It's The Little Things: Apple Picking

Last week when I shared my Dutch Apple Pie Bread recipe I mentioned having more apples than I knew what to do with. I never shared the story of how we came across those apples so today I am sharing the details of the very first time I took the girls apple picking.

When my mom called me up and said the apples were ready, we were ready to go. I had told her I wanted to take the girls to help this year with hopes that they would enjoy the experience.

We started out picking pears.
Marissa immediately seemed a bit nervous/ unsure and I wasn't sure how "into this" she was going to get. 

Emily was Emily. Often oblivious or aimlessly drifting along plucking the occasional pear from the tree.

We quickly finished and moved onto the apple tree.

We picked and picked and picked.

I was pretty sure it was going to take us all day.

The girls were helpful, but not as helpful and I expected them to be.

See how happy they look posing for this photo ;).

Finally I ended up climbing up into the tree branches on a ladder so I could shake the tree.
Definitely not the best way to pick an apple tree, but it was pretty effective.

*Note to self next time take bicycle helmets.

The end results were well worth it.

And those little girls may not have been the best apple pickers but they did help out and have fun.

"Look Mom!"

They know I love creative thinking and team work.

We ended up with 30 jars of applesauce 10 loaves of apple bread and enough apple pie filling to make 10 pies and around 20 jars of pear butter. And that was just what we did with our share!
About a week later all stocked up on apple goodies I probably would've cried if I had to peel another apple. 
But when life gives you apples....
Linking up with Jess