PYO Apples

I, like most New-Englanders, look forward to fall: the crisp air, sweaters and boots, pumpkins, and perhaps the most quintessential activity, apple picking. All the farms around here have opened their orchards and apples are flying off the shelves. Er, trees. We took a Nill family trip on Sunday to Shelburne Farm in Stow and let me tell you, we were not in sweatshirts sipping hot cider as we strolled along under crystal clear blue skies (how it should be, in my mind). No, we were melting. It was 80 degrees and humid, I had a 20 pound baby strapped to my chest and hiking through the orchards, although only a tad hilly, felt like climbing Mt. Rushmore. Despite this, watching Ashton freak out over all the apples was worth it. Shelburne Farm has a ton going on, from hay rides to bouncy houses, to pick-your-own apples and pumpkins, to a kiddie tractor arena. We had a great time!

At one point I said to Jason, "Wouldn't it be cute to get their picture like under the apple tree or something?" I would be lying if I told you I wasn't thinking about Christmas cards. What good are kids if you can't pose them in cliche scenes exactly like this? 

It ended up not mattering because I didn't get a single good one. For starters, Alex wasn't being very cooperative. I plopped him down and...

And then Ashton panicked because an ant was crawling on his shorts. He shot up like a piece of hot popcorn and the photo session was over.

We moved on and Jason found this gem:

Me (as I am creating this post): "Should I put the picture of your butt apple on the blog?"

Jason: "Only if you think it's funny. Don't you think it's funny?"

The answer is, I don't, but if I have any male readers out there, I'm sure you will. So that one's for you. 

We grabbed a couple burgers at the BBQ stand and headed home. Jason and I were exhausted haha. But of course, Ashton wasn't, so when we got home he and I put on our baking hats and got to work. Julia Child, I am not. I basically cut up some apples, let Ashton sprinkle cinnamon and sugar in the bowl and then we filled the dish that was lined with pie crust (store-bought, obviously).

We made a couple little apple bakes and some envelope-thingys with the leftover dough.

They were not pretty or fancy (most toddler hands-on activities aren't) but Ashton really likes to cook/bake and is obsessed with "wecipes". In the end he was very happy because he got to have a little tart for dessert and Alex had apple puree with his baby cereal for dinner :) Happy fall!