Apples?

In case you're wondering about my past three or so header photos, for some reason I can't get them to "shrink to fit" so I keep ending up with huge and ridiculous tiny sections of the photo. I have to admit, the polar bear nose is my favorite so far. :)

This morning I braved the Toy Land crowds at Farm and Fleet. I went much later this year and missed the insane people, but it was still really busy. This year instead of watching the crazy women grabbing up every bargain in site, I watched the grumpy old men who were upset there were no carts and upset about the check-out lines. Logan (for the first time in his life) showed some interest in what he wanted for his birthday and Christmas and went through the ad and circled things! I joked with Gene that it would be worth spending $40 on the sled he wanted because that would be an excellent insurance policy we'd get no snow this winter. When I actually got to the store, saw the size of the box and had no cart, I passed on the sled. Everyone can blame me when we have record amounts of snow. It is my fault for being cheap and unwilling to lug a box half my size around the store.

The kids had a 3 day weekend last week for Columbus Day so we decided to hit a couple of the local apple orchards. Y'know, not to actually pick apples, but to eat yummy food and play on playgrounds and ride monster trucks. The kids wanted to do the corn mazes, but my foot was hurting and oh yeah, I hate corn mazes. No. They are stupid. Apple Blossom Farm had the monster truck rides and gem mining. The playground was free this year, but most of it was for younger kids. We got some pumpkin doughnuts, cider and caramel apples. On Monday I took the kids to Tanner's Orchard. Holy cow, that place was packed! They had their pony rides and barrel train going for the holiday so the playground was full price. Um, no. Kaylin and Logan wanted to play their dinky mini golf course and do nothing else. Sorry kids, I'm too cheap to pay NINETEEN DOLLARS for 6 holes of mini golf! Instead they got make your own snow cones and played with the farm animals. We bought some amazing turtle brownies and some apple doughnuts and left because we could barely move around with all the people there.

I couldn't stomach the thought of going home and spending the rest of the day babysitting the neighbor kids so I drove on to Bradford. Bradford! What are we going to do in Bradford? No idea, but if they have a gas station I'll buy you a drink. It turns out Bradford has a nice park in the middle of town with a playground left over from the olden days of metal merry-go-rounds and animal teeter-totters. The kids aboslutely LOVED Bradford. They want to go back! Kaylin even begged to go back sometime with her friend Zoe. They talked about Bradford the rest of the day and Logan has decided he's going to live there when he grows up. Ok, then.

Well, better go do laundry and make lunch. I have to work Howl-Zoo-Ween tonight selling hot chocolate. Whoopee! Our zookeeper group is selling it as a fundraiser for bat conservation so if you're going, buy some hot chocolate to help the bats!