Fall Fun

Fall is one of my favorite seasons, and not just because of the candy corn! Last weekend we went on the hunt for an apple orchard. I've mentioned before that we used to pick apples at Chris' parent's house before they moved and we really miss it!

Mid-October is actually late to pick apples here, you'd think I'd learn that after 14 years, but in my Western mind (and Chris' too) apple season starts in late October. So it was hard to find an orchard that wasn't already closed for the year.

ANYWAY, we finally found an orchard in Platte County, not too far from where we used to live in Missouri. There weren't too many apples left on the trees, but we still managed to pick a bushel! Check out all the apples on the ground around Lisi's feet, there were so many rotting apples that the orchard smelled like a distillery.

We realized we weren't too far from our favorite pumpkin patch just outside Platte City. Platte City is located a few minutes north of the KC airport (it's about 50 minutes from our house in KS, but used to only be 20 when we lived in Missouri). Chris' parents used to live just outside of it, and every fall we would go to this patch with them.

Searching for the just the right pumpkin...it's never easy when you're Kierst who has to look at as many as possible before she can pick one...

Abs is content with one of the first ones she sees...
Lisi is just happy to be there...

Chris was the official pumpkin lugger.
We didn't find as many as we wanted in the patch so we chose from
the bunch around the barn.

The one thing my kids remember most about this patch is...the kittens! There are always kittens in the fall, I think the girls spent a lot of their time trying to catch one.

This kitten was Ab's favorite. The kittens will all be given away on Halloween, guess how many girls would like to come back on October 31st?

One...

Two...

Three. But one cat is enough for me!

What I love about this patch is that it's never overcrowded. It's just peaceful being surrounded by harvested cornfields and winding country roads lined with trees.

Abs hopped across the hay bale maze.
Kierst made it to the top!

I felt a sense of nostalgia being at this pumpkin patch, too, for all the times we'd been there before and the many times we'd traveled down the country roads that led to Grandma and Granpa Stapley's. We miss you, Julie and Ron!

Because we were by Platte City we had to stop at our favorite Chinese place--I think it's one of our favorite places in all of Kansas City. Yummy.
What do you do with a bushel full of apples the next day??

In our family, there's only one answer...Chris' apple pie! He makes the best pie around, take a look at this beauty.
With a little scoop of ice cream it's mmmmm, delicious!

Of course, we will be making applesauce, too, a bushel is a whole lot of apples:)

Friday the girls were out of school and we met friends at the Arboretum. It was a gorgeous day in the high 70's, it's nice to have such warm weather for the fall (although it was a little strange to pick pumpkins last week in shorts!).

The Aboretum is a free park with a lake, pathways, a kid's activity area and of course, lots and lots of plants. I loved it.

This area is called Monet's garden-and it does look just like something out of Monet's water lilies series.

These are Osage oranges, don't ask me why, but for some reason I really like them. I've been looking for a good tree from which to collect a few.

Saturday we went to the zoo, yet another gorgeous day! We rode the carousel a few times, fed the lorakeets, looked at the tigers, meerkats...

watched the sea lion show... checked out the new polar bear exhibit...

decorated pumpkins...But the real reason we went to the zoo on Sat. was to see Aunt Tiffanie. She volunteers with a Star Wars group, they do fundraising and charity work and they spent part of their day at the zoo taking pictures with Star Wars fans.

What's not to like about fall?