My kitchen smells like apples, and this time the scent isn’t coming from the hot apple pie candle on my stove.

Columbus Day is one of those strange holidays; the girls and I had no school, and yet Ed had to go to work. So we decided to have a girls’ day out. Where to go on a beautiful fall day? Why, the apple orchard, of course! I have one and a half pecks of apples in my kitchen as a result.

Emmy is too busy to stay still for a picture!

Going to the apple orchard is not just about picking apples anymore. There are slides and rides and animals to feed. We also spent time wandering around in a gigantic corn maze, carved right into the corn field.

Wait, where are we??

Running around haystacks

These haystacks remind me of the ones Claude Monet painted. I was about to look in my art books to see if I could find some photos of his haystacks, but then remembered I lost them all in my flooded basement this summer. *sigh*

Claude Monet, Meules, milieu du jour [Haystacks, midday]

Apple cheeseburger for lunch…yum!

After lunch, we finally headed for the main attraction: the apple orchard! We got onto a wagon for a ride, and walked along the aisles of apples trees, picking and eating apples to our hearts’ content. (Our guide told us we were required to eat apples!)

Apples!

Before we left the orchard, there was one last thing the girls wanted to do: ride the cow train. Fortunately, Lily and Emmy are old enough to ride by themselves. I was not required to squeeze into a barrel cow, with my knees up to my chin, holding a child on my lap, as some unfortunate mamas and daddys.

Emmy riding Susie Q and Lily riding Jelly Bean.

Hooray for apple picking!