pumpkin painting

Earlier this week Moose, Sollah-Roo & Sadie girl painted pumpkins in the name of all that is fall and October. Never mind that it's still in the high 80's here in SC and we're soaking in every fall day that's just an extension of summer. #ihatethecold

I wish..no, no I don't. I was going to say that I wish I had a fun story about taking the boys to a pumpkin patch to let them pick out their very own pumpkins. But, around here, if you go to the pumpkin patch, they're just really over priced. And, it's still 85+ degrees outside, which means that a certain child of mine would have whined the entire time about being hot and having to walk on his own perfectly good two feet. And, after apple picking last week I decided that a store bought pumpkin would be just fine. So, instead, we went to Trader Joe's and picked out $1 tiger pumpkins. They're naturally beautiful little pumpkins and the boys & Sadie think that their paint jobs made them even more beautiful. I agree. 

apple picking + baking

Last Tuesday we loaded up the #martinbandofbrothers + Sadie girl, Haley & Honey and headed to Hendersonville to pick apples. Just a heads up - if you want the place to yourselves, go on a Tuesday at the end of September! We had to walk a-ways to get to the good apples, but that was OK. After tromping around the grounds for a while & loading our cart to the brim (we ended up with 32# of apples), we made our way back to the barn for apple cider donuts & apple cider slushies (a-hem, this may have been my reason for wanting to go). 

We came home from the orchard with the kids and they were pooped, so we planned to bake the apples the next day. The boys & I went to Ft. Inn to Honey's house and Haley & I made 2 apple pies + a double batch of applesauce. We've still got tons of apples, so I'm searching for new recipes to make something yummy with them -- please share if you have something that you love! (: