Monday, September 30, 2013

Keepin’ the tradition alive…

I was heart-broken last year when I looked on the website for our favorite orchard and saw the words “NO PICKING THIS YEAR. Sorry!”  What?!  We can’t pick!  You don’t understand… THIS IS TRADITION!  I felt like bursting out the song from Fiddler on the Roof!  I was so disappointed that the early frost and extremely warm temps had basically destroyed most of the apple crop in Iowa.  After calling and calling, I wasn’t able to find a singe orchard that let people pick apples.  I just wanted a few fresh-off-the-tree delicious apples and a few awesome pictures to go with it.  Is that too much to ask for?  Well, for last year.. YES!

SO… this year we were EXTREMELY excited to get back to our favorite orchard this fall.  Each orchard has a bumper crop of apples – they are literally crawling with apples.  I have never seen so many on the trees.  We packed up the kids and went on a gorgeous fall day…

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Caleb LOVED all the the apples and took bites of any one that he could find!  There were times that he had two – one in each hand – that he was alternating bites out of!  He was in HOG HEAVEN!

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What a beauty!

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Hard work in progress!

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Dayton – the little boy we watch during the week – didn’t know what to do with the apples at first.  He thought they were balls, but once I started his apple for him by taking a bite, he loved it.  There was food everywhere!!! (Yes, we are brainwashing him with the New England sports teams!)

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Caleb picking his first apple off of the tree! Of course, he just wanted to eat it!

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And he did! He must have had three whole apples over the morning!

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Silly kids…even sillier daddy!

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That picture reminds me of a great one we took when Grace was a baby In New Hampshire at Mack’s Apples:

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Josiah liked the task of Apple Picking, too.  He was VERY helpful in getting them.  We were so glad that they were so easy for the kids to reach.  There were TONS of ones hanging down low, but he wouldn’t slow down enough for me to get a decent picture of him picking!

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The girls took pictures of the parents… (by Grace)

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(By Hannah)

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Brotherly Love…

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Just chillaxin with his apples…

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Dayton… still working on the first apple…

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Our kiddos

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HILARIOUS…

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One of the sisters…

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Fresh apples and fresh air… I LOVE FALL!

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Isn’t this one covered!?!?!

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Nope… the shot with the kids isn’t gonna work!

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Here we were last time we visited… 2011!

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I hope that we are able to return again next year!  This is a favorite tradition of mine that I want to continue and continue and continue – and Danny want to too – as long as there is apple cider donuts and an apple pie in the future!  :) 

 

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Toothless and Terrific

Ever since Grace was three, she was fascinated by loose teeth and the tooth fairy.  She would ask me over and over again when I thought she would finally have her first loose tooth.  Since I had taught first grade, I knew that the majority of kids had their first loose tooth in first grade, so I soothed her with the idea that she probably would have to wait until she was six.  Well, when she turned six and there were no wiggly teeth, she was disappointed.  I knew the day would come, but it wouldn’t come fast enough for her.

Two weeks ago, she ate her lunch really slowly and then went straight to the bathroom.  She came out with her fingers in her mouth and tried to ask me a few questions.  After removing her fingers, we discovered that what she was feeling but not seeing WAS a loose tooth – a middle tooth on the bottom.  HER FIRST ONE… FINALLY!!  She was relieved that she was finally going to experience what she had been daydreaming about for years!

Two weeks after this initial discovery, she had wiggled and played with it so much that she could literally push it until it was laying flat on her bottom lip.  During nap time, I took a tissue and twisted it out...with her permission.  She was so brave… it didn’t really hurt or bleed much.  She was VERY proud of it and showed everyone her hole on Wednesday night at church.

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In case you are wondering, Grace DID put it under her pillow with an adorable note that she wrote to the Tooth Fairy.  In the morning she got a dollar bill with sparkly stickers on it.  She was THRILLED! 

So… when will we have her next loose tooth?  This one can’t come fast enough either!  I am sure she will continue to keep her fingers in her mouth until she feels a loose one!

Friday, September 27, 2013

Jesus makes me Happy, Happy, Happy!

The Beaverdale Parade is a yearly event for our church.  We always have a float in the parade and it is a great time for the whole family.  We get to pass out candy to the children lining the streets as well as information about our church to the parents.  The theme this year was Ducky Dynasty.  We had a truck with a sign Jesus makes me Happy, Happy, Happy.  The truck pulled a camo boat with some of the men from our church dressed like the show characters…including Danny as one of them!

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Pastor Tom as one of the Duck Dynasty Men

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Friends…

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Oh, Danny Boy!  Caleb was truly scared of him at home, but he eventually got comfortable with hairy Daddy.

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Sherri and Jen did SO MUCH work on this again this year… Great job, Ladies!

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Our Friend, Josiah, had a GREAT costume and used his stilts the whole way on the parade route… what a great guy!

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Vikings fun?

I wasn’t sure how the first unit of study in history was going to go.  Studying about the Vikings did NOT seem like something my six year old would like.  She is into puppies, princesses, gymnastics, art, reading, etc.  She has NEVER studied something like this… with ships, stealing, fighting, voyages, dragons, etc.

BUT I was pleased on the first day with her extreme excitement in the Vikings and anticipation for what I had planned next.  We read many books, made paper dolls, watched the Viking Veggie Tales movie and then made our own Viking Ship.  Grace did an amazing job and took great pride in getting all of the details right.  We pieced several small boxes together and then added a dragon head and tale for the boat.  She painted it brown… inside and outside.

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On the next day she added the oars and shields and the people – the made the people so creatively.

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Ok.. the details are finally done… do you like the final product?

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