Oktoberfest & Apples

It was a busy day from the start but it we were presented with such beautiful crisp fall weather, I have nothing to complain about. Everyone managed to sleep in until 7- this us heaven for me when it actually happens.

I made yummy oatmeal with raisins, which Lars ate heartily and Ella picked at. I never seem to know what she will eat int he morning. Her appetite is usually great, but in the morning she is just not ready to be cooperative much of the time. After eating we got dressed and then we loaded up for our adventure for the day. We drove over to pick up Jess and headed off to Amana for the Oktoberfest parade and festivities. I also made arrangements with our guidance counselor, TJ, to visit his house after the parade to pick apples from his apple orchard. On the way to Amana, Ella proudly told Jess that the cow in the pasture was for sale. Jess had no idea what she meant, but I asked Ella if she meant it was for sale because it was written on. Ella said yes- just like a car. Of course, cow 4 sale- cheap! We laughed pretty heartily at this.

We arrived about 40 minute before the parade, which is necessary because parking is crazy hard for events such as this. We went up to Macumber's house where Ella greeted Mary and then many other kids rolled in. The parade was setting up just across the street so while we waited the kids just ran around us and were having so much fun playing tag. Fox's arrived with Cam, Riley and Carson. Harrison and Jackson arrived at the end since they were going to be in the parade. Ella was very excited to see Harrison since he is her best friend in preschool because as she puts it, we always play together. I think she misses him when he is not there. Pete and Jess were there with Gracie. All in all, I think there were 7-9 kids running around and about 10 adults. It really is a great thing that we all are blessed to work together and have kids together and be able to bring them together for events like these. Susan and Ben are so hospitable and provide juice and coffee and donuts for people. I am always concerned because my kids eat more than their share. I must remember to thank them for letting us take part.

Once the parade began, the kids were very excited. Then the candy began! This is such a small town parade- it really is a safe parade and one I do not worry about the kids too much. It helps we know more than half the participants in the parade too. At one point I caught a look at Ella and she was just standing at the side of the road with her arms outstretched- more please! Tehy loved the parade and had such a great time. Favorites include the band- always fun and this year the Ghostbusters car- which had 2 scary old masked people driving the car and threw out clear bouncy balls. Unexpected to say the least.

When the parade was done, Jess and I considered getting some food- but quickly changed our minds when we saw the lines at the festival hall. We heard of kids stuff a block over and headed that way. Lars and Ella loved looking at some animals and making Halloween and Oktoberfest crafts.

Then we got in the car and went apple picking at TJ's orchard. He fist gave us a tour of his orchard which consists of approximately 20 trees- apples, pears, plums, peaches. We also saw kiwi bushes and grape vines. TJ, of course, knew the name of all the apple trees- which I tried to remember...but could not. He gave us these handy dandy apple picker baskets on long sticks which made the job go much much easier. He had me sample many apples then we would toss them into the ditch. Lars thought this was great fun- so he pretty much decided to eat or take a bite from a pile then throw it as hard as he could into the ditch- the rest of the time. Argh.


He also found a very cool praying mantis followed by a small fuzzy caterpillar which he squashed and horrified Jess with his sheer brutality. To Lars, however, he was just stomping a bug. He likes to do this. No matter how much I plead with him- he likes to stomp bugs. I was very proud that he did not stomp the praying mantis. You gotta take what you can get.

Well after about an hour of apple picking, we had about 8 gallons of apples - red and yellow apples. I also has a shopping bag of pears- asian and bosch. I made an apple crisp tonight and will likely make pies tomorrow to take to work on Monday. We have a lot of apples- I may be making apple baked goods or applesauce all the rest of this week. If only I knew what to do with all these pears?