And then we ate apple pie

Today, I had a new "first" as a mother.  I chaperoned my first field trip!  I love that I am able, as a stay-at-home-mom to do things like this, and I love that Emily still WANTS me to do things like this, so when I heard about the trip to the apple farm I signed up immediately.  I even got my car detailed last week because there was a possibility that some of her classmates might need a ride and I didn't want them to get stuck to a seat by the powerfully sticky mix of dried juice and bunny cracker powder that usually coats the entire interior of my van.  It turned out that we didn't need to give anyone a ride (much to Emily's disappointment), but her spirits lifted once we got there.

The weather was quite ominous, but the rain held off long enough for us to get in our hay ride and apple picking.

Hayless Hayride

Overcast, but still pretty

Lining up for an apple picking lesson

Twist, THEN pull

This is harder than it looks

Success!

Emmy and Mommy headed back

It was damp and chilly, therefore the walk-in fridge was NOT a hit...

Let me out of here!

...although it DID make it feel wamer outside in comparison.

Finally, the playground!

In an effort to avoid buying one of the delicious but incredibly unhealthy pies they were baking and selling at the orchard, I bought a box of seconds apples and promised Emily we'd make our own (secretly healthier) pie when we got home.  The problem is, I've only ever made about 2 pies in my life, and it has been years since I made those.  If you've ever made pie before you'll know that pie crust dough is tempermental in the best of circumstances and here I was trying to make our pies healthier by using whole wheat flour (I may have even accidentally used rye flour, I'm not positive since I have about 10 unlabeled bags of various types of flour in my pantry).  My helper was a little girl who had not had much lunch and had spent the whole morning exhausting herself running around an apple orchard.  There were many tears and once she spotted me trying to take pictures there was even some angry flour-throwing, but dang it, I wanted to document our wholesome and educational activity.

No pictures Mommy!

Stop it!

Once Emily realized the crust dough was tasty and didn't have raw eggs in it she focused on stealing and eating pieces of that for awhile.  With her blood sugar levels thus raised I was able to calm her down and we got to work.

Aaaaaaaand she's back!

Any story that ends with "And then they ate apple pie" is a happy story in my book.

Phew