Apple Pickin'

If you know me, and I know the both of you do, I have started to enjoy canning, especially applesauce. Last year I bought two bushels/ boxes of apples from a wonderful orchard near by. I made a lot of applesauce and applebutter with those. However, the applesauce didn't last as long as I had hoped. This year we skipped spring and started in on a hot dry summer in May, so I was a bit worried about the crop this year.
This pass weekend, my mother-in-law informed me that her apple trees were ready for picking and there are lots of apples out there. I was thrilled, since previous years the crop was less than stellar and completely picked over by birds.
So the next morning I loaded up the big girls, a few baskets, bags but no gloves. The good thing is apple trees aren't pokey. The gloves could have come in handy while picking up the gross apples that had fallen off the trees already. But we made do, and the big girls didn't complain, about that.
My mother-in-law got the ladder out after the girls had picked everything at their level. Big Girl J was first up.

With the sun, I wasn't able to get a picture from the other angle. Now Big Girl J, has her big brave moments, but not very often, this was not one of those times. She was nervous up on that ladder, even after many times up and down she was still un-easy about the whole thing. At least the time up she seemed like she was getting more comfortable.
While this was going on, I was still looking for apples at my height, and Little Miss O was trying to move the basket of apples we had gathered thus far.

It was a little heavy.

Big Girl O was not  any more brave than big sister. She was just as uneasy and neverous, but didn't want to pass up her turn to get on the ladder and pick apples. So mommy had to come up the ladder behind her, to keep her comfortable.

We spent only 2 hours, we picked about 48lbs of good apples, and I couldn;t stop smiling. There was just something awesome about doing this with my girls, and how much they enjoyed it.
They love to help me do so many things, some things I let them help and they decide they don't want to help anymore and give it right back to me. Other things, they will continue to do until they believe the job is done.
I love my girls, I love to do this kind of stuff with my girls.