The Absence of Solitude

Wordless Wednesday

Maple Weekend

New York designates two weekends in March as Maple Weekends. Maple producers open their farms for tours, games, taste-testing, pancake breakfasts, and such to showcase the maple products NY has to offer. We decided to check out one of the farms close by last weekend. It wasn't anything like the huge Maple Festival we went to a couple of years ago but it was fun for everyone that lasted just a couple of hours. The kids got to see farms animals; they especially liked a cow named Chuck. They also ate maple cotton candy, took a tractor ride out to the sugar bush (the grove of 1600 sugar maple trees), and visited the sap house. With the warmer weather we have been experiencing this year the maple season was extremely short and this farm had actually finished tapping their trees and processing all their maple syrup two weeks ago. 

Apple Fest

Saturday we braved the cold and wet weather to attend the Apple Festival. We were slightly disappointed that there were not that many apple related festivities. It was more of an arts and crafts show with a lot of food vendors (which we did enjoy). The kids had fun though and the apple-cheddar pizza afterwards made up for the lack of apples at the festival.

Here are a few pictures Mandy captured:

 

 

 

 

 

Apples and more apples

Last weekend we picked apples and we picked A LOT of them; nearly four bushels. I have made so much applesauce this week along with apple butter and apple pie filling. I am getting sick of looking at apples! We did have some fun picking them though. Lauren and Ethan love Gala apples and so they were excited to pick those and kept telling me, "We hit the mother-lode" on getting these in season. We also picked the 20 oz. variety which are very similar to Honeycrisp apples but without the expensive price tag. We will be capping off the apple season by attending the Apple Festival tomorrow with Matt and Mandy. We are just hoping the weather cooperates. It supposed to only be about 49 degrees and it might rain. Boo to that, but we are going and expect to have some fun!

 
 

 
 
 

Wordless Wednesday

 

Sunflower field

Last week we drove over to the huge field of sunflowers. A lot of them were already starting to wilt but the children didn't seem to mind. I think they were more fascinated by the giant bumblebees on all the sunflowers.

 
 
 

 
 
 
 

Wrap up: Part two

We went to Letchworth and hiked around the falls. The kids were also successful in finding a geocache.

 

 

We went to a bounce/fun center where the kids had their first experience rollerskating.

 

 

We went blueberry and cherry picking.

 

 

And we went to the Sacred Grove and had a picnic on the Erie Canal.

 

 

 

 

That is about the end of the trip, I think. It was a busy and fun three weeks. We were all sad to see it come to a close and we started missing everyone the moment they drove away. I have a few (or a lot) more pictures that I think I will save for some Wordless Wednesday posts.

Wrap up

I really need to finish posting about our July fun so I can move on to August. I am just going to do a couple of posts to wrap it up this week. So here are some pictures our adventures:

We went to the zoo

 
and then the kids enjoyed Slurpees.

 

We visited a couple of splash parks.

 

We went to the farmer's market where the kids enjoyed empanadas

 

and Leigh's kids were taught about the pure sugar high of a honey stick.

 

More wrap up tomorrow...

Strawberry Picking

Last weekend we also squeezed in a bit of time to go pick strawberries. I think I have made my dad pick fruit every time he has visited so it was only fitting that he was here to pick the first fruit of the season. He took on a mantra similar to BlueBell Ice Cream's, "We eat all we can and sell the rest." Only his was, "We eat all we can and then buy the rest." We all had our share of tasting the berries as we picked...YUM!

 
 
 
 
And this:

 
Inevitably leads to this:

 
See? She took on the mantra too! 

The 30 pounds were picked have been made into jam, pie, and frozen for smoothies. We will be enjoying them until it's time to pick again next summer.  
 
 

Lilacs

This afternoon we made a quick trip over to the park full of lilac bushes. I just loved getting out of the car and being greeted by the wonderful smell! The children all had fun running through the lilacs and going up and down the hill. I think Simon fell over at least a dozen times and Jillian finally realized she would keep falling if she kept trying to run down the hill; her little legs just couldn't keep up. Lauren was so thrilled to finally go to this park because apparently everyone in her class went to the Lilac Festival and she was feeling majorly left out. Ethan kept picking Jillian up to let her smell the flowers. It was really sweet. We had to take Ethan to scouts so we didn't get to stay as long as we wanted but I am glad that we made it before the flowers had all passed their prime.

Here are just a few pictures of the outing. I am in love with the one of Jillian with her scrunched up nose! So cute!!