Artwork and apple orchards

 Our Abstract Art Kiwi Crate fun today making a mobile.

 Success!

 Luke working on his mobile.

 Luke has a unique mobile hanger

 We also had plenty of supplies to create 5 more color block paintings.

Even Amy-19 and Laura-17 got in on the fun.

 Luke and Kim have each made a "block" painting, so they decided to add their own unique creative touch to their paintings.

 The finished artwork!

 This past Monday we headed to the "pick your own" apple orchard and farm.

 The trees were bent over with so much fruit.

 Honey crisp is our favorite...and we were able to pick A LOT.

 Some of the best apples are at the very top of the tree.

 Luke-8

 YUMMY!!

 Fifty three pounds of apples.

 Gracie filmed herself on the was down the slide. LOL!

 Even Daddy made it down the slide.

 Dad taught Kim to feed a horse.

 I loved the chicks.

Happy Autumn, everyone!



Fall fun

Today Daddy had the day off of work, so I decided to give the kids a day off of school and go on a field trip.

We headed off the pick apples and have some fall fun at Critz Farms.

We were greeted by this enormous "slide mountain". The kids jumped out of the car and ran immediately to the slides.

Any boy, does it pay to homeschool children....we practically had the whole place to ourselves.

After a quick slide or two, we headed into the apple orchard.
Right now, my favorite variety of apple is the Honeycrisp...and these were absolutely delicious.

Luke, hard at work.

Are you supposed to eat in the orchard, Mark?

Mark and Grace had a plan to reach the tops of the trees.

Ready!

Reach!

Success!! But they could only stay this way long enough to pick one apple.

Daddy and Kimberly

That's quite an apple, Luke.

My scarecrows.

I doubt the crows will be scared.

Luke loved this train.

It was a school day, so we had the place almost to ourselves.

There were also a lot of animals to visit on the farm.

This minature donkey was my favorite.

The rooster kept crowing and crowning...the kids loved it.

Kimmy was a little nervous around the goats, especially after seeing our they behaved when you brought in a handful of food. But after checking Kimberly for goat treats, this one was content with being petted.

I love the whiskers on this goat. Maybe he is the old timer around the farm.

Heading to the pumpkin patch.

Heading home with our pumpkins.

Which way did they go????

I bought everyone a bottle of fresh cider to drink on the way home, and the perfect spot to stop for our drink was at Chittenango Falls.

What a little monkey!

I could only manage to make it a short way down the trail to bottom of the falls, but Daddy and the kids made it the whole way....it's quite a hike!!

They did bring me back this beautiful photo!