Apples, Pumpkins, and Memory Loss

Wow.  This weekend was amazing.   Thinking we had nothing to do on Sunday, we decided to travel to the North Georgia mountains for a lovely day of apple and pumpkin picking.  We started off at 9:30 am for a nice 90 minute trip north.  A little excessive as we could have done this closer to town, but the mountains are beautiful at this time of year.  The directions seemed great, until our first leg of the journey landed us at a chicken coup, literally.   Sunshine felt the need to warn us not to hit the chickens as we made a 5-point turn to get out of there.  A little warning, Googlemaps is not so accurate in the north Georgia mountains.  

We finally pulled into the apple orchard at nearly noon.  One hay ride later we were in the orchard.  We had a picnic lunch, a jug of apple cider, a large bag for apples, and two children who were ecstatic to be out of the car.  Oh, and a piece of fried apple pie.  Oh my that was heavenly.  What an amazing time.  The girls loved the apple pie.   Sunshine was so excited that she could actually reach some of the apples herself.  Ladybug loved picking apples with Daddy.  

Since my directions to the pumpkin patch were actually from the chicken coup instead of the apple orchard, they didn't really work.  Thank goodness I have a good sense of direction.  It was a slightly roundabout way to get there that involved a dirt road barely wide enough for a car, but we arrived at Grandpa Jones' pumpkin patch.  The website wasn't as accurate as I might have liked, but the patch was cute.  It took me a while to convince Sunshine that using a portable potty wasn't going to be the end of the world.  But finally, we made it out into the fields.  We were provided with a lovely straw-filled wagon which the girls loved.  Very handy for lugging those pumpkins around.  Our rule is that each person can pick their perfect pumpkin.  Your perfect pumpkin must also be one that you can carry by yourself.  I picked a beautiful, squat Cinderella pumpkin.  Ladybug and Sunshine each chose small green and white striped pumpkins.  Daddy chose a beautiful orange carving pumpkin.  It was a perfect day. Until we received a call from our friends.  

We received a call from some very good friends of ours at around 4:30.  They were at our house for dinner.  We were not.  I had forgotten that we'd invited them over.  We were almost two hours away, and never would have made it home.  I felt terrible.  Still do.  I don't know what's going on with my brain.  I'm usually so good at keeping track of everyone and everything.  These days it seems like I could completely forget my children if they weren't adhered to my leg.  And between school functions and other planned events this holiday season, I desperately need to find a better place for my calendar.  Perhaps stapling it to the front of my shirt would be best.