Apples, apples, and more apples!

Last year we went apple picking as a family for the first time.  We went to Erwin's in South Lyon and had a great experience!  But, we definitely went later in the season and some of the good types of apples were long gone.

As you can tell in the picture, it was cold!!  And muddy, but we didn't mind too much.

This year, our plan was to head out mid-September while the honeycrisp were still available and the Jonathans.  I needed good apples for baking.  But, every single weekend so far this month has brought rain and more rain.  It was probably a crazy decision in hind sight, but we woke up last Sunday morning on a morning I was supposed to clean the entire house before a birthday party in the afternoon and made a last minute decision to head out for apples.

The only problem?  The birthday party started at 2pm in Washington Township (super, super far from us) and we were leaving the house at 10am.  We decided we would go to Blake's out in Armada since it was closer to the birthday party than driving out to South Lyon in the total opposite direction.

It just wasn't the same though.  We had to drive to the U-Pick apple portion of the orchard instead of taking a hayride out there.  And the prices?!  Oh my gosh.  A half bushel of apples was $25 and there were no honeycrisp.  What the what?!

We still made the most of it.  Except for Evan who decided that he would rather walk barefoot and complain about it the entire time.  That child...

Want to know how long it takes to spend $25 at an apple orchard?  About 25 minutes.  It took us no time at all to fill up a bag.  Sean was grabbing arms full.

After picking apples, we grabbed lunch at the cafe and some cider and donuts.  The lunch was so good!  I had a hot dog with corn on the cob that was freshly picked from their farm.  The corn was on point!  The cider and donuts were really good too.  Now to work up an appetite for the birthday party...

We were going to take the kids in the "backyard funyard", but the prices were insane.  They wanted $11.50 per person and we had about an hour of time to spare before the party.  Sorry, I'm not spending close to $50 for the kids to play for an hour.  Luckily, they were able to do a few things outside of the funyard, but they were pretty disappointed about it.

After the pony ride we said farewell to Blake's and went on to the birthday party.  It was a beautiful day and perfect for the bounce house they had set-up.  I even went and chased the kids in the bounce house.

See that middle picture?  That's what it's like dealing with two boys close in age at a birthday party.  They will not stop messing with each other.  Meanwhile every girl is playing so calmly and nicely.  One day I will be able to sit down and have a conversation at a birthday party.  One day...

Happy birthday, baby girl!

And happy fall, y'all!

Off to enjoy my homemade apple crisp made from some pretty expensive apples.  :)