Our first homeschool field trip

On Labor Day (useless holiday, if you ask me, but you didn't so I'll shut up!) my hubby woke up with the brilliant idea of taking the kids to an apple orchard.  We've never done this in the years past, so I said, "Heck yeah, buddy!" and rounded myself and our 3 punks up as quickly as humanly possible.  I also had every intention of making is a field trip for homeschool.  Visions of essays and poster boards danced in my head.  

We drove for about an hour and a half up to Oak Glen to the Riley Orchard #1.  

It was so purdy and purfect.  I kept waiting for a hobbit to appear.   It was rainy, which is a rare occurance in SoCal, and so so so green.  I was in heaven!  Plus, hardly anyone was there.  Awesome!

We checking in with ease, got a quick tutorial on how to pick the apples from the trees without killing anything, and then set off on our adventure.  

My hubby was determined to find the tree with the biggest apples and then strip that said tree of all it's fruits.  

Cheese balls!

My crew did a very good job of picking some prime apples, and I had every intention of using them apples in my first ever apple pie.  Ooooh yeahhhh!  I really couldn't contribute much to picking because I had a 7 month old strapped to my side.  I did give it a whirl once, though.

My hair hates humidity.

I think that I did an awesome job considering that I was one handed for the most part.  

We then ventured into the gift shop to see what else we could do besides ripping the trees bear.  

No, son, you MAY NOT get a coon skin hat!  Do we look like the Clampits?

The lady  at the counter suggested that we press some apples, and make some cider.  Killer, brahhh!  

My kids did such a fantastic job pressing the heck out of those apples.  I was amazed by their strength and determination to squeeze, squeeze, and squeeeeezzzzeeee.  

In the end, they made some pretty stinkin tasty cider.  

After we wrapped things up at the Riley Orchard, we headed down the hill to have some lunch at a quaint, little seasonal restaurant.  

The food was scrumptious, but their pie was kind of a bummer.  I knew that I could do better.  Muahahaha!

 In the end, all that my daughter really wanted out of this day was a caramel apple.  Thank goodness that they were EVERYWHERE!

The day was perfect, and my pie is cooking in the oven.  We will definitely go back there if not this year, then the next.