Apple Day!

Eleven years old, this tradition!  These three girls have been at every Apple Day, if you include the first one when they were all in utero. 

The sun always shines on Apple Day.  As Melinda pointed out, that may have something to do with our selective scheduling based on the forecast.  Or it may just be the universe smiling on us.

Eddy's fruit farm is nothing fancy.  Just row upon row of apple trees and grapevines, with open space here and there and surrounded by trees.  It is simple, and simply beautiful.  The only activity going on?  Picking apples.  And people flock to it, and wander in the sunshine and pick apples and eat them and laugh and play and take idyllic photos. I am not saying we are unique in our Apple Day tradition!  But that does not diminish my love for it. And we are among the few who add "tailgating" to the experience, treating ourselves to donuts and coffee and snacks in the sunshine and letting the day linger.  This year the coffee was iced thanks to the crazy-warm temperatures and we set up our chairs in the shade of our hatchbacks and soaked it all up for a good hour. A soft breeze came up as the late afternoon light slanted down on us and I was overcome with gratitude for nature and weekends and apples and friends. 

 Other happenings this week: 

Speaking of amazing, universe-smiling weather-- our little Forest Hills Riders have had glorious afternoons for riding every day so far.  We've had four "practices" so far and I was just so pleased on our most recent foray to see the girls really warming up to the experience.  They are chatting amongst themselves as they ride, confidently heading along their route-- and stopping to enjoy nature along the way.  Perfection.  We spent quite a bit of time this week with these ducks, who were enthusiastically named and renamed by our crew.  Our favorite was Chocolate Milk, the one you see headed towards us in this photo.

The girls also discovered several patches of Touch-me-nots and there was so much squealing and hand waving as they popped open the seed pods...

On Wednesday Nat and I soaked up the September light on an evening date to Holden Arboretum, using our after-hours member's privileges to explore new paths in the peaceful evening.

It was lovely.  We will be doing this again-- many more paths to discover!

Thursday Jack participated in his first Invitational meet.  SO many people in one spot!  Felt quite strange and exciting.  There were at least 6 schools running, some of them with huge teams.  I was proud of our boy for staying near the middle of the pack and even pushing himself to pass a few runners at the end.  He did his two miles in 14:43, which is over a 5 minutes improvement from his baseline run this season.  It's so fun to watch your child learn and improve.

Fun with pets!  These two terrible photos show the little drama that has played out over the past few days.  Sunny got a new toy, a little ball with feathers and a bird head that tweets quite enthusiastically when batted.  She loves it madly.      

                                                 

So does the dog, it turns out.  This is her carefully guarding this tiny little toy as the cat bides her time and waits to get it back.  I just love these two animals together.  They are constantly amusing. 

Friday Boulecard had a drive-thru/ walk up parade, complete with ice cream, goodie bags, and the chance to see our terrific teachers and staff in person.  

Dragged Jack along and he spent a bit of time wandering and gazing on his own.  Walking down memory lane, pehaps?