2nd Annual Apple Picking Party

As many of you know, we have an apple tree in our front yard. Besides attracting all of the annoying neighborhood kids and causing me to have to run out and tell them to get their grubby paws off my apples, it also provides us and all of our family with more apples than we can eat! We had so many apples that first year that we ended up throwing most of them away before we could eat them. So, last year we decided to start a tradition. We invited the whole family over and let them take as many apples as they wanted and then we provided an apple themed meal to go with the fun. It was a big hit and we couldn't wait to do it again this year. Well, wouldn't you know it ........ our apple tree didn't provide us with a single apple this year! We are assuming that one of the late frosts in the spring killed the blossoms and therefore prevented it from bearing any fruit. :( Well, we weren't going to let the lack of apples prevent us from having our apple picking party. We visited a great place last year that had pumpkin patches, hay rides and apple picking. So, we invited the whole family to join us there today for a picnic lunch, apple picking, hay rides AND pumpkins!!! I think the highlight of the trip was the pumpkin patch. All of the kids had a great time searching for that perfect pumpkin and it was fun to see how they each qualified the perfect pumpkin. Gabe didn't want to touch any of them because the stems are pokey and for some reason that freaked him out. Isabel was very particular about her pumpkin. It couldn't be too large ... she had to be able to carry it. And it couldn't have a single speck of green. It had to be the most perfect orange you've ever seen. Joel and I picked Gabe's out for him and spent the rest of the time hauling it around, and after some very carful searching Isabel finally found her perfect all-orange pumpkin too! When we were done there we all met back at our house for the traditional apple themed meal! We enjoyed pumpkin bread, apple cider, a delicous soup (yes, with apples in it) and homemade apple pies! It was another successful apple picking party!! Can't wait to see what happens next year ..... will we have apples on our tree??? Will I spend another summer yelling at the neighborhood kids? Or will we be going back to the Happy Apple Farm for more apple picking-pumpkin picking-hayriding fun??