Monday, October 11, 2010

the best day after my birthday. ever.

the day after my birthday is just like the day after christmas for me - kind of a let down. the anticipation has passed, the birthday wishes die off, the balloons are saggy, and it's just a regular old day. and the worst part is you have to trudge through 364 more of those regular old days before the excitement begins again.

but this year was different. this year, i had a great day-after-my-birthday. ryan was still out of town, so leah and i slept in and then hopped on over to santa cruz to play with some of our friends. colleen and claire invited us to go apple picking with them at a local orchard. because leah and i had such a great time just the two of us a few weeks ago, we were happy to come along!

this farm was much smaller and definitely not as well known as the other we've been to. the owners of the orchard invited us on a tractor ride {along with his two granddaughters and a lovely couple from england}. he saw that claire and leah had some physical disabilities and asked all about it. he even helped them get on and off the haybales we sat on in the tractor. on our way to the apple trees, he pointed out and taught us about all sorts of fruits and nuts and goodness growing on his land. we made a quick pit stop to ride the horses and then we picked the apples. he encouraged us to eat some right off the tree and i just about died of their perfection. leah and claire giggled and giggled as we filled our bags and made our way back to the stand. 
 
we tasted their fresh honey {and quickly bought a jar}, purchased our fresh-picked organic apples and made our way back to their house.



colleen and i cleaned, peeled, chopped and cooked a vat full of apples while two of the world's cutest girls giggled to beauty and the beast. one took a nap, the other didn't. the other belongs to me.

we mashed, poured and finally sealed our sauce to be enjoyed at a later date...but only after tasting some of our hard work.

the girls took turns pushing a switch to turn pages on claire's cool computer and then, to celebrate my big day, we all shared some of the most delicious cupcakes i've ever tasted.

so, if you're wondering, i'm totally over begruding the day after my birthday from now on. i'll take a day like that anytime.

5 comments:

Dawn said...

yep, we're a little jealous over in TX of all you Cali ladies that get to have fun together with your adorable girls!

Erica said...

Dawn-im even more jealous!! another great set of photos Mare!

Amanda said...

That does sound like just the best day-after-birthday anyone can have :) Yum, apples right off the tree ARE so yummy!

Colleen said...

We loved that you spent the day with us, it was so much more fun with you two than it would have been just us. Erica, you should come join us next time :-) imagine the fun that the three of them would be!

Amelia said...

What a quaint little day. Sounds so fun! I love that picture of the girls on the chair. So cute. Leah has such long pigtails! I don't believe my girls are ever going to have real hair... :)