Happy Halloween!

We carved pumpkins a couple of days before Halloween. Payton wanted to have a vampire one and Ian wanted a Lego Batman one. So Payton and I decided on a design and I carved mine. Scott designed and did Ian's. I was pleasantly surprised at the Batman.

Payton decided to be a vampire this year. I think she was partially inspired when I was fixing her wet hair one day into a bun......Her very dark hair on top of her head reminded her of one, I guess....

Ian decided to be a dementor, although his costume is a Grimm Reaper costume, I think.

They both ended up looking pretty creepy.

We went to our neighbors for a pizza party before we headed out alone. Scott was working and the kids didn't want to trick or treat en masse with all the neighbor kids (which was fine by me - crowds make me a little anxious).

They were done after 45 minutes and wanted to come home to hand out candy.

Apples! In Texas?

There is exactly one apple orchard in the Dallas area. I have been stalking (well, almost) this orchard since we moved here from North Carolina in 2010.

This orchard is Henrietta Creek Orchard in Roanoke, Tx. It's about a hour from our house. The orchard only has about 500 hybrid dwarf apple trees. They mainly cater to field trips and if there happens to be apples left at the end of the season, they open it to the public to pick apples. The last three years, we've either been busy on that one golden apple picking day, or there were no more apples to pick.

Well, we lucked out this year.  Last Friday, Henrietta Creek Orchard posted on their Facebook account that they would be open to the public for apple picking - first come, first serve - till the apples were gone.

I asked the kids if they were interested and they both said they were 'in'. Dad agreed (although, I think reluctantly because of the early hour).

So Saturday, we drove and hour south west of us for some apples.

It is a small orchard - very homey. But we all got to pick apples, right off the tree.

It didn't take us long. We only picked about 10lbs, but it was a nice experience.

 Scott and I shared a fresh fried apple pie - yum!