apple picking

What would living in New England in the fall be without an excursion to an orchard to do some apple picking?! Yesterday we met some homeschooling friends over at Dondero Orchards, in South Glastonbury, CT, to do just that. In addition to picking our fill of apples, we were able to explore the blueberry field, the peach orchard, and the pear orchard as well as checking out many varieties of apple trees.

J had a clear plan of what he wanted -- Red Delicious apples, because those are his favorites. We found this tree, absolutely loaded with apples, towards the back of the orchard, and J quickly filled his bag with as many as he could carry.

Zoo Boy picked exactly two apples, and declared himself done. (Given that he doubled the number of apples that he picked last year, I'd say that was pretty good!) He doesn't like apples much, so mostly just wanted to get back to the farm store so he could play with the other kids in the play yard there. While they had fun, I shopped and picked up some homemade preserves and a few ears of Indian Corn for some fall crafts I have in mind to do with the kids.

Ok, I have NO idea what kinds of flowers these were, but they were so pretty I nearly came home with a basketful of them (and probably would have, too, if we weren't planning to go to a playground and then out for dinner before heading home -- it was too warm of a day to just leave flowers in a closed-up van).

Here's the playground, not far from the orchards, where we stopped before dinner for the kids to play. There were some really adorable boys doing an excavation for dinosaur bones -- one of the kids (a 6 yr old) was a NY Jets fan who was at the opening game of the season against my beloved Patriots, and I had a good natured argument with him about the Jets vs the Patriots.

All in all, a very fun day, with a very yummy ending. (We love apples! Well, all of us except Zoo Boy....) The yumminess should continue into next week as well -- there's apple pie and apple crisp on the horizon, and J is excited about making apple sauce from a recipe he found in one of the books we're reading this week during Family Story Time.