Broom's Apple Festival

The kids and I attended the Broom's Apple Festival (in Carlinville) this past Sunday. This is a wonderful orchard where you are allowed to pick your own apples/pumpkins/peaches/you name it. Plus, while picking you are allowed to eat all of the apples you want for free. This kids really took advantage of that! Joe was working, so my mom met us there to join in the fun.

Olivia showing off one apple being eaten, and another one waiting to be eaten next.

I don't know how many apples Ethan went through. He would pick an apple, take two bites, then pick another apple to eat. He was really enjoying himself!

The kids needed a bit of help to reach the good apples!

And since we will be gone on vacation for awhile in October (Disney! A loooong blog sure to come after that trip!) we decided to visit the pumpkin patch a bit early. Although Ethan was more interested in his apple cider than the pumpkins!

Showing off the pumpkin selections.

Olivia resting in the hay bale maze. We did not make it into the large corn maze this year.

Paining pumpkins at grandma's house. We learned that watercolors do not work at all on pumpkins, but markers do!

Hmmm, how much longer will Olivia and grandpa be able to do this?

And, a picture unrelated to the apple festival. This is how I decided to jazz up yet another boring meal of fish sticks. The kids were so excited to pick "crazy plates and cups" that they did not mind eating most of their dinner without complaint. Olivia used a bundt pan, I picked a cookie sheet, Ethan used a muffin tin, and Joe selected a cake pan for plates. Plus the kids were able to eat with chopsticks, which is always exciting!