2011.10.08 Apples, Pumpkins, Skooters, Bikes, and a Birthday

Mindy, Al, Amanda, and Sophie came to Ripon to help me celebrate my birthday. An entire weekend of spectacularly beautiful fall days gave us the opportunity to be outdoors most of the time. Greg Becker welcomed us to Pineapple Hill Orchard and helped the girls pick and polish two big bagfuls of Courtlands. Some of the apples went into the special birthday pie Mindy baked. Allen arrived later that day with steak and lobster...yes, lobster!!! So the family cooked while I enjoyed playing with and reading with Amanda and Sophie. The following day Bill, Judy, and Rob joined us for breakfast at the Blue Moon in Princeton. We inherited bikes from the girls' Cousins Anna and Kate when they moved to Switzerland, and those provided hours of outdoor fun, along with the scooters Amanda and Sophie brought. Amanda's really big accomplishment of the weekend was learning to ride the two-wheeler!

 Greg feeds the apples into the polisher.

 The apples come out clean and shiny

 No doubt about it...Bill is a cat magnet wherever he goes.

 Mindy's apple pie with whiskey-soaked dried cherries was as delicious as it looks.

 We checked out 18 books from the library, and Amanda made good use of them.

Bill, Bill, and Al in front of the Blue Moon in Princeton

 Judy and Jean in front of the Blue Moon

Rob is willing to play along with Sophie's fairies, which is just one reason he's so popular with our little girls.

This was also the annual pumpkin trip. At $40 each, these big ones were not among our choices. They did make for some nice pictures, though.

 These are more like it...easy to carry, too.

 Look! Look! I can ride!!!

 A bit more time with the training wheels for Sophie

The girls could really tear around on these little scooters.

What a great weekend!