Apple Picking at Carrigan Farms

Our weekly field trip was to a local farm to go apple picking. I tried and failed to take the kids apple picking last fall. Even though today's forecast said sunny weather, I was worried I'd have a repeat of last year since it rained most of the drive there today. Thankfully, the sun began to peak through the gray clouds just as we arrived.

I was a little disappointed that we had to buy $20 worth of apples. I would have been perfectly content with a small bag, but it's $10 per person (over age 2) so we had to get the $20 bag. We were able to fill a half-bushel bag, which held dozens of apples.

I learned that the proper apple picking technique is to lift the apple up and twist, rather than pull down or out. If the apple is ripe, it will easily come off this way. The lady at the stand also informed me that many of the apples on the ground were great picks. I don't know if she said this to try and get us to pick them before they rot, or if it's true.

I pulled the toddler-filled-wagon down to the orchard, then let the kids roam freely until they tired.

They each took turns plucking apples.

The farm employee encouraged us to sample the apples. As soon as the kids saw me take a bite out of an apple, they all began eating apples. It seems like the apples should probably be washed first, but she assured us we could eat them. 

Jackson served as quality control. He inspected each of the trio's apples for bruises before putting them in the bag. He also picked mostly green apples because, "We need to make pie". 

Despite being surrounded by trees, there was little shade. We stayed hydrated, but grew quite hot and tired in under an hour.

The bag of apples became too heavy for Jackson to carry, so we loaded it in the wagon with the trio. Once again, the toddlers kept pulling out apples to eat as Jack and I added freshly picked apples to the bag.

We made our way to the pond for a picnic. There was a perfect size rock for all four kids to sit on. They were so cute sitting in a line. We climbed rocks and ran around in the shade after eating.

Our afternoon at the farm continued with a walk to see the farm animals.

They have rabbits and chickens in unlocked cages that you can open and pet the animals. James thought this was hilarious! Maddie did not.

Amelia loved all of the animals and fearlessly touched all of them.

Maddie was curious and approached the goats. As soon as one started bleating, she began yelling "Go away!" over and over.

Jackson loved all of the animals.

After the long walk back around the pond and through the orchard, we headed back to the van. Jackson did such a great job today. He walked the entire time, never once complained, and was so helpful distributing food to his siblings and inspecting apples.

When we approached the van, an employee came out and asked us if we wanted to sample some fresh apple cider. I was a sweaty mess by that point, so my only response was, "It is hot?" He laughed and informed me it was cold. I didn't even realize people served cold apple cider. We cooled off with our refreshing drink in big kid cups. (Sidenote: I've been trying to fix Amelia's hair in the mornings but she pulls on it all day.)

Surprisingly, none of the kids fell asleep on the way home. I now have more apples than I know what to do with. I didn't even fill the bag completely because we ate so many while we were picking them. I suspect there will be more apple pies, turnovers, and whatever other recipes I can find in our immediate future.

It was another entertaining field trip with lots of fun learning taking place at the farm!

Labor Day Weekend

Our three-day weekend was an unbalanced mix of busyness and laziness. We celebrated another week of school ending with beer (or pink lemonade) and pizza. James has spent nearly every free moment lately building train tracks and playing with trains.

Jackson helped me decorate the cake after the trio went to bed. Then the big boys went to bed while I stayed up entirely too late planning baby shower games and photo scavenger hunts. 'Tis the life of a procrastinator.

I may have over-committed myself Saturday. After a summer hiatus, the youth group kicked off another year with a photo scavenger hunt uptown. We tried to do this activity during the 30 Hour Famine, but the mall cops kicked us out. I revised the list to make sure everything could be completed in public outdoors, then prayed the rain held off. It was a really fun bonding event!

"copy a statue"

 My favorite photo didn't turn out. It was "Team must have a group hug with another group of strangers." There's always sports teams, segway tours, and various groups uptown on the weekends, so I knew this would be reasonable to accomplish. Some of the youth approached a group of tourists that were taking a picture in front of a famous statue. When asked if they would be willing to participate, they responded joyfully, "Of course! Spread love and peace, not hate."

I barely made it home in time to pick up the cake and games before driving to Gastonia to celebrate this mom and dad-to-be. Ellen is one of my oldest friends and I'm so excited for her to experience motherhood. Plus, it will be fun to swap baby stories and add another layer to our friendship.

The shower was a success. If you're looking for a way to make people competitively pay attention to gift opening, play baby shower bingo. I used an old science vocabulary Excel document that generates 30 different Bingo cards. As Ellen opened her gifts, women would randomly shout, "Is that lotion or diaper cream?" Fun times!

Jackson spent Saturday evening at the lake with his cousin, Levi, then had a sleepover. I appreciated the photo updates my sister-in-law sent. 

I chose not to go to church Sunday morning, so that I could sleep in and lesiurely eat breakfast. I've got a lot of big events coming up at church so I knew I wouldn't have another opportunity in the immediate future. Jesse, the trio, and I ran errands Sunday morning. We found a new discount store, Gabes. It's similar to Ross, Marshall's, and TJ Maxx, but is larger with a wider range of brands offered. Jesse would have probably spent hours there if he were alone.

Everyone napped/relaxed once Jackson returned home. I went grocery shopping so I could prepare for the week and pick up some ingredients for a last minute cookout. Jesse's parents came over. One of my favorite things Jesse's dad does to the kids is "take the bad out of them and put the good in". He always has the kids take turns laying down and he performs "surgery". He also pretends to cut their hair or put make up on the girls. The kids literally wait in line for this individual attention from their PaPa.

I absolutely love that the kids adore their MiMi and PaPa so much and that their grandparents are so involved. Yet, I'm surprised to find myself completely overwhelmed at random moments with thoughts of my own parents. Oh, how I wish I could watch the kids interact with my mom and dad.

Monday morning came too early. With all that I had planned Saturday morning, I chose to delay my long run until Monday. Two hours and eight miles later, I was a smelly, sweaty mess.

The girls were having an off day, so I stayed home with them while Jesse took the boys out.

The boys had a fun afternoon shopping and eating.

I required a post-run nap. Apparently, Jesse required a post-shopping nap, too. We spent the remainder of the day cleaning, cooking dinner, and preparing for another school week. Before we knew it, our weekend was over.

I ran out after the kids went to bed for a few errands. The sunset was so gorgeous I stopped at the top of the neighborhood to take a photograph.

Goodbye, summer. You were so good to us!

Room Cleaning Update

It's been one week since we introduced the cleaning sticker chart. Jackson eagerly cleaned his room every night, and gleefully picked out a $2 Care Bears blind bag on Saturday. 

Let's hope Week 2 is equally successful!

Sous-Chef

My love of baking must be contagious since Jackson is my reliable sous-chef. Admittedly, he likes to overstep his boundaries and I have to constantly get on him about washing his hands. I think the main reason he likes baking is because he knows I'll let him lick the spoon, taste the icing, etc. 

I like to find reasons to bake, especially when I get to make whatever I want and share it with others. My favorite reason to bake this week was to make a cake for a close friend's baby shower. I had really lofty goals of a 3-dimensional sailboat (her nursery theme) and checkerboard cake inside. Neither of those worked out due to poor planning, a power outage, and a youth group event taking longer than expected. Still, Jackson and I made a decent cake. Jackson helped dye the fondant, roll it out, and cut out circles.

The next excuse to bake was having our in-laws over for dinner. I always feel obligated to make dessert when we have company over, and I was still on an apple pie kick from earlier in the week. Instead of mini-pies, I made the regular pie. I'm sure I've made a pie before at some point in my life, but this is certainly the first one in several years. I tend to stick to cakes or cookies.

I think the pie tasted better than the cake. Not much is better than warm apple pie and ice cream.

I began letting Jackson help me bake two years ago, when he was 2.5 years old. In fact, the photo below was my TimeHop from yesterday (2 Years Ago).

While I'm proud of Jackson's progress and interest, I realize this means I need to start letting James, Amelia, and Maddie help in the kitchen, too. Three toddlers fighting over measuring cups seems like a recipe for disaster, so I'll try to find a way to give them individual attention. Either way, I've got a lot of sous-chefs to train!

Family Field Trip: NC Transportation Museum

Jackson has school every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. I've decided to make Wednesdays family field trip days. I already have the next few weeks planned, weather permitting. This week, I decided to take the kids back to the NC Transportation Museum. Jesse's dad mentioned the train museum this weekend, so I had it in my mind to visit again. James has developed quite an interest in trains. He loves all of the toy trains and train puzzles we've accumulated, and his face lights up anytime he sees a train on TV.

Unlike last time, the transportation museum did not recognize our children's museum membership. I was pretty disappointed about having to pay admission. At least the todddlers were free, so I only had to pay for Jack and I (which was still $20 I didn't plan on spending).

As soon as James saw the first train, he grinned ear to ear and started to point and yell, "choo choo! choo choo!"

Last time I enlisted the help of a friend to board the kids on the train. I felt comfortable going solo, but the other parents around me seemed less confident in my parenting. I got the usual, "Are they all yours? Do you have any help? You sure have your hands full." However, Amelia was standing beside me and started crying when the train blew it's whistle. I was carrying Maddie and holding James' hand. One lady looked at Amelia, who was right beside me, and said, "Oh, poor girl. Where is your Mommy?"

I waited 'til everyone else boarded the train so I could lift the kids up one at a time. We went to the cart that had table seating. (I don't know if that's what you call it since there weren't any tables, but it's the kind where two booths are in opposite directions so four people can sit together.)

Last weeks temperatures were a tease for fall. This week has been a muggy 90+ degrees.  Since our cart had no AC and I couldn't keep the windows up with the kids, it was a hot ride. No one seemed to mind.

Amelia got upset again when the train blew it's whistle. She spent most of the ride in my lap. (She stopped crying as soon as I gave her a pacifier.)

James was so serious the entire ride. He smiled occasionally, but mostly he just stared and pointed at various things. He was especially concerned with the ticket collector walking around.

Jackson brought his LeapPad and spent the whole time playing a shape game. Every so often he would glance up to view his surroundings.

The girls ended the ride happily.

After the train ride we ate a light lunch.

We spent the next two hours touring the museum. Maddie walked most of the time, by choice. Everyone else alternated between riding in the wagon and walking.

I explained to Jackson that a long time ago people delivered milk in glass bottles to your house. His response was, "Well, they could have gone to the grocery store." It's hard to fathom a life without the convenience of Walmart and five different grocery stores within a 15 minute radius.

I didn't let the kids ride on the roundtable since that's an additional fee, but they had fun walking around it and checking out the various trains.

Somehow we always miss the aviation exhibit. It's kind of hidden and the farthest walk from the parking lot, so I guess we're always exhausted and forget about it. Since this was not the free field trip I had intended it to be, I made sure to get my money's worth. There was a full replica of the Wright Brother's plane. Amelia kept waving her arms around and shouting, "bye, plane".

Sometimes I think our life is one big episode of Daniel Tiger. Jackson was singing, "There's so much to explore when you're outside." He kept pointing out little details that I wouldn't have noticed otherwise. He's an observant little fella.

This is a cute photo, but if it were a video, you would think Maddie was being murdered. She did not want to go back in the wagon but she was walking so slow I just wanted to go faster.

After we saw all there was to see at the transportation museum, we walked across the street to a diner. There were no working water fountains and the five of us had already gone through the 80 oz of water/lemonade I packed. I had to pay 86 cents for water at the diner. I was hoping they'd have ice cream, but they did not.

While the diner was a waste, it did give us an excuse to walk one more block to the fire station. We checked out the equipment, gear, and trucks.

Our last stop was the gas station, where we scored three Push-pops and a Klondike bar for $4. Note to self: Jackson can not handle a Klondike bar out of the wrapper. Oh. My.

The Push-pops were a hit, but oh so messy.

I had to strip James, Amelia, and Maddie completely naked in the van and scrub them clean. Between the sticky orange ice cream and the black dust from the trains, they required a makeshift bath. They slept the entire ride home, though Jackson stayed awake and played his LeapPad.

As long as it's not raining, I plan to spend next Wednesday at the farm, picking apples and checking out farm animals.

Mini Apple Pies

The following recipe is from Apple Pie by Grandma Ople. The only thing I changed was adding cinnamon and baking them in a jumbo muffin tin. 

Ingredients

premade 9 in double pie crust

1 stick of butter

3 tablespoons of all purpose flour

1/4 c water

1/2 c white sugar

1/2 c packed brown sugar

6 large Granny Smith apples (peeled, cored, cut)

2 tsp of cinnamon

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Melt the butter in a saucepan on medium heat.

Stir in flour to thicken.

Add water, white sugar, and brown sugar. Bring to a boil.

Reduce temperature and let simmer.

Unroll premade crust.

Cut each crust into quarters and place them into the bottom of a jumbo muffin tin. (You'll have two quarters leftover for the lattice work on top.

Add cinnamon and apples to mixture on stove. Coat apples.

Fill each muffin with apples, mounded slightly.

Cover with lattice work crust.

Brush the top crust with the sugar mixture.

Bake 20-25 minutes, until crust is golden brown and the inside is bubbling.

Let the pies cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes. 

Run a paring knife along the outside of each mini-pie, then carefully scoop out pie with a spoon.

Jackson's First Day of Preschool (As Told by Jackson, Age 4)

I walked the babies in to school. (No more strollers for short walks!)

I did't have a folder to school but the teacher gave me one. (This isn't true. I slipped a folder in his bookbag this morning.)

The teacher told us the rules. She said when she gives us a stink eye, she has to go home and put a mud mask on to get her stink eye off.

I played with a lot of stuff today. I played with building blocks. You can attach them. I even played with a game. I only played with one person. It was a boy. I don't remember his name.

The girls wanted to line up. Then the boys lined up to go to the bathroom. We lined up for gymnastics. I fell one, two, three times at gymnastics. I was jumping and I fell on the trampoline and then on the floor. You weren't supposed to fall. I hurt myself. So my teacher said, "When you don't follow the rules, sometimes you get hurt." I was following the rules and being a good boy. She just said that.

The teacher said we could pick wherever we wanted to sit at lunch. We sat at the big tables. The babies (2 year olds) sit at the little tables. I forgot to drink my drink.

I want to talk about the playground. I was climbing. There were two different toys. A Rescue Bot Transformer toy was out there. A truck. There was a red helicopter. I played with both of those with other people.

We didn't have anything for snack. No, we had pee pee for snack. (laughs) We didn't really have that. Just joking.

We sang the goodbye song when we were leaving. That's all.