot to sit and enjoyed apple pie a la mode (with vanilla ice cream). Ben kept eyeing the caramel apple and ordered one of those instead of pie. He barely got through a little bit of the caramel with apple when he decided that he wasn't going to eat any of the apple. So he scraped the caramel off and left the apple. Gotta love kids.

When we got home we unloaded all the apples and the kids from the car. Noah finally fell asleep so we got him to bed. The bigger kids were tired from all the driving, Noah was cranky most of the day (very tired) but we all survived and brought home a huge bag of apples.

Enjoy the pics!