Afternoon with mommy

I decided when I took the day off that after I picked Ethan up we'd have a special mommy and Ethan day. Since mid way into my pregnancy with the twins, I have struggled to get special time alone with the kids. It's just hard. I many times just don't feel like I have it all balanced yet. But, I hope with time to carve out more special one on one days with all four.

So, what do you think we did? Hint... it's fall, it's one of our favorite things to do, it's a tradition of sorts for us... apple picking! Today the u-pick on Honeycrisp opened and we were there! Honeycrisp are so juicy and delicious. As an added bonus, they keep (in a cool spot) until April! In my house of apple lovers though, they won't make it that long... maybe November. We picked tons - three big bags. Okay, correction, I picked tons. Ethan is my expert apple tester. That's his favorite part of apple picking... eating apples... and lots of them. Thankfully did pick a lot of Honeycrisp because as it turns out (according to the email newsletter I just got from the orchard) there was a bigger than normal turn out this year and instead of u-pick for two weeks (Friday, Saturday, Sunday), they anticipate being out by tomorrow evening (so in two days versus the normal six). Crazy.

Raspberries were u-pick today as well, so we decided to get some of them. Now, I am not a fan of berry picking - of the raspberry, blackberry, blueberry variety that is. One reason is it takes SO long and you end up with this tiny bit of fruit (which the kids devour in a day). The second reason, related to the first two berries, I don't like to get pricked all the time by the thorns! The third reason... I HATE spiders. Big hairy million-eyed scary spiders. Who cares if they eat bugs and help the berries... I hate them. They creep me out. (shuttering now) However the kids in this house LOVE raspberries and they were cheap and of course very fresh... so I did it. Ethan watched... and laughed at me and my creeped out sounds and overly dramatic shuttering movements.

The ceremonial first bite of the first apple picked. The verdict: 'delicioso!'

Ethan talking to the apples. He told me at one point that we had lots of kids. Thinking he was referring to his siblings, I agreed. He then told me jokingly that the kids were the apples. This was born from me telling the apples to stop falling out of the bag... the overflowing bag. So, that became one of our jokes. Here he is talking to this bag of apples and telling them to stay put 'kids' we were taking them to a good home.

When we got home, I put the apples in the living room until I had time to wash and bag them for storing. I thought it would be okay since the boys were playing in the family room. I went on to make some fresh salsa (Collin and I are addicted to it), which is precisely when they decided to venture into the living room. My hands were covered with tomatoes guts and I hear Steve saying "no, no more... stop eating them... Wendy a little help here!" It's kind of a fun game to take a couple bites from one and continue on to another after all. Once we hid them, the boys continued eating the one that they each had. The twins ate right through it... to the core. These kids love apples (well, fruit in general).


To sum it up, it was a gorgeous and perfect September day. Ethan and I had a lot of fun picking apples, talking about the first day of school and making jokes. All the boys enjoyed the bounty. It was a great day.