In which we visit the apple orchard!

So every year since before Peter was born, we've gone to an orchard in Indiana to pick apples. One year we went with Mike's dad and also bought a pumpkin; the year Peter was a baby he rode in the sling the whole time. We avoid the petting zoo/little kid train/face painting/etc. because we're slightly grinchy, we grown ups, and we feel that picking apples (after riding out to the orchard in a wagon towed by a tractor!) is fun enough. We have gotten lunch a couple of times, which is fun - we did that this year and the kids enjoyed it. The actual picking is a real pleasure; even the year that we went in a rainstorm it was fun. The trees are gorgeous when they're full of ripe apples, and this year the weather was perfect. We got apples for eating and apples for pie, and I'm going to spend some time peeling, cutting and freezing some for using later in the winter. Technically I make apple crisp more often than apple pie, and I've also got an apple cake recipe that gets raves. Crisp is easier than pie crust, and the kids eat it all equally well.