Dumpling Pie...

We picked apples this weekend.  It was a series of things that took us to my promised land... all worthwhile and fun, but if you ask these little harvesters of ours, they went south to "pick apples".

A. Ryno had been hunting with Dax and needed to send that cute little hunting buddy back home so he could get back to work.

B.  Ryno's client and friend had a company party that included bounce houses and we were invited.

C.  Grandma Gail turned 60 (say what?) and a moment such as that calls for overly-frosted cake and celebrating.

D.  The apples on Grandpa's tree were ripe and ready to be harvested.

And so we did.

All of that.

Because we are nothing if not thorough.

Let's begin now... with apple picking.

{When you hear the chime ring like this, turn the page}

I kid you not, these little harvesters of ours would do this all day.  Grandpa asked them to please stop and leave a bit of the tree for a couple of weeks from now and tears were shed.  Tears.

But before the tears there was HOURS of entertainment.  They picked, they sorted, they boxed.  They sang songs at the top of their lungs, which for those who cannot whistle is the official "whistle while you work" anthem.  They asked me multiple times if I was, "doing my best".  It was awesome.

And today I am looking up apple recipes on Pinterest in between loads of laundry.

Side note: Mondays as an adult are seriously lame.  :)

Can you believe this cute lady is 60?

I'm so glad I have her genes.  She is the best, best mama and grandma a kid could ever dream up.  And also, I'm glad for my Dad's genes... Because he jimmy-rigged that there number "6" candle from a nine to a working six.  Sure, sure, I requested sparklers... but frugality has it's perks too.

Another side note: We are BIG into story time these days.  Each kid ponders over which books they will select from our ever-growing collection and then sits down and soaks it all in.  

Case in point....

So now that we've capped the limit of books to six (yeah, I know) two for each little story lovin' boy... I kind of like bedtime a bit more.  Snuggles, stories, little sweet smellin' bathed boys all around.

It's delicious.

Side note number three:  (Listen, it's me who is having the luxury of a one-sided, typed out conversation here... there may be up to a dozen side notes)

The boys' favorite book right now is "Frank was a Monster" and it tells the tale of a monster who boogies on stage so hard his brain flops out on the floor and his eye ball rolls loose out the door.  I'm just saying, if the literary geniuses out there continue to write little-boy-friendly books such as that, there will be MANY more voracious male readers out there.  They dig it.

And also, they dig October.  Because in addition to hunting, company parties, birthdays & apple picking.  There is the return of the costume bin.  Which leads to impromptu try on sessions and superheroes riding scooters around the hood.

 And this ranks right up there on my top five list of things to walk into...

A couple superheroes and a pants-less race car driver practicing their letters.

BAM.

Count me in.

Apple pie anyone?