How about 'dem apples?

It's been a pretty hot fall so far, which is why you haven't read me waxing poetic about bouquets of freshly sharpened pencils yet.  I was really gung-ho to get our apples this morning though, and I think the 4 pots of applesauce have gotten me more into the autumnal spirit.  This year's haul included Honeycrisp, Redmax MacIntosh, and Cortland.  I finally mastered the tart apple pie Hubby's been longing for this year - Cortland apples + a scant 1/4c sugar.  

 You will forgive me for baby apple nostalgia pictures, right?

 A moment of silence while I mourn the passing of those pillowy cheeks.

And coats with bear ears and little shuddery baby sleep noises!

 But welcome to years of sharing apples with friends.

And sitting on a tractor ride without fear of a young'un jumping off mid-ride.  Oh, a gentleman on the tractor was making conversation with Tater.  "Shoot, you got the biggest apple out there!  I wanted the biggest one."  T:  "Well you can't have it because I'm already eatin' it!"

All three kiddos helped in the kitchen this year!  Oh my gosh, my counter clutter is so out of control but we squeezed a lot of love and laughter into the kitchen today, so I'm going to give myself some grace for this "messy counter chapter" of my life.  Spork was very industrious and dutifully did about a dozen apples and was still disappointed when we stopped, "You got more apples for me to peel?"  Tater hates skin on her apple slices but for whatever reason, she will eat a long strand of apple peel straight off the hand crank!  Mighty girl peeled two apples lickety-split before she lost interest.  The Nugget, in contrast, peeled a single apple with painstaking precision and ate the peel as it was coming off the apple.  I can't remember which brand we have but this apple peeler was hands-down the best $15 I've spent for our kitchen recently.  I try to put up at least a couple gallons of applesauce in the freezer each fall, and this little beauty means fun for the kids and no hand cramps for me!

Happy Apple harvest to you all!