Sweet Sweetland

 We have been at Sweetland Orchard almost every weekend so far this fall.  Our absolute favorite place to be.  Plus, we've been helping Mike and Gretchen out, which has been so fun, we love it!  This post is a whole lotta apples:)

This weekend will be their last weekend open until next year.  They were supposed to be open until the end of October, but this fabulous article and this one, got a lot of people down there to pick most of their apples, a good and bad thing...now they just need more trees :) We'll be out there on Saturday, come visit and pick some apples!

 

My super talented mother-in-law sewed this adorable outfit for Adeline.

 

They make their own hard and regular cider, delicious!  They're out of hard cider until next season.

We love our picnics at the orchard!

Fletcher will play catch with anything.

I think this is Buffy, their super friendly chicken.

 

 

They had their 2nd shindig at the orchard, super yummy food and a bonfire, fun date night for us:)

Derek has made apple crisp and apple fritter donuts, and I've made and canned a ton of apple sauce...we just really like apples.

Here are some more apple posts.

MN Renaissance Festival

I have this weird love of the renaissance festival.  History fascinates me, and this time period is so interesting.  It also has to do with my step dad, Roger, taking us when we were little.  He loved this festival and went for many years, and what he loved, I love.  

The last time we went was before Hakan was born.  We got a good deal on tickets and decided to take the kids....not a great idea.  It's just not a very "little" kid friendly place.  Pushing a stroller up steep hills covered in wood chips was a little too much work.  It was kind of hard finding the kids' activities, because it wasn't too clear on the map and they were spread out all over.  The best part of the festival are all the shows...definitely not something Hakan and Adeline enjoyed.  I thought for sure I could get Hakan to dip his hand in wax to make a cute little mold like I did when I was little...we paid the lady, he refused to do anything, luckily she gave our money back.  Hakan was just having a bad day all around, so being outside walking in the heat didn't help.  It's also crazy how much smoking is going on, constantly...can't really get away from it.  We were also covered head to toe in a layer of dirt when we were done.

The day wasn't terrible, I still love it, it's a whole different world there and I could just sit and people watch for hours.  We ate a delicious and ginormous turkey leg, watched some jousting and a fire show, saw some elephants, got super sticky eating honey sticks and walked through a fairy forest.  It was fun being outside and exploring.

He really loves it when I take his picture:)

Asleep within minutes.

August

Some random August pics.

Cherries are messy.

Culver's birthday treat, chocolate custard with peanut butter sauce, our favorite!

My friend Abby did a thirty day pharmacy internship here, it was so much fun having her around!  We've known each other since 4th grade, so many memories!

  

A little friend's super awesome cowboy first birthday party.

We really love homemade popsicles!

We are getting a Chick-Fil-A in Apple Valley and they had a huge celebration with free chicken sandwiches, hot air balloon rides, games and prizes.  Adeline is saying "mooooooooo."

Looking at this pizza makes my tummy rumble, so yummy!

We've had such a nice summer, the apples have been ready a little earlier than usual, lucky for us, because we love them!

Derek and I went to Barnes and Noble for a date and this book made my laugh really hard and cringe a little.

The aisle we always end up in.