This weekend I was looking back through all of the fall photos I’ve yet to post from our fun and festivities of the last few months. When I got to the pictures from our apple picking in September at our favorite orchard, I realized what a little growth chart I had from comparing previous falls. Both the growth of our family and the kiddos individually. The first fall after Zuzu was born we didn’t make it to our favorite orchard but went to a little more local place and gathered just a few with Zuzu snuggled tidily against me with her little newborn feet tucked in my fleecy pockets.

The next fall we didn’t quite manage a trip to any orchard. Zuzu was had a series of ear infections from May till October that kept her out of school and us homebound way more than I care to document. This picture was one taken of her Thanksgiving weekend though.

The next year we headed up to our favorite orchard though; and had so much fun with their playground, apple slushies, apple donuts and the discovery of a local bakery and BBQ shack that this trip became cemented into an annual foray.

Now I look forward to getting the girls to pose before their height chart. Who would have thought to put one there. It strikes me as quirky but yet so very right!

In 2009 when we realized this was going to become a photographic occasion as well as a pantry filling one we started thinking about dressing Zuzu in anticipation of the happy shots. It was this year that I noticed I wasn’t the first party to come up with this annual idea. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen such a collection of DSLR cameras out on display!

Maybe it’s something in the apples that has her growing like a weed?

This past September we were all set for photographic and picking merriment but the whole thing turned into more of an “I Love Lucy” episode and no actual apples made it home with us. Managing two children a stroller and a cart to hold our apples didn’t go so well. Things close by were pretty picked over and we had to venture further into the orchard to get any apples. As the name of the orchard is fitting- Skytop- you can guess what happened. An almost 4 year old pulling a cart on the side of a hill didn’t work so well. The cart went flying into a tree when she realized she couldn’t steer and the apples went flying.

By the time we went for our annual height picture, feelings were a little cloudy and it was time to head out.

I think maybe next year will be a banner year for our pantry though….