Apple Picking and Halloween Pumpkins!

It wouldn't be fall without a trip to the apple orchard.  We were so lucky that the weather was absolutely beautiful...no coats necessary!  This farm is just 10 minutes from our house, and usually has all kinds of fruits and vegetables.  We tried to find some zucchini and peppers, but those fields seemed pretty empty.  Oh well...we got lots of apples and picked out some pumpkins for Halloween. It was so nice to be out in the fresh air and sunshine!

Pumpkins here are A LOT smaller than the ones in the States.  The ones in this picture are actually really big for France! Halloween is kind of new here - they don't do trick-or-treating (except in ex-pat neighborhoods) and you won't see houses decorated either. It is starting to catch on, though (probably from American movies, like everything else).  I was at the store the other day and they had half an aisle with Halloween costumes, so there's hope!

Earlier in the season there are a lot more varieties, but this was it when we were there.  We went for the Jubile, even though we'd never heard of them...it's a cool name though.

I couldn't believe how far the apple trees were from the entrance (I'm 9 months pregnant...come on!) but we finally made it there. It was a long walk, but along the way we checked out the pepper field (empty) and the zucchini field (empty), the girls goofed around with the wheelbarrow, and Serena busted out a few handstands.  It still felt like it took forever to get to the apples (of course, once we got there, we realized that we could have parked at that entrance and been right there).

^^Baby was there too!

Once we had enough apples, we started the long walk (waddle) back to the entrance to pick out pumpkins. On the way we talked about all the yummy apple treats we're going to bake. I'm definitely going to make and freeze some apple crisps for those cold, winter mornings. 

Choosing just the right pumpkin is always difficult, but the girls were up to the challenge. They insisted that we pick one out for the baby too. My question is...who carves that one? 

I love, love, LOVE gourds! The colors are so fun. They're definitely my favorite Halloween decoration. We picked out a bunch to scatter around the house.