Pumpkins and Apples and Prada, Oh My!

Saturday was our annual family trip to Land of the Giants pumpkin patch and the uber-commercial Illinois playground known as Apple Holler. I mean, I'm just sayin', no one should wear Prada shoes to the apple orchard. No one. Don't get me wrong, once you wade through the sea of BMW-driving, perfectly pressed yahoos, the orchard is lovely. I guess they probably don't do the pick-your-own apple thing, what with their Prada shoes and all. Grrr.

Anyway, Land of the Giants is on Highway 11 in Sturtevant and is so worth the trip. They specialize in growing big pumpkins...really GIANT pumpkins. And they have goats that walk up ladders to platforms and llamas that are trimmed to look like standard poodles (freaky) and a corn maze and portable toilets with hand sanitizer. Good stuff.

So I'm sitting in the portable toilet taking care of business when I hear Josiah's voice from next door:

Josiah: "Ummm, Abu?"
Me: "Yes?"

Josiah: "Ummm, is the stuff in the dispenser hand sanitizer? 'Cuz that's not a sink, it's a urinal and if it's not hand sanitizer in the dispenser, then we can't wash our hands because if it's soap then there's no place to get water because that's not a sink, it's a urinal."
Me: "Yes, Josiah, it's hand sanitizer."
Josiah: "Thanks Abu."

I love kids.

Anyway, so we picked out our pumpkins (mine is full of warts, Dan's is triangular and everyone else's is perfect) and headed out to Apple Holler for apple pickin' and apple eatin'. And just in case you didn't know, watching a toothless 6 year-old eat an apple is one of life's great joys. I'm convinced of it. Life is good.

Turtleday

Our nephew Samuel has an amazingly adorable and inspiring love for all creatures. People, rodents, cats, hermit crabs...and as of Saturday, baby snapping turtles.

We spent Saturday afternoon at a party for my Aunt out in the boonies. While everyone was busy enjoying the campfire, someone noticed a baby snapping turtle had come up from a hole in the ground. And then another came up...and another. And before you knew it, we had collected some 14 itty bitty hatchlings in a stainless steel mixing bowl for safe passage to the river. (I am continually amazed by the versatility of the stainless steel mixing bowl. My Mom still has the bowl we all barfed in as kids--affectionately named 'puke bowl.' The thing about that bowl is that it was never held away from its kitchenly duties because of its part-time job... I love that bowl.)

And I love that Samuel.