Twist and Pull

That's the correct method of apple-picking, you know.  That's what Emerson yelled with each apple he picked.  We'd hear "Twist and pull!" followed by a plop as the apple dropped on the ground.  The force of him pulling the apple off the tree was just too much, and it slipped through his little hands almost every time.

Sometimes Daddy would lift E up high to get an apple.  He thought that was pretty cool.  (Ben isn't crabby in this picture even though it looks like he's scowling.  I think he's just concentrating.  Or something...)

E had to take all his apples to Daddy for inspection.  He had to hear Daddy say "Oh that's a good one!" before he would bring the apple to me to put in the bag.  I had to keep telling him "Put it in gently" which usually just resulted in a gentler throw. :)

Sammi was a big help too.

I'm not sure how many apples each of us ate while we picked, but it was a lot.

 

This is me in my camouflage shirt.  It's camouflage because it hides the awkwardity of my bust-al region during the time that I'm nursing.  I get thrown off when people are wearing beige or tan shirts and I have to do a double-take to make sure they're not nude, so I figure it works that way for other people too.  It makes people think "Oh, good.  That girl is just wearing a tan shirt.  She's NOT naked." instead of them noticing that I have that "new mother" (read: frumpy with oversized uneven bust) look.  I'm tricky like that.

After we picked apples, we drove to Amish country and sampled some cheese at Heini's Cheese Chalet and some bread at Kauffman's Bakery, then ate dinner at Mrs. Yoder's Kitchen.  It was our favorite Amish restaurant yet.  I highly recommend the sweet potato fries.

Before all of this though, E got to sleep outside in the tent with Dad in the backyard on Friday night.  Ben reports that he actually was a pretty good boy in there and was thrilled to death with the jellybeans that Daddy brought.  He had a blast with the flashlights and the train stories.  I was wondering how they were doing all night since Sammi and I slept inside the house.  It was so cute to see his excited little face emerge from the tent in the morning with his little Ute sweatshirt on and proudly tell me how he got to sleep in the tent.  I didn't think he could get any more excited until he saw I was cooking pancakes for breakfast.  (We're a cold cereal family.)

All our Saturday activities combined with E's little backyard camping trip with Daddy on Friday night made for a pretty fun weekend.