Helping Families to Connect and Thrive

Apple Painting for Little Kids AND Big Kids

10.04.19

It can be tricky to find art projects that are appropriate for a 2 year old AND an almost 6 year old. Their abilities, attention spans, and fine motor skills are SO different! We decided to make a simple art project during our Apple Week that provided the kiddos with the opportunity to use the same materials (colored pencils and watercolor) but allowed each child to create on their own level.

We selected a few remaining apples from our afternoon of apple picking as inspiration and kept them on the table to look at while we worked. When we were finished they became a tasty snack!

Cole made an abstract painting that we cut into an apple shape. I helped by providing the specific colors and cutting the shape, but other than that I just let him create freely. First he used red and yellow colored pencils to make marks on the watercolor paper. Then he painted over the lines with red watercolor. When the painting was dry, I returned it to him with the watercolor pencils and he added more designs. We followed the same process with brown colored pencil and watercolor to make the stem.

Definitely be prepared for your curious toddler to paint things other than the paper, and plan for their seat and accessibility to surrounding items accordingly…

Isla worked on a more realistic apple still life. She observed a specific apple closely to make her sketch with pencil, then added details with colored pencil. Afterward she painted her apple with watercolor. When it had dried, she went back over areas with her colored pencil to add details.

Using the apple to find which colored pencils most closely matched.

When watercolor painting we like to keep a scrap piece of paper around to test our colors.

“Isla Wila, sweeter than apple cider” I love that this shirt still fits.

This project was such a fun and simple way for the kids to create together while we wrapped up our Apple Week! From apple picking to making applesauce as a family and enjoying our favorite apple books to creating an apple feast, we thoroughly enjoyed celebrating this favorite (and tasty) fall symbol! Now, it’s pumpkin time!!!

Hello, Pumpkin Patch!

10.02.19

It’s the first day of October! Pumpkin month! Our favorite month! We were actually so excited for pumpkins that we made out first pumpkin patch trip of the year in September.

We first discovered Papa’s Pumpkin Patch last year for our friend Piper’s birthday party. We absolutely love this sweet farm and were excited to go back together! Their patches are made up of a medley of every size, color, and shape of pumpkin you could imagine. As you wade through the vines you’re not exactly sure what you’ll find, and so it’s like going on a little treasure hunt!

Like last year, Isla was on the hunt for the teeniest pumpkins she could find.

Like his sister, Cole was especially enamored with the itty bitty pumpkins and would rock them like babies!

His love for the tiny pumpkins didn’t stop him from attempting to pick up the big pumpkins too!

Isla spent a big chunk of the morning fawning over, and cuddling (yes, cuddling), the snake that Uncle Chad caught for them.

Love these little pumpkin heads so much!

Sweetest little pumpkins in the patch! I love, love, love being in my happy place with my favorite people!

Don’t let these harmonious photos of wheelbarrow teamwork fool you– the first two-thirds of the walk Cole was screeching at Isla to let go of HIS wheelbarrow. Oi! With a little gentle coaching they worked things out in the end, and the last 100 feet of the walk was adorable. Definitely a sibling success moment worth documenting!

We’re looking forward to an October filled with pumpkin patch adventures!

Our Apple Feast!

09.30.19

What do you do when you pick 3 flats of apples, eat a bunch, make several batches of applesauce, and still have countless apples leftover? You have an apple feast!

We prepared and enjoyed this cozy fall dinner the other evening, and just about every dish featured apples! This pork roast with apples and onions is unbelievably easy and delicious. It has been our go to fall comfort meal for years. Alongside the roast we served rice pilaf with pecans (also included in recipe link), only we used black rice. To our mixed greens we added thinly sliced shallots, celery, and apples, and dressed it with a vinaigrette— I’m thinking now how tasty this salad would be with walnuts, so I’ll be sure to add those next time I make it.

As we ate, our apple butter (recipe HERE) was bubbling away on the stove and our apple pie (recipe and inspiration from THIS adorable book!) was baking in the oven. To say the house smelled heavenly was a definite understatement!

It’s safe to say the pie was a huge hit!

Even after our feast, we still have a flat full of apples! We’ll definitely keep some for snacking and make some more applesauce, but we are looking for some fun new recipes to try. Friends, what are your favorite apple recipes? Please share in the comments!

Applesauce Time!

09.27.19

Continuing on with our Apple Week celebrations, we’re enjoying applesauce today!

There are so many places we can connect as a family during our everyday routines, and the kitchen is one of them! We’re always looking for opportunities for the kids to help us prepare food. Sure, this can be a challenge, because kids helping in the kitchen inevitably leads to more of a mess! But, it’s valuable to start teaching them these life skills early, so we brace ourselves for a messier kitchen and do all we can to set everyone up for success! This starts with finding a recipe or task that is easy, not overly messy, and appropriate for your children’s fine motor skills. Applesauce is the answer! It’s super simple and the prep work is relatively tidy. We’ve already made a couple of batches of sweet, tangy applesauce since our apple picking afternoon! Isaac and I peeled the skin from the apples and cut them into chunks. We then handed the apple chunks to the kids so they could slice them into smaller pieces and drop them into the sauce pan. Our kids use butter knives or kids’ knives to keep there little fingers safe. (We have this set of kid’s kitchen tools and love it!) Once the saucepan is filled with apples we squeeze the juice of one lemon over the pieces and gave them a toss. Then we added a splash of fresh apple cider to the pan, covered it with a lid and set it over medium-low heat to bubble away for the next few hours. Other than stirring the sauce occasionally and monitoring the temperature to ensure it’s not too hot, you don’t have to do anything else!

One thing you could do while you wait for your apples to cook down into sauce is snuggle up and read together! We have some wonderful apple books that inspire us every fall.

Applesauce Season focuses on so many of our favorite things– family, traditions, seasonal celebrations, and food! I think we love it more every time we read it! How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World follows the adventure of a girl who sets out to make an apple pie and discovers her local market is closed. Undaunted, she embarks on a journey around the world, collecting all of the necessary ingredients for her pie. This is a wonderfully witty and creative story, and it includes a very tasty pie recipe at the back that we made last night! Apple Pie ABC just might be my very favorite alphabet book. It features an adorable and determined little dog who is trying to get the fresh apple pie its owner just baked. Apple Pigs is a book I’ve had since my own childhood. A lonely neglected tree fails to produce any fruit, until one little girl began caring for it. Suddenly, there were more apples than anyone knew what to do with– until they decided to host a feast and share with man, and bird, and wooly beast! Red are the Apples is bursting with bright, vibrant illustrations that show unique perspectives. This rhyming book takes you through a colorful fall garden that is about to be harvested.

You can see more of our favorite fall books in this post and on Pinterest!

Friends, do you have any awesome applesauce tips? Tasty apple recipes? Or favorite apple books? We’d love to learn more, so please feel free to share in the comments!

It’s Apple Week!

09.24.19

Fall has arrived and are beyond ready to celebrate our favorite time of year! We love planning activities to honor the seasons and outings that connect to the natural world, and the options are seemingly endless in the fall! Before we turn our attention to all things pumpkin, we wanted to focus on another beloved autumn symbol: apples! So, we have decided this week will officially be known as Apple Week in our house! Our time together as a family will focus on all things apple– cooking, crafts, books, and the very best, apple picking!

We discovered Douglas Farm when we went peach picking this summer. Our experience was so wonderful we knew we wanted to return when it was time to pick apples. The Gravensteins were ready and the branches were so loaded with fruit that they drooped low enough for Cole to pick all by himself! He was beyond thrilled!

Gravensteins make excellent applesauce! We whipped up a batch by adding peeled, chopped apples to a sauce pan with a little lemon juice and a splash of fresh apple cider. We covered the pan and let it bubble away over medium-low heat for about 2 hours. Delicious! If you want to make your homemade applesauce even more decadent you can turn it into apple butter! We enjoyed some this weekend to welcome the first day of fall and shared the super easy instructions here. Seriously, do yourself a favor and whip up a batch. It is so delicious on pancakes and waffles!

Cole did such a great job picking and adding the apples to the boxes! He only stopped to nibble a few.

Cole thought he saw a “pider” on the apple and he was very concerned!

We made a quick stop at the plum trees and these adorable little frogs were hopping all over on the ground. Isla was beyond thrilled to make this little froggy friend!

As she has done every fall since she was 2, Isla chose a squash to bring home. Inspired by our favorite fall book, Sophie’s Squash, she decorates the squash with a face and plays with it all season. You can find more of our favorite fall books for kids here.

Apple picking was the perfect way to celebrate the harvest season, and we are looking forward to all of the fall fun we’ll share together during our Apple Week! We hope you’ll follow along and find a bit of inspiration to share with your families. If you have a favorite apple recipe or activity, please share!