an apple a day...

or lots of apples...creates a fun filled sunday spent with the fam!

we headed out today for our first official apple picking! stribling orchard - located in markam, virginia - is in the blue ridge mountains...and proved to be a vast play land for the little & big people! with over 2,500 apple trees, there was plenty of fruit to go around! madeline kept an apple in hand the entire time...she tried many varieties! she took bites of granny smith, red delicious, stayman, rome, golden grimes, & york! she never really liked apples before today!

ella had a ball climbing into the trees to retrieve those fruits that were too tall to reach on our own! jeffrey had a few apples bump him on his "bull head" (ella's affectionate term for his bald head)...occupational hazard when apple picking i suppose!

the weather was gorgeous...and the view of the mountains was breathtaking. we had such a fun time picking enough apples to fill our 10 lb bag...and then made our way out of the orchard...but not before having an impromptu meeting with the BIGGEST pigs i have ever seen! ella had to feed them some fallen apples...and madeline loved hearing them "oink"!!!!

ella & i are hoping to try out our baking skills by whipping up something "appley"!!!! any recipe suggestions would be appreciated! until then, we indulged and bought a warm apple crumb pie at the orchard store...and it was SO YUMMY! it almost looked too pretty to eat...but not really! we managed to put a pretty big dent in it when we got home! uuummm....

virginia is so beautiful and we are enjoying all there is to do outdoors! our next adventure will include a pumpkin patch...oh, how we love fall!

i am not sure how madeline is going to feel about the fact that you can't eat pumpkins...what a disappointment that is going to be!