Fall-type Fun

Believe it or not, I'd never been apple-picking before last week. This was one of those outings I'd been wanting to do with Noah for a really long time. We didn't get to last year, so I was bound and determined to go this year. That's why I was so excited when we were invited to go with some friends last Friday. We went to one of my favorite farms [one you may recognize if you were around a couple of years ago :)].

A couple of things I learned about apple picking.
1. Bees love apples. Especially the ones that have fallen off the tree and are rotting on the ground.
2. Apples should ripen later in the season. Because it kind of kills the "Autumn" feeling when it's 83 degrees out.
3. All those picturesque orchard shots you see people come back with? They don't show the toddler tantrums or how hard it was to keep your kid from stepping in a swarm of bees while also getting their picture. Just fyi. :)

But we still had a great time.
If you plan on going, though, bring some insect bite cream. One little guy that came with us got a bumble bee stuck in his shirt, and the mean thing stung him three times! Yes, it is a total myth that bumble bees don't sting. They DO sting. In fact, unlike yellow jackets, they can sting multiple times. But they don't normally unless you mess with them. And obviously, getting stuck in this little boy's shirt was enough to make Mr Bumble Bee MAD.

Anyway. Happy apple pictures...

(tip: bring some wipes. I knew Noah would want a bite the second we stepped onto the orchard.)

After the kids had had enough fun with the apples, we headed on over to the petting zoo. They loved tossing the apples in for the animals to chow down on. Noah has started saying "cow", except he says it more like, "Coooooooow..." He'll also moo sometimes, but that sounds like a deep "Errrrrrr.." haha.
He said it a few times while we were there, so I was pretty thrilled he'd made the connection.

 Petting the bunny. :)

Because it was the last weekend they were going to let people pick apples (they were ripening too fast, so their picking season was almost over), the sweet ladies there gave us each an extra bag to fill. So we came home with plenty of apples!
I swear they taste 10x better than store bought. If you follow me on Pinterest, I'll go ahead and apologize now for all of the apple recipes I have been/will be pinning. ;)

Happy Monday!