Apple Day!

And when I say 'apple day' I'm not kiddin'... we celebrated with a whole day devoted to apples. Celebrating what exactly? Well, FALL of course! I decided that I needed to really teach my kids about fall (and seasons in general probably), since the Phoenix valley doesn't have autumn colors in the trees and crisp weather. But, thanks to our apple day, it really started to feel like fall in our house!

We've been planning Apple Day for a couple weeks now, but our schedule of events really was capped off with the discovery of an "nearby" apple orchard that I learned about from my friend Flo. I knew Ben was going to be working an overnight call shift today, and I wasn't sure I could manage a outing to the apple farm (an hour and a half away, including 4 miles of dirt road) without my hubby. But I decided to brave it because this was possibly going to be the last weekend they'd be open to the public for apple picking. I'm SO SO glad we went. We got up early to beat the heat and it was such an enjoyable time - Emma was especially awesome at picking apples. I thought she'd be grossed out by worm holes and such, but she just tossed half eaten ones aside and dived in to find us some good apples. My kids also learned that apples grow on TREES and not in grocery stores! Such an important lesson to learn. :)

I used to be a teacher, and now I have issues... with a compulsive need to make schedules. Emma liked it though - she checked things off as we went

So, the place we went to is Date Creek Ranch. It's about 20 minutes north of Wickenburg, and then about 10 minutes off the freeway down a dirt road. As we turned off onto the dirt road, Emma says, "it doesn't look like this goes to an apple orchard mom". I agreed... it was definitely desert with sagebrush and all, but the signs insisted I keep going, so we did. And then it was like we turned a corner and surprise! Big green apple trees! So fun.



Emma was all business with the apple gathering

Jake enjoyed the orchard... he loved to wander off and explore, and always with an apple in hand



















When we got home, we went right to work and made some apple sauce, per these simple instructions. I had never done this before, so we just made a small amount. It was yummy! Now what do I do with the rest of my 20 lbs of apples? Make more applesauce? Pies? Crisps? Apple butter? Eat 'em plain? Hmmm... probably all of the above. I'm not sure I'm really looking forward to all that work. Why did I buy so many apples?



While we chopped our apples, we talked a bit about fractions, which then led to addition, subtraction, and multiplication...





Emma contemplating the answer of 3x3

I made my own interpretation of this little apple bean bag, and then we played the game that goes with it.



After lunch, I read some apple books to the girls, with THIS one being a favorite. After a much needed quiet time, then it was on to the most anticipated craft of the day - apple stamps! I've said before how the kids love paint... much more than I do. But we plowed ahead, with protective covers for the girls clothes, newspaper and butcher paper taped securely to the table, and King Kong Jake safely tucked away for a nap. :)





Then we cut out our favorites and strung it together... aw, it's darling! Why didn't we make this at the beginning of September?





Then we headed outside, for a backyard apple hunt... I thought this would be something Jake would like, but he was more into finding rocks.





The plan was to make this snack, but after eating apples all morning, I figured the kids would really just want the gummy worms...



I did seem to strike a chord with Jake on this next activity... we made little paper plate apples, and he really liked it! We spread a thin layer of glue on the plates so the kids just had to stick the paper to it. So clever for little ones - click on the link - i'm not the clever one.











After dinner we were going to make these mini apple pies, but we spontaneously ended up going to Ben's work to eat dinner and dessert with him, which was way more fun! Looks like we'll be doing apple turnovers for FHE night (along with apple crisps, apple pies, and apple bread with apple butter- ha!).



After getting home, the girls and I stayed up a bit for a little movie night - we watched some Max and Ruby 'fall' related episodes while eating popcorn and apple cider. Apple cider makes me feel all warm and cozy inside.

*Most of the ideas I linked to above I originally discovered through The Crafty Crow... I love that site - it really does inspire me to do fun crafts and activities with the kids. :)

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away...

Ben's mom came out today and we spent ALL DAY painting! We had a good time though and spent a lot of time chatting and laughing - hanging out for 8 hours in a room full of paint lends itself to some silliness. :) To go along with Jake's retro space room, Carol used her mad painting skills to spice up the walls. It's super cool and Jake was signing 'airplane' to me when I put him to bed (is there a different sign for rocket?).

I've learned that overhead projectors are very handy when planning out murals



The super cool finished product... it's turning into a really fun boys room!

My posts are really random sometimes, but how else do I squeeze in these little odds and ends... the girls both had a bit of homework this week and they both take it VERY seriously, which I think is cute....



You know who doesn't take homework time seriously? Jake. Emma had started out trying to do her homework at the kitchen table, but she soon discovered that it was too distracting...

Little pool... Big fun!

Sometimes I'm amazed at how such small things can bring such happiness! :) The grocery store had a little sale table of old seasonal items, so I grabbed this little pool, with beach ball and inflatable ring, all for $2.50. Honestly these things probably aren't worth much more than that - because they never last! But the past few days, the kids have been LOVING it and since it's STILL 105 outside, we should have plenty of time to enjoy it... OH, and these HUGE popsicles were on sale for $1 per bag, so I snatched up a few bags of those too - it's like we're starting up our second summer.



I love it when the kids eat lunch outside on paper plates... easiest clean up ever!









So, I haven't blogged in the past week and half - my friend, and running buddy, Tessa suspects it's because I've started up running again. I'm so happy to get to run with friends a few times each week again! Remember, the summer heat is fading... it's only 105... fall is in the air!! Time to break out the jogging strollers! ;)
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I've got to add on this last thing. So, a few months back, Emma started having issues with nightmares and a wild imagination when trying to fall asleep... we tried nightlights (which helps), keeping the door open, praying before bed, etc... and keep in mind that she shares a room with Becca, so I was surprised this was such an ordeal. Anyway, even with all these things, she still was having a hard time going to sleep at night, so I suggested we move her picture of Jesus next to her bed. It's normally just up on her dresser, so I put it on the chair next to her. This worked wonders! Since starting this, we haven't had any more trouble... BUT Emma soon started to actually sleep WITH the Jesus picture... a lot of the times after she is asleep I find that she is actually holding it like her stuffed animal friends! Seems uncomfortable, but whatever works I guess! I took these pictures a couple months ago when we were in Utah visiting my family - yes, we had to pack the framed picture and take it with us, or she would have been SO sad. It is kind of sweet though...

Still trying to cool down

Some things we've done lately...

- Another splash park... I counted them up, and this was our 8th splash park we've been to since the summer started - and some of them we've been to more than once. But like I've said before, there's not much else to do outside in the Arizona summertime.



Jake's happy face didn't last long... he was VERY whiny and sad on this particular outing... he's probably trying to say "mom!! seriously!! why are we at ANOTHER splash park?!! It's September already... why is it still 110 outside?!"... I know honey, I know.

I feel like I have lots of pics of Becca laying out on her towel... but this is seriously her favorite splash park/swimming activity... what a girl!

Oh, that, and being a goof! :) Now that she's in preschool she's getting to be better friends with so many other fun little girls and boys. And aren't her and Eden so cute being goofs together?

-And speaking of little friends, Jake got to play with Luke this week, who's just a few months older than him. They played well together, actually, and I laughed pretty hard when they both found little doll sized sippy cups and were enjoying sipping on them together on the step. ;) ...



-On Friday we attempted to go the Phoenix Children's Museum for their FREE night - every first Friday of the month, they are open late and everyone can get in free. That sounded great! I figured it would probably be busy, but we'd just shove our way through crowds and have a good time. Well, we got there and found that they have a cap on how many they let in at a time (obviously) and there was a huge crowd of people at the front entrance waiting for their turn to go in - they said the wait would likely be an hour long. SOOO, we decided we weren't up for that... so amidst a very upset and disappointed Emma, we drove to our favorite ice cream place just down the street from the museum and seemed to successfully cheer everybody up...



Emma got herself a blueberry soda... we discovered she has a very long tongue

-Saturday morning, we went to the zoo! The Lee's had a bunch of free passes for us to use, so we got to join them on a really fun (and sweaty) family outing. It was definitely HOT (the high today was apparently 108!), but we are all VERY VERY anxious for things to cool down, so just as with our activities last weekend, we are getting outside anyway and braving the heat, 'cause we're all sick of being stuck inside. We spent most of our time at the zoo's splash park... oh wait! That's number 9!... and the rest of the time we tried to stay in shaded areas and under misters when available. :)

















Emma loves to stand on this frog statue every time we visit... we convinced Adam and Becca to join her

Then Ben helped them all down at once... if you can't tell, the kids were very excited about this

Peering in at the iguana

-Movie Night!... Ben had to go in to work for a late shift this evening, so we decided to make the best of it! I bought these cute little popcorn containers from the dollar bins at Target last week - so Emma suggested that we should use them tonight and watch a movie together (after crazy Jake went to bed). It was a great idea! We watched Anastasia... the girls had never seen it - I love that movie! The music is the BEST! In fact, Emma was so excited when I told her after the movie ended that I have the CD with all the music that we can listen to in the car... I bought that CD over 10 years ago! It's fun to share things with my girls. :) Am I a dork that I have the Anastasia CD?