Seasonal Fun

A couple of weekends ago Billie, Abby and I made applesauce. It's something they've done annually, but I've yet to join in on the fun until this year and I'm so glad I did because the product of our "labor" is oh so yummy! Each year I've heard Abby talk about the little machine thingy they use that makes the whole process seamless and tons easier (not that I would know regardless because I was an applesauce making virgin...if you will) but this year I got to see it in action. Said little machine thingy is called a victorio. Online it looks like they cost about $60.00 and now that I know what it does, I'd say that $60 is well worth every penny if applesauce makin' is something you're interested in! We purchased the apples at a local orchard at about $18.00 a bushel (please know that when I say we...what I mean is Billie's husband Derek was nice enough to swing by on his day off and pick em' all up for us - thanks Derek!). The apples were washed and cut into quarters (with no regard to dark spots, skin, seeds, stem, etc.) and then placed into big pots of boiling water until they became soft. The apples then go straight from the pot into the victorio and that fancy little machine basically does the rest. You mash the apples down with the red plunger-like device (don't y'all love all my fancy schmancy terminology?) like Billie is doing here:

Then you turn the crank on the side like this sweet little helper was doing:

She was completely into it!

On one side the victorio spits out the seeds, skin and stems and on the other side of a filter it spits out the applesauce - ahhhmazing right? I don't know exactly how many bags of applesauce each bushel made, but I'm thinking about 15 quart size freezer bags of applesauce. In other words - I'm thinking I won't need to be spending money on Mott's anytime soon thank you very much. Thanks for letting me join you girls - it was so fun and team Taylor is pretty pumped about our applesauce stock pile.

Halloween kind of snuck up on me this year. We still haven't been to the pumpkin patch (gasp! - I know!). I just feel like we've been crazy busy and once my scheduled Moms group outing to the patch got cancelled I just didn't work it back in anywhere and now Halloween is over - bummer! I was thinking I should still go though - I mean, I hate to not have any pics of the girls with pumpkins....that just seems wrong, doesn't it? Anyhow, I digress - Halloween snuck up on me but luckily we had the items necessary for the girls' costumes. Kennedy said she wanted to be a ballerina: check on all ballerina paraphernalia...no purchases necessary = score! I did buy a little canvas bag and ironed on some applique stuff for her to carry as her trick or treat bag, but otherwise we had all we needed and then some truthfully. It's a girls world over here! Avery's little outfit has been in our family hand me down collection for quite some time. Is she the cutest little Clemson cheerleader you've ever seen or what?

Don't you love how I'm hiding in the above picture. I'd been in the car for like 8 hours on my way back from Charleston (details in another post) - I wasn't feeling very kodak momenty...I love that the final product is a perfect shot of my mid-section: nice...real nice honey. Speaking of my honey...how sweet is this picture of him with his baby girl. I'm kind of in love with it.

I was all pumped about trick or treating this year because last year she "got it" and this year I figured she' be all out sprinting between houses to get as much candy as possible (not that I  ever felt that feeling myself as a child ;) but instead she just wanted to stay at our church's fall festival and go up and down the blow up slides as much as humanly possible. My original plan had been to go trick or treating for about 30 minutes in a nearby neighborhood and then head to our church for the festival. Well....my trip home took longer than expected and once we got them changed and fed I had a small window before I was ready to collapse so we headed straight to church. Once she'd "made her rounds" I asked her if she was ready to go and trick or treat and she basically didn't seem to care about trick or treating (I seriously couldn't fathom that she'd not trick or treat AT ALL...I just couldn't do it). I kept telling her it was going to get too dark and too late and if we didn't leave she wouldn't get any candy (our church was so overrun with kids and activity that the candy basically wasn't the star of the show if you can imagine that on Halloween night). Ultimately Avery started melting down so we had to leave and when we got in the car we gave her the option to go back to the festival with Daddy or trick or treat in our neighborhood with Daddy once Avery and I were home and I could tell it was very hard for her. Truthfully, I'm so glad that she loves to be with our church family so much because we do too, but I'm such a traditionalist when it comes to holiday happenings that I really wanted her to get a few trick or treating visits in. She did decide to trick or treat down our street rather than returning to the festival and she was very pleased with her treats that she was given. This is she and Jackson at the festival. Jackson goes to school with her and she just adores him. We've been in small groups with his parents and we just love their whole family. I'm glad these two are such buddies.  

When they were smiling for the picture above I kept thinking...we took this same picture at Trunk-or-Treat two years ago but I didn't think I'd be able to find it and then I did:

My how they've changed...sure am glad their little friendship has grown with them. Sweetness.