The Perfect Fall Day

I know it's been quite a while since my last post, but as is customary here in the Midwest at this time of year, the weather has been pretty icky and on top of that, I contracted a lovely cold that kept me from even thinking about being in front of or behind the camera. However, yesterday turned it all around! I have been wanting to go apple picking for the past few fall seasons and yesterday we finally went! My mom, sister, aunt, two cousins and I made our way to Hillcrest Orchards for the most perfect fall day I could've ever imagined. In the few hours that we were there, we took a hayride, picked over thirty pounds of apples (and gobbled up a few), got pretty lost in a corn maze, meandered through the pumpkin patches, and had a whole bunch of family fun!









It was the most wonderful of days to do it. After suffering through the bipolar weather tendencies of Northeast Ohio, we had a gorgeous, sunny, crisp fall day. The land seemed to stretch forever; no wonder we needed to take a hayride to get to the apples! There were a ton of families out, mostly with little kids, all enjoying the great weather and taking advantage of all that this beautiful farm had to offer. While apple picking was our main event, the pumpkin patch is another point of interest at this farm, with a huge selection of great Jack O' Lantern material and fall decorations for days.









We loved Hillcrest! The land was so pretty and spacious. Even though I'm really a city girl, sometimes I love getting out in the country and breathing in all that fresh air. Plus, being a Midwesterner, you have to take some time every now and then to embrace your inner country child. Hillcrest has so many activities and being there was so much fun! They even have a market where they sell their fresh made apple butter, cider, and salsa! It's great for the little ones, too. They had play areas, a smaller hay maze, and pedal karts. They really have something for everyone, and we all had such a blast! We will definitely be bringing Charlie back at some point.







We spent a good hour or two in the orchard, sampling the different delicious apples. They had a large variety, from Red Delicious to other kinds I'd never heard of before, such as Empire. They were each a little different, and we got a great medley! I know that alongside my pumpkin obsession, I'm about to look for creative recipes that call for apples. My mom, sister, and I filled a 20 lb bag to the max, and we ended up with around 50 apples! My aunt and cousins filled a 10 lb bag for them to take home, and between the six of us, we probably ate about a dozen. It's so great that at Hillcrest, they let you eat as many apples as you want while you're out in the orchard. It gave us the opportunity to taste each one so that we knew exactly what we were picking. We got some specifically for baking, some for applesauce, and then of course some to just eat by themselves.





Olivia has already made two pies with a few of them, and I plan on trying my hand at an allergy-friendly pie. That means gluten, dairy, and egg-free crust! I'll let you know how that goes. In the meantime, I'll be enjoying our wonderful fresh apples and the memories that we made getting them. Even though this may be the last year I live at home, I'm hoping I'll be able to come back from time to time and go apple picking with my family :)

Have you ever been apple picking? What was your experience?

Babies and Bubbles

A few years ago, two wonderful children came into our family. Charlie and Lilly are my beautiful little baby cousins. Up until Charlie was born, almost 4 years ago (time goes so fast), all of the cousins of the family were roughly the same age. We all played together throughout our childhood and grew up together. So when Charlie came along, we were all so excited to have a baby in the family again! Just a couple of short years after that, Lillian was born and all of the sudden we had TWO adorable little peanuts to love!





Yesterday, one of my older cousins had a little going-away party before she leaves for college (seriously, where has the time gone??), and after dinner we went outside with the kids. The bubbles came out and before long, so did my camera! Charlie wasn't so interested in the bubbles, but he did sneeze in the aunt's face, so that was a great moment. Lilly definitely was all about the bubbles. Watching her run after them and try to figure out how to blow bubbles herself was such a treat. And in that adorable tiny pink dress? Who wouldn't love that?





These kids just melt my heart. They are so precious and beautiful and we give them so much love. I think everyone in the family is simply obsessed with them! They are such happy children and I can't wait to see them grow up into beautiful, happy people, just like their parents.

Are there any special little ones in your life?

Curls, Curls, and More Curls

My grandmother has been insisting lately on setting my hair in curlers, so a few nights ago, I went over for a visit and we spent the evening rolling my hair. I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out with my hair already being permed, but I was up to try it. She told me all about how back in the day, women only really washed their hair once a week and then set it in rollers and had nice curls for the rest of the week. My grandma still does it that way, except now she goes and gets it done weekly, rather than doing it herself. I was pretty apprehensive, since it seemed like kind of an old lady thing to do.

She washed my hair (it feels so good to have other people wash your hair) and put gobs of leave-in conditioner in it and then she went to work! It only took about 45 minutes to do my whole head, which was pretty fast, considering it takes a couple of hours to roll my hair when they do a perm. Grandma was using bigger curlers, though. She then put me under a home dryer, but I sat under it for about 45 more minutes and it still wasn't dry, so I just went home and slept on them, which wasn't the most comfortable night of my life...



The next morning, I took all the rollers out and I was left with crazy barrel curls! I looked like Shirley Temple, but it was so funny! I enjoyed my short, bouncy curls for a few minutes, but then combed through them with my fingers and after a few minutes of separating and playing with them, I had beautiful, full, bouncy curls. My hair felt so light and fluffy!





To go with my princess curls, I decided to debut my Disneyland Paris t shirt. Casual, but fun! Believe it or not, those curls lasted me three days. Plus, it was done with no product and no heat. Maybe the old ladies have it all figured out...



What's your favorite hair treatment?