Adventures in {Un-Apple Picking}

The day after Halloween - November 1st - The Boy didn't have school.
So we invited our friends to join us on a trip to Snow-Line Orchard.
I've wanted to go for several years, but I've just
never made the jump to make the drive up there.

I am SO glad we made the trip this year.
The Fall colors were gorgeous!





I asked the kids to sit under the tree so I could
take their pictures.
This is what I got :)



Jaime made the girls cute apple picking clothes.
However, we were about 5 days too late to pick.
The nice man fixing the chair told Jaime if
she would be there at 8am the next morning she could
help him glean the last of them.
LOL





It was so cool to see the cider being pressed.


The Boys thought it was super cool.
It's good to be tall :)


As soon as we got there the kids found these seed pods
from the tree that looked fluffy and fun.
Well, they were really prickly and mean!
The Boy got the worst of it and the nice donut lady
told us to go rinse his hand and need and he'd feel better.
It totally worked.



The ambiance was just fabulous.


This sign totally made me laugh.
I might need to make a printable of it :)
The Boy {LOVED} the unlimited apple and apple cider tasting.
He told one of the ladies, "Your apple cider is delicious."
Awesome.


We also had to have some FRESH apple cider doughnuts.
They were SO yummy.


And enjoyed by all!


After Snow-Line we headed to lunch at good old Panda.
We really wanted to go to a pumpkin patch and saw a fun
one as we got off the freeway, so we decided to head back there.
Sadly it closed on October 31st!!!
Brave Jaime hopped the barbed wire (ok maybe walked around)
and asked if they would please, pretty please, let us pick some pumpkins.


The nice man at Live Oak Canyon let us!!!
We were so grateful he obliged,
because the kids had their hearts set on it.
Well, at least The Boy did :)


He found the perfect pumpkin.


I love the Cinderella-style pumpkins.


Hooray for a fun day!
And I will definitely be back to both next year!

To prove . . .

that I was there too :)

Fall::ish::

I'm feeling Fall::ish::, so I decided to share a fun family recipe today :)

When I first asked my husband if he had ever had jello popcorn balls and he hesitated and then said, "No, but they sound kind of gross, actually." I just started laughing. I had to explain that the Jello is used to flavor the popcorn balls. Then he got it. He said he picture soggy popcorn floating in Jello. Mmmmm . . . sounds tasty! I made them with orange Jello - in honor of Halloween - even though strawberry is my favorite flavor. We'll have to make some at Christmas too!

1 c. karo syrup
1 c. sugar
1 small package of Jello
1 GIANT bowl of air popped popcorn
(at my mom's house it's the "green" Tupperware bowl and I used my white Tupperware bowl. Sorry I don't have a more exact measurement. Our air popper is broken, so I used natural microwave popcorn and it took 3 bags to fill my white bowl.)

In a sauce pan combine first 3 ingredients and bring to boil. Let boil for one or two minutes, until it loses it sugary look. Pour over the popcorn and stir to coat. Butter (or Pam) your hands and roll into popcorn balls when you're able to touch it without getting burned to death. Let balls cool on wax paper. Once they are cool, wrap them in plastic wrap. Good luck!

Fantastic Fall Photo Opportunity

The super talented Sarah Hull is hosting special
mini sessions at her home!
She'll make her yard a darling mini-pumpkin patch
and for a FANTASTIC price you can get fun Fall photos!

The mini sessions are October 7th and 8th.
Head over to her BLOG for all the details.
Hurry and sign up so you don't miss out!