I’ve written about apple picking numerous times, and so this Spin Cycle prompt about apples was going to be different. I was going to post an apple craft, or maybe make my favorite apple pie recipe.

On Monday, Lily and Emmy didn’t have school. For the past few years, when the girls have had a day off in the fall, I’ve taken them apple picking. This year, even though it wasn’t discussed, the girls assumed we were going to an apple orchard. I assumed I was going to get some laundry done. So what did I decide to do?

Apple picking, of course! Apple picking makes me think of fall weather, of cooler days and sweaters, but for the past few years we have had sunny, warm fall days when we went apple picking. On Monday it reached 80 degrees, so we definitely didn’t need a sweater!

I decided to try a different apple orchard this year, and so we found ourselves up by the Illinois/Wisconsin border at Royal Oak Farm. Instead of a corn maze, they have an apple tree maze, which was easier to navigate than the corn mazes we’ve been lost in. The trees grow on trellises and so the maze is permanent. There were three activity centers at different parts of the maze. The girls loved the musical center so much we visited it twice. There were big, colorful pipes to bang on, and a large wooden xylophone, too.

Emmy brought her own quarters to feed the animals at the petting zoo; we spent a while feeding the chickens cracked corn and giving the goats their pellet food. As for apple picking, we did that part last, so we wouldn’t have to lug our heavy apple bags around with us! We picked Gala and Jonamac, and I think I can easily say that the actual apple picking is always the favorite part of our trips to an orchard.

It’s been a very busy week since Monday, but hopefully I will bake an apple pie this weekend! Would you like a piece?

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