Melons and Pumpkins

A week ago, Mark and I dressed Avery up and took her apple picking and pumpkin patch wandering.

Exactly HOW do you expect ME to pick apples Mom?  The apples are the size of my head!

Being propped up against a giant pumpkin is HARD work!  I think I'm gonna fall here...

We came home with some cool memories, a bag FULL of apples, a pumpkin and some apple cider.  Then, on the following Monday, Avery had her first real session of smiling and laughing in response to something I did (rather than due to gas).  Coincidence?  I think not!   Of course, she CHOSE to do it upstairs, where my only available camera was my cell phone.  

HAHAHA!  This woman is completely bonkers!

And promptly ceased all smile activity when I ran to get the real camera and the video camera.  Seriously?  Definitely my child.  When she can stick her tongue out at the camera, she will.  I tried again the next day with the video camera...you can see for yourself how successful THAT was.

Also at home, our "let's plant this because it's 99 cents" watermelon plant yielded a watermelon!

We fully intend to cut it up and eat it with our tacos this evening.  Hopefully it's as yummy as it looks!


In other random news, I've been made a mentor runner in the NOBO program.  I'll get a special shirt and everything.  Yay!  Also, Whittaker Mountaineering called to tell me that they didn't have the boots in the store in my size....so they were having a pair shipped directly from the manufacturer.  Talk about great customer service!  More on that stuff when the boots arrive.


Back to the garden sensation - Normally, we only grow tomatoes and peppers...and strawberries and blackberries.  Have you ever grown a melon?  What's the most unusual thing you've grown at home?


Have you ever been apple-picking?  Did you "sample" any of the apples while picking?  Ha!