After a long transfusion day yesterday and climbing out from under piles of laundry, sand, mail, and dust bunnies from our vacation (post to come later), it was great to have some good New England fall fun today. Of course it was freakishly warm (80) to be apple picking, so it didn't exactly feel like fall. But the smell of ripe apples in the orchard and warm cider donuts at the farm stand definitely said, "Fall in New England" to me.
E was so excited to go apple picking. Perhaps too excited, I thought. We had pumped it up so much this week talking about it, pantomiming picking apples off imaginary trees, making our bedtime stories about apple picking that E was literally bouncing off the walls with excitement when it came time go to today. The entire ride to the orchard--including a nasty bout of traffic on 95--she kept saying, "pick apple? pick apple?" to the point that I asked P if maybe she somehow thought we were picking apples at an amusement park or at the beach or that the apples were really chocolate. But, to my utter glee, when we arrived at the orchard and she saw what apple picking is with her own beautiful eyes, she was even more excited.
We rode a tractor to the orchard and E told us that she liked the tractor better than "mama blue car." When we arrived at the orchard, she took off running into the trees and started picking apples (perfect twist and pull technique, I might add) faster than we could get out the Canon. She proceeded to pick "tiny" E apples, throwing one into the bag, and eating another at the same time.
E giggled and laughed and danced to the bluegrass band and ate and had a great time. It was beautiful to take it all in through her eyes, to watch her riding on her Baba's shoulders "up high" to pick the perfect apple, and to share this wonderful fall family tradition with our daughter.
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Yesterday, considerably less fun than today, but at least we only had
two sticks! |
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| Apples! |
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She would not put down the apple for one second to smile for
a picture! |
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| "Wow, this thing really IS quite delicious!" |
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See a theme here? Every pic she's got an apple
in her mouth! |
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I love you, a bushel and a peck!
A bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck! |
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| Riding the tractor that she likes better than my car. |
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| Pumpkin cutie! |
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| Cute under the donut sign, but she did NOT like the cider donuts. |
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| Hmmm....which pumpkin do I want to pick? |
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And, my favorite...E was the first person at the orchard to put a
pin near Liuzhou, Guangxi China!!! Yay! |
2 comments:
E.'s apple picking experience reminds me of my own daughter at that age, huge smile and an apple in each hand. My girl took a bite out of each apple she could reach, I think, that first time.
Happy memories. Happy experiences. She is getting so big and so beautiful. Thanks for sharing.
She is too cute for words! Pretty cool that they have a map at the orchard. We love to look for Maoming, China on the maps wherever we find them! She is soooo precious!
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