Apple Picking

Today we went apple picking at Shelburne Orchards with our student housing community. It was beautiful and we had a lot of fun. It was "fill a truck full" today, so someone brought a truck from the student housing and we filled the whole truck up with apples, and then met again at our community center to gather our share and make goodies. But listen to this, no matter what size of truck or car you brought in, one vehicle full was only $50. Can you believe that!! Oh and the University picked up the tab. My mother-in-law would be there in a second if she lived here. She is a very talented pie chef and has her own business at making and selling them! Take a look at the pics below. I'm thinking the girls were lovin' it, what do you think?

Fall Hike with the Girls

Today me and the girls went for a hike not too far from our home. It was so WONDERFUL!! It brought back so many memories of growing up when my mom would take me and my sister Megan hiking all the time with just us girls. I have such fond memories of those days and I wanted to pass this tradition on to my girls. We hiked around the whole lake and both girls were nearly all smiles. Kelsey fell down quite a few times and even tore a hole in her pants, but a little bribing with a special treat at the end was all she needed!
I love how you can see the reflection of the leaves in the water here. Isn't it so pretty! Oh man, I'm going to miss it here, have I told you that yet? There no place like fall in Vermont!
We found some nice people along the trail that were nice enough to take a family picture. I realize I am not in the pictures enough.
Here's Mylee just hanging out. She was quite fascinated by all the leaves. And quite the trooper. She was laughing and talking and having a grand old time.
I love how the sun is coming through the trees here and how the tree above Kelsey's head makes a little bridge. Near here, another hiker stopped us and asked Kelsey how old she was, Kelsey said, "I am 3 years old." The lady and man she was with were so impressed that a 3 year old was hiking all this way and with a smile. Then the lady said, "I'm from the city and we don't see things like her there." She must have been from out of town.

Dance Lessons

This fall I am teaching a dance class and am LOVING it! I just love dance. I think it is so beautiful. This is a picture of my little dancers. We dance every Monday at 10:30 A.M and have all sorts of fun. We have danced for the past two weeks and I'm learning even more about the short attention span of 3 and 4 year olds, but man aren't they just adorable! Kelsey has been funny and has not participated like I had envisioned, humm, hopefully we'll be able to remedy that one.

I burned a CD for each dancer with songs we will use each week to teach them rhythm, the 5 ballet positions, simple dance techniques in the genres of jazz, ballet, lyrical, and modern, and 2 dance routines--we'll see how far we get on the last one. The class will run for 7 weeks and we have already completed two. Stay tuned for more fun pictures as I have lots of fun activites planned for upcoming classes :)

Pumpkin Patch

Today for playgroup, we went to the pumpkin at a nearby nursery. We had lots of fun and the weather could not have been more beautiful! The first thing Kelsey asked me this morning when she woke up was, "Mom, are we going to the pumpkin patch today and I can get a baby pumpkin?" She was so excited to go get a baby pumpkin. Funny that as we get older we want the biggest pumpkin. We loaded onto a trailer attached to a tracker and got a ride over to the pumpkin patch.

Kelsey had a hard time deciding on a pumpkin as you can see the handful she has in her arms.

Mylee liked the pumpkin patch, but wasn't too thrilled about the tracker ride. Kelsey thought it was GREAT! After our ride and picking out our pumpkins at the pumpkin patch we got a ride back to the farm and got cider donuts and apple cider, YUMM!! It was a fun outing!

General Conference & a Birthday!

Thanks to the idea from the Friend magazine this month, we have started a new tradition for General Conference. The girls get to watch conference from their "Reverence Tent". It was a big hit. I got a white sheet and created a tent for Kelsey mostly to sit and watch conference from--I tried to schedule Mylee's naps around conference time, all in all I was pretty successful. We also added an activity table along with a bunch of gospel-themed LDS coloring pages and activities. No kidding, Kelsey sat through nearly all 8 hours of conference and she nearly colored every coloring page and activity. Not only that, most of the time she was reverent. I love how in this picture you can see the picture of President Monson on the computer screen in the background. Aside from this great new tradition, wasn't conference WONDERFUL! I'm lucky because I always get conference around my birthday. What better than to hear counsel from living prophets around this special day. I was touched and renewed by what was said. I'm anxious to get the Ensign and further read and ponder what was said. All in all, how blessed we are to have the gospel restored in these latter-days!

The next tradition we started was for my kids (Kelsey in this case) to make and decorate a birthday cake for whoever parents' birthday it is (mine in this case). I admit I had to help with the making/baking part, but she did all the decorating herself. She was completely occupied for about an hour. However, I think most of the frosting and decorations ended up in her mouth.
Here is the finished product. Wow look at those sprinkles and pointy candies as Kelsey calls them (candy corn). What a pro! She then sang me happy birthday all by herself.

On Saturday between the two conference sessions, I took the girls to a local apple farm to enjoy the beautiful Vermont fall landscape and get free tracker rides around the orchard. We had a blast. I wish I had pictures, but my camera wasn't working that day--I'm in the process of trying to find a new one, any suggestions? The fall colors were just breath taking and the air was cool and crisp just as you would except at an apple orchard in the fall. The girls loved the tracker rides and even got to eat an apple for free. We sure will miss this place when we move in the spring.