(1) We needed more fruit - why not pick some? Apples are open for the picking and more delicious when they're just off the tree. Lucy and Peter ate two each while we were still in the field. Something about "tree apples" must be magic, because there was nary an issue about apple skin.
Thomas woke while we were mid-pick, and enjoyed an apple too. He didn't so much enjoy all of that bending over and reaching into poking tree branches that I did - no wonder he woke up!
No trip to the field is complete without a tractor ride. I'm thankful this is an obligatory and free part of the you-pick experience. It's surely saved us a hundred dollars in hayrides these past two years.
As Peter noted, apple picking is hard work, especially if you're preoccupied with eating the fruits of your labors. (The hurricane probably didn't help, either; there were plenty of apples on the ground. If we'd come on Sunday, it would have been easy-peasy to fill two bushels.)
(2) A visit to the pool! The weather wasn't nearly warm enough and the pool was quite chilly. As I predicted, the kids lasted about 20 minutes, but we squeezed another hour out of the pool, between lunch and silly baby games, in which Lucy and Peter pretended to be babies who wake at night and cry. Hilarious, right? It kind of drove me bonkers.
Meanwhile, the real (not for much longer) baby was oh-so-fascinated with the pool chairs. His favorite place of the day may have been climbing the back of this chair.
(3) A visit to our CSA farm to pick up or vegetables. Since it wasn't 100 degrees outside, the kids enjoyed the sandbox for the first time since May.
A portion of our share is you-pick, which sounded much more idyllic and pastoral that it's turned out to be. It's not easy picking green beans with 20+ pounds of sleeping baby strapped to your chest. He woke while I was picking tomatoes, and before I knew it had grabbed a ripe one from the vine and stuck it in his mouth. He picked a few more (some green, mostly red) before we rejoined Peter and Lucy at the sandbox.
There have been some intense games of pretend going on of late. One featured motif is Lucy as mother, Peter as father, and Thomas as their baby. (If I feature at all, it's almost always in the role of babysitter, and exotic creature, to be sure.) Lucy takes this role very seriously, almost to the point that I'm not allowed to mother Thomas as needed. She very nearly lifted him up into his "high chair," and, once seated, happily fed him raspberries and blackberries.
Also on our to-do list that day: grocery shop at the Tiniest Supermarket in the World!, let the kids pick out new water bottles, and let Thomas show us how he can escape away from the gated children's section of the Swarthmore library.
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