Once upon a time;
It was a Saturday morning and my heart was full. There would be no school that day and the house was already cleaned. I could focus entirely on enjoying my family.
We woke up to one of the first chilly mornings of Autumn. It is a beautiful thing to see our ponds “smoking” from the change in temperature. I couldn’t resist putting on some shoes and walking down to take a few pictures.
The sun slowly rose; burning the fog from the air, leaving it bright and clear. It was going to be a beautiful day.
I lit some yummy smelling candles.
We stayed in our pj’s for hours.
Caleb held Socks.
Sethie watched a morning cartoon as he ate a bagel.
Ethan and Jacob played downstairs in their room on their DS’. They are very involved in “stop animation” these days.
Here is Ethan, working on a little video with his DS. He moved the lego man little by little, taking pictures after each change.
In the video, a lego man climbs the stairs, jumps into the water, disappears, and then comes out of the water to go right back up the stairs again.
Good job, E!
This is the area over Davy’s bed (8 years old). He drew the bats (much to Papa’s annoyance at the time) a couple years ago, inspired by studying them at school. Ethan helped him wash the squirrel tail. There is a tiny mouse tail there, too. He hung up some Charlie Brown drawings he did (with bandaids). And after Seth woke him up too early one morning, he posted a Do Not Disturb sign.
All these things say to me, “You have a darling DAVID-son here!” He is so special and unique, they all are.
I have a feeling Rich will never paint over those bats.
Grace, Jacob, Caleb, Ethan, and Sarah were all downstairs together. The children all like to spend time in the boy’s bedroom; it’s large and very cozy (when it’s clean) and biggest brother Jacob always has music going. I go down there with them sometimes, and it makes me happy to hear them say, “Come back!’ when I have to run back upstairs for whatever reason.
It feels right/secure to be together.
Sarah had her lavender horse nightgown on that Grace found and “made” me buy the last time we were shopping together.
Gracie and her kitten, Snickers.
So we all had a relaxing morning and then we got ready to go APPLE PICKING. Everyone in this family gets so excited about picking apples. It is one of our important family traditions. In the last five years, we only missed one year (last year when Sarah was a small baby)…….and it was good to visit the orchard again.
Seth did a great job finding good (vs. rotten from the ground) apples, after a lesson from Papa.
And Sarah also got a lesson, when Papa showed her how to eat a sweet apple, all by herself.
Davy is in this tree somewhere.
Every year, Ethan helps fill up the bags AND attempts to find The Most Perfect Apple, which he then shines like rosy red glass with his shirt…….
Sitting in an apple tree
The whole gang (thank you to the kind lady who agreed to help us take a family photo).
We ended up taking home one and a half bushels of Macintosh apples.
Caleb pulled the wagon back, himself.
Before we left the orchard, we took the time to enjoy some warm, crispy, cinnamon-sugared donuts.
And honey-sticks filled with sticky sweet local honey.
And soft, fresh-baked pumpkin cookies, frosted with spiced cream cheese frosting.
The good eatin’ continued, because as soon as we got settled back at home, Grace and I got to work on a pie.
(Bob, I thought of you as I loaded apples in the crust….I still didn’t get it nearly as high as you get yours!)
“Good apple pies are a considerable part
of our domestic happiness.” — Jane Austen
We ate the pie at an “already dark outside” 7:30pm, while piled on the couch together in the livingroom, watching one of my favorite movies; “Driving Miss Daisy”. It was the first time the children saw the movie, and they liked it, too. Caleb was so sleepy that he fell asleep while we cuddled on the couch.
It was an especially wonderful day. Rich and I cherish the times we spend all together. The children talked and laughed and goofed around, and so did we. The weather was stunning, too.
Thank you, God, for these special times.
Good to be Home 
a perfect autumnal post Shanda!
I love the smokey pond!! 🙂 The adventures in the apple orchard look so fun. Mike and I are planning on taking the kiddos to an apple orchard next month….I hope our day is as super as yours looks to be! ❤
How perfect! We are all excited about going apple picking this year – the littles have been asking almost every day how long until we go. It is one of theirs (and our!) favorite yearly traditions. I have a few new pie crust recipes I’m planning to try this year, in an attempt to find the “perfect crust” – Carl is pleased about the thought of frequent apple pies!Love the picture of Sarah in the apple tree, and of David and Sarah walking together. Too precious!
I always wanted to take my family apple picking. So fun. 🙂
Perfection.I’m going to light a fall candle right now and pretend there’s a chill in the air. I miss living in the North and enjoying the change in seasons.
you are a wonderful photography I wonder if I could afford a camera like yours if I would be that good?
So very, very special!I wanna go make an apple pie now.This post makes me feel warm….so warm on a chilly day!Thanks so much for sharing.
Such a happy day, such a happy post. It’s funny. I want to go make an apple pie, too. Maybe I should make apple dumplings. My husband would prefer that. Either way, your lovely post and pictures are great motivation.Thanks, Shanda-girl!
I made an apple pie last week, and I was wondering (at the time) if you had been apple-picking yet. Looks like a beautiful day, and a special family memory! Apple pie is hard to beat, the only problem is they aren’t big enough! Love Sarah sitting on apple-strewn ground enjoying her own, sweet apple. Happy fall!
LOVE Driving Miss Daisy, one of my all-time favorites as well 🙂 I can’t wait until we go apple picking!!! We still have about a month though, it’s still in the 90’s here!
oh how wonderful! what a great family time together. 🙂 love it
first of all when i was reading your post the title made me thinking of ‘sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g” and brought back memories of grade school. and then i went on to read the post and revel in your pictures. i could almost smell that beautiful pie through the screen, made my mouth water 😉 love it. i have only had home made pie a couple times but it was truly a good and lucious treat. i love that you and your kids are able to indulge in these memory making moments. we have in the past picked apples as a family and loved every moment of it as well! perhaps this year we will once again find the time…although without my brother sadly…the picture of sarah and her first taste of apple with daddy looking on and sethy finding the ‘right’ apples made me smile SOOO big. i can just imagine that grace loves being up in those trees and all the imaginative things she must be dreaming as she pics the apples. i also love that you have the ‘boys’ room where everyone can gatehr…i love this new thing with stop animation, what a beautiful and sooo creative thing for the boys to be involved in. i had wondered what he was doing. sooo much creativity in your house. love it…and sitting together watching a movie all cuddled together…LOVE IT. love you shanda..thanks for sharing with us your weekend.
Love it all! 🙂
hi shanda…….apple picking is one of our favorite family traditions, too. especially when it involves cider donuts afterwards! cute idea with the holes in the pie making out an anpple. i’ll have to try that next time. what a perfect way to spend your saturday. may many more saturdays like that be headed your way!
I LOVED reading about your day and reminds me that we should go apple picking soon! I’m also amazed how quickly you adjusted to school and your house is clean:):) I’ll get there eventually:):) beautiful pictures too! What a lovely family!
could u share the filling and the crust recipe purty please!!!!!!!
Looks like a great time and wonderful memories!
a beautiful pie, Shanda ~
Love the header perfect Fall picture – you have more colored leaves than we do though. It’s been very gray, cloudy and rainy here – makes it feel like Winter is almost here :(We usually go blueberry picking in the summer, but apple picking is fun – esp. climbing the trees… or so the kids think ;)I love to read and see how much you enjoy your kids, love to be with them – you really cherish each one!
How did they all get so big? I love Ethan’s hat!! Thank you for the pie inspiration. I am always slicing a few slits in there, plain old boring slits. Now, I have some ideas floating around that I want to play with. I think I will be making a pie this weekend. My husband prefers them cold, so I usually bake a day ahead. We’ve got kitties around here too, in our basement to be exact. A stray wiggled her way in and said, “here I stay.” Now of course, she isn’t spending so much time with them and it’s not even been a month. Hoping to find good homes for them before winter.
Oh what a Perfect, perfect day! I just love this time of year. I like the Jane Austen quote and agree. =)Your pie looks so good. The apples we get each year are not in season yet…I wait for Cortlands and Ida Reds. They are good for baking and applesauce and will be ready in October! I live 5 minutes from an orchard. It is huge and pretty and has been run by the same family for generations. You would love it!Hope you have a wonderful week.Oh! One more thing….that picture of Sarah in the tree is so adorable. Definitely frame worthy! =)
Once again I am experiencing Autumn vicariously thanks to you! Beautiful pictures, as always. Not sure if I like the pond pictures or the apples best.
oh how fun! I loooveee the pictures! Especially the one of Sarah from the top eating an apple with all the apples around her 🙂 Love Ethan’s shirt as well :PI’ve never heard of honey sticks but they sounds really cool and some day when I ever get up to North I’m going to have to try the cider doughnuts everyone always talks about. They sounds so yummy!great job on the pie, it looks amazing as well! Looks like you’re starting to feel fall up there. This morning it reminded me that summer won’t be lasting forever like I thought. It was a chilly 61 degrees when I got up! I haven’t seen it that cool here since this spring!
How fabulous and delightful. I cherish our Saturdays also now that the littles are in school. Blessing on your week. ❤
I love love love Davids bed, I would NEVER paint it!Such a full post with great pictures it feels very fall-ish!The pond shots were so beautiful Shanda!!!
Oh thank you for sharing these wonderful apple picking moments! It brings memories of apple orchards in PA when I was a child. Now, we are eagerly looking forward to the half dozen boxes of apples we’ve ordered for this fall. Our pictures will be canning applesauce and pie filling. The other day I found a recipe for apple lasagna on Allrecipes. Very- interesting. I wouldn’t make it too often but it was a different take on apples. Happy Autumn.
Such a happy post. It does look so Fallish! Tell it to wait for us I always enjoy your apple picking outings,but it makes my mouth water. The colors look so rich and beautiful. Great photography Shanda. It is very colorful and pretty under the trees, all the family shots turned out great, and the one of Sarah in the tree is so so cute!