Apple Orchard

Living in Minnesota, we hear often of friends visiting apple orchards in the fall. After seeing countless photos on Facebook, and doing research on our choices (there are quite a number in the area!), we decided to try it ourselves during the last weekend of September.

The weather was perfect for such an outing (well, perhaps a tad warm!). It was a quick little drive to  Apple Jack Orchard, though Olivia fell asleep on the way there! That will happen when you keep waking up at 5am...

They had a number of activities, some that cost money and others that were free. They had some bunnies, sheep, and chickens in different cages (and ducks in with the chickens!), which fascinated the kids but didn't exactly make for interesting pictures. They also had bushels of straw set up for climbing, complete with slides attached.

We realized that it was already starting to get fairly warm (high in the 80s that day, and humid already), so we decided to go pick apples before it was too hot. The girls were GREAT helpers, and really seemed to enjoy picking apples!

 It was fairly easy to educate Madeline on how to choose an apple. Big, red, no spots... and nothing that was already on the ground.

Olivia had a hard time with that last concept, and kept picking up apples that had fallen and started to rot. (See the apple in her right hand? The one she's about to bite? Yeah, it's rotten.)

We always knew Olivia liked apples. What we didn't know was that she's OBSESSED with apples.

She was picking them left and right (some from trees, fortunately)! She'd always announce, "Apple!"

She ate so many!

(It became hot enough to warrant pig tails)

We spent more on apples than we originally anticipated, so we decided not to partake in the other activities that cost money. However, they did have fun stuff like a corn maze, pony rides (Olivia was so captivated by the ponies!), a corn pit, etc, and hopefully we can try some another year.

Another bonus? We brought home enough apples to make the filling for EIGHT pies!! We made one that afternoon, but are saving the rest in our freezer to enjoy when the winter seems particularly bitter. Already, we're not dreading MN winters as much this year! The first pie was soooo yummy, we've already decided that this is a "must" activity for every fall!