Comments from the Peanut Gallery

Frances enjoys talking about calendar and the days of the week. There are lots of things going on, and she likes planning out what is coming next and keeping track of how many days until something new happens. Yesterday as we were leaving her dentist's office, she wanted to recount this week and all the "fun things" going on.
FJ: Mommy, let's count all the fun things this week.
Me: OK
FJ: On Monday, I had ballet.
Me: mmm-hmmm
FJ: On Tuesday...ummm....Mommy what fun happened on Tuesday?
Me: Tuesday is the day I got to put you on the bus [usually this is Daddy's job].
FJ: NO! Mommy! I am counting exciting things!
Me: You mean that me putting you on the bus isn't exciting??
FJ: No.
Me: OK, then I guess that Tuesday was the boring day when nothing exciting happened.
FJ: OK, well Wednesday...that's today, right Mommy?
Me: Yes, Frances, today is Wednesday.
FJ: OK, today the dentist was fun.
Me: Wait a minute...you think that going to the dentist is fun, but Mommy putting you on the bus is not?
FJ: Yes...and tomorrow is Thursday. That's the Pumpkin Patch. And then Friday, we go to GRANDMA'S!!
Me: Sounds like an exciting week.

International Walk to School Day

On Wednesday, October 7th, Frances' school participated in "International Walk to School Day." Thankfully it was a Wednesday, I was not in a huge hurry to get to work, and neither was Ken. We live fairly close to our school so we decided to try it out.
As we got closer to the school we saw lots of the school staff out along the route welcoming the kids and their families. They even had some police officers and fire fighters out to say hi!

I encouraged Frances to find 6 different leaves since she is now 6 years old. She had a blast looking.

It was a lot of fun to walk to school.

Frances' birthday

Frances turned 6 today!
I took her cupcakes to school for her afternoon snack and she excitedly passed them out to all her friends.

Then her class read a story about leaves and went outside for a "leaf hunt". Each child had a zipper baggie to put all the leaves they could find. Frances and her friend, M*, took a break from the hunting to pose by the tree in the courtyard. Frances and M* are only 5 days apart in age and have become fast friends at school.

Monday evening, we had dinner together at home and then opened presents. (She is wearing the bathing suit she wore to ballet class instead of a leotard.)

Her 6th birthday was definitely a hit!

Apple Cupcakes

My baby girl turns 6 tomorrow! After our trip to the Apple Orchard yesterday, we decided to make apple cupcakes to share with her class. They have also been learning about apples, so that makes it educational! In order to make the apple cupcakes, we bought a spice cake mix and various accoutrements to go along with it. Here's what you'll need:

• apple spice cake mix
• applesauce
• frosting
• red food coloring
• stick pretzels
• red sugar crystals
• watermelon flavored Air Heads
• gummy worms

First, you mix up the spice cake mix with some added applesauce. (There was a recipe suggestion on the side of the box I bought.) Pour it into your cupcake liners and bake as directed. While they are baking, add red food coloring to your frosting to tint it red. It will still be kinda pink, but that's okay-we'll fix it.

You will also need your green Air Heads. Sprinkle some white sugar on a microwaveable plate and microwave the Air Heads one at a time for about 15 seconds. Turn it to coat it in sugar and use your favorite shot glass to flatten out the candy. (If you don't have a shot glass, I suppose you could use a rolling pin, but that's no fun!) After you have flattened out the candy, use your kitchen scissors to cut out leaf shapes. Set aside. Eat extra pieces of candy.

When the cupcakes are cooled, frost each one with red frosting. Dip the top in a bowl of red sugar crystals-see now they are red instead of pink! Allow your almost-6-year-old to add a pretzel stem (We had long ones and had to break them in half) and a candy leaf. Then poke in a half of a gummy worm using something pokey...possibly a meat thermometer, but I'm not giving away all my secrets!

Viola! You are finished! How ya like dem apples!!

Carter's Mountain Apple Orchard

On Saturday, I took avoiding housework to the extremes and headed out to the Carter's Mountain Orchard with the Washington family. We had never been before, but they had and I was quite glad to have someone to follow on the way there. We took a beautiful route on some back roads through Grottoes, Crimora, Waynesboro and more. It was a great Fall day for a drive!! When we got to the orchard we had to drive up a road that was about a 90 degree incline and VERY dusty. At one point Frances asked me, "Mommy, can you see where you're going?" and I had to admit that no, I really couldn't!

We walked out to the orchard and headed down the lines of trees. First, all you see is bare trees. then you start seeing some trees with apples WAY up at the top. Then after walking for about 6 hours (give or take), you get to the trees with branches low enough for the kids to reach.

Henry could even reach some while he was sitting down!

Obviously, we ate some apples up on the mountain! Henry took tiny bites and spit out the peel. Twice he had his apple almost completely peeled so he could finally eat it and he fell. Poor boy!

When he got tired of picking and eating apples, Henry looked at me and said, "I run!" I just smiled and watched as he took off running down the row of trees. He looked back once and I thought he was going to stop, but he was on a roll! Frances and Emily took off after him to rescue him and bring him back!

When we had filled our bags as heavy as we could with Golden delicious and JonaGold apples, we headed back up the mountain.

Of course, the kids needed a break halfway up. Thank goodness Frances found this "couch" to sit on!

We paid for our apples, shared some delicious doughnuts and then headed over to listen to some live music and watch the kids dance.