Apple Picking

We have had such fabulous weather all last week and it's supposed to continue all this week too. Perfect apple picking weather! There's an apple orchard just a few minutes from our house that we go to every year and this was the weekend to go. It was a little chilly, but we had a great time!

We were told that they only had 10% of their normal apples because of the early spring and subsequent late frost that we had back in April.

We picked about 30 pounds of apples! I will be making a lot of applesauce and canning it here in the near future. It's so yummy and I don't want to run out!

The colors have been so beautiful!



We took our tractor ride. It was a little shorter this year, but I don't think the kids noticed. They love riding on wagon rides.



I was hoping to have small children helping pick, but they just wanted to eat the apples and run around.





They also had fun playing on the hay piles and checking out the animals.





Can't wait to go again next year! As long as the weather holds into the weekend (which it's supposed to) we're going to go pick pumpkins and pick out our Christmas tree this weekend. I love being able to walk around in warm weather to pick out the tree!!

We were also hard at work on the garden. We're making good progress and should be done after this coming weekend. It's a lot of work and we're both exhausted, but it looks really nice. It's going to take A LOT of dirt come this spring to fill it in. But it will also make it a much nicer garden.

One Year Anniversary

It was one year ago that we signed on the bottom line and bought our house. I can't believe it's been one year already! And on the same note I still don't feel completely moved in yet. There are so many final touches and other things that need/want to be done. It will all come together in time.

We've had a great year in our house though. It's made the winter seem more bearable and the summer was tons of fun! I'm sure next year will be even better!

I decorated our entryway for Halloween.



Sam wanted me to take his picture! He's such a little ham.



Enjoy your weekend!! We'll be outside working with this great weather. We're going to go apple picking too!!

Wow

I can't believe it's been nearly 3 weeks since I last posted. I knew I needed to get on it, but I didn't realize how long it had been. Sorry about that.

I guess no news means good news? Well at least there isn't anything too great going on. Just the usual.

We got a ton of rain last week and finally starting to dry out. The road we take to go grocery shopping on Monday is closed as of right now due to flooding. Sam and I drove through 3 hours before they closed it. The water was right up to the road. Very unusual for this time of the year.

We've been busy trying to get a few end of the season things done around before it gets cold and the snow starts flying. We still need to add the window shutters to the playhouse. I have one up, but it needs some adjusting. Zan needs to finish the top peak of the roofing.

We've decided to tweak the garden a little bit. Okay, I've decided that it needs to be worked on, Zan has to help me. Since the quality of the dirt is so poor and the ground slopes a lot we're building it up using landscape timbers and leveling it out. We'll add a bunch of dirt and compost in the spring. I'll post a picture after we've got all the boards up.

We've been frequenting Home Depot lately. Sam loves it there and really loves watching the forklifts when they move things around inside. On a recent trip there we were asked repeatedly if we needed help at all. (Apparently Sam and I look like we would need assistance.) Whenever someone would ask if we needed help Sam would look at them and say, "I want to see the forklift move." Which was always met with a smile and laugh. He knows where they keep them (back by the wood) and we always check to make sure they're there.

Ella is almost into her second month of school and is doing really well! They take a spelling test every week and last week she got them all right. We're so proud. She's gone from not really sure if she wants to go to school to being really excited to go. She has her school fundraiser "fit-a-thon" on Thursday and thanks to all the donations from friends and family she more than met her goal! Thanks to all who donated.

So even though there hasn't been too much going on I guess there have been "things" going on. We're really enjoying this nice stretch of weather and hope it continues!!

Camping

We went camping over Labor Day weekend. By camping I mean tent in back yard. The kids hadn't been camping before so we thought it best to start out in the backyard.

They had so much fun! Really enjoyed themselves.



Me, on the other hand, had the most horrible night of sleep ever!! I was freezing and my back was really killing me. I have a bad back and when I lay on my back it starts to get quite sore. It was fun cuddling with Sam and watching him sleep (since I was awake all night). He kept scooching down in the tent and I wanted to make sure he stayed warm so I was covering him up and moving him up. He slept through it all.

We'll do more camping next year. Maybe at an actual campground. I'll make sure to bring warmer clothes and definitely a softer sleeping surface. :)

I should have just sneaked into the house and slept in my own bed. I would have, but I wanted to keep an eye on Sam....





**Ella really has some goofy smiles in the tent!! :)

First Day of School - First Grade

Ella had her first day of first grade today. She had a great day. We went to the bus stop this morning and it was really, really windy. At least it wasn't raining at the time.





She said her favorite part of the day was riding the bus. The bus driver is very nice. Since there's no one else at her bus stop they will be picking and dropping her off in front of the house again. This is really nice!

The bus driver told me when Ella was dropped off that when Ella got on the bus to go home she asked her if she remembered where she lived. The driver said it was really cute. I think she was worried that she might not get to the right place.

The best part for me is that Sam is back on his nap schedule and I have about an hour and a half where he is napping and Ella is at school. Nice and quiet around the house. :)

New Shirts

We went to JoAnn's yesterday. I should never be allowed into that store because I always come out with way too many things. Good things, but too much money is usually spent. They had some super cute fabric that I really wanted to use for Ella.

So I made Ella a little hoody t-shirt. It turned out perfect and she loves it.

Sam needed a shirt too, so I took one of Papa's old Harley t-shirts and did a little cutting. He now has a Harley Davidson hoody t-shirt too.





I have some fabric that I'm going to make some jumpers for Ella also. Lots of fun sewing!!

Socks

I love socks! I also love not having to wear socks in the summer, but if I have to wear them they have to be fun! Here is a photo of some of my favorite socks.



My general cold weather outfits are usually pretty simple. Jeans and a long sleeve t-shirt or something. I mean I'm home all day so I don't need to dress up.

My one fun thing is my fancy socks. I love stripes and argyles! Plus their knee highs, so it keeps my legs warmer too. I love when Target clearances them all out!

It's gotten to the point where I'm almost starting to "collect" them, but not just yet. I don't have enough drawer space for that. Yet.....