Snowline Orchard

For the second year, Wayne's band played at his brother's church and afterwards we headed over to Oak Glen.  Last year we stopped at the popular, but more commercialized, Los Osos owned by Riley's Farm and had to wait 1 hour 45 minutes just to get our BBQ sandwiches and apple pie.  We later learned that Snowline Orchard, which is owned by a couple who are members of my brother-n-law's church, were also selling BBQ sandwiches with a much shorter wait time.  So this year after church services, we drove straight over to Snowline and only had to wait 5-10 minutes for our delicious BBQ and had the pleasure of spending the day with the other "Landes" family, my inlaws.

When we first arrived, we took a few pictures while we waited for Ken, Eileen & Erica.  Here are the kids in  one of the apple orchards.

Seth kept saying how cold his face was and used his hoodie as a face mask.  The high was maybe 64 degrees, which is warm to most of my Midwest/East coast family & friends, but to us Californians, it was cold! LOL

Loving sisters behind the Cider Mill.

One of all 3 behind the cider mill.

Climbing trees is always lots of fun and this one turned out to be a cute photo too!  Christmas card maybe?

One of the things that makes Snowline so popular are their mini apple cider donuts.  Nothing better than fresh & warm donuts with some cool apple cider.  The long line is well worth it!  You can also see the owner Linda working hard! I hear being a farmer is very rewarding, but very tiring.

A picture of all 8 of us!  I am so happy to have this picture, as this is the first time we have all taken a picture together.  We plan on making this an annual family day too!  It will be fun to take the same picture every year and see how we all change.

The cousins!  Definitely printing this one and hanging it on my wall.

One of our family.  A bit dark, so it won't be a Christmas card (yes, I was hoping to get a good Christmas card picture), but at least we have one for our album.

If you have never been to Snowline, I highly recommend it.  They don't have U-Pick apples, but if you don't want to apples, the atmosphere is real nice.  I will be heading back up there this week to exchange a defective apple peeler and you can bet I will be coming home with donuts and cider!

Cowgirl Birthday Party

Elsie celebrated her 5th birthday today with a Cowgirl Rodeo Theme. Yes, this is like the 4th horse themed party I have thrown, but this is what the kids like!  If you want to see the decor I made, check out my other blog.

Here is the birthday girl and her siblings.  They are currently 5, 6 & 7 year old!

My Elsie is a very popular and social little girl.  She had lots of little friends at her party, but unfortunately I wasn't able to get a picture of everyone.  Here she is with her sister and a dear friend from MOPS, Destiny.

Just Destiny and Elsie.  A week later, Destiny also had a Cowgirl party!

Another MOPS friend, Aubrey.

My dear friends daughter, Abigail.

Valerie is a little girl from Elsie's kindergarten class.  Here she was being very shy, but we just went to her birthday party I was able to see first hand that she is also an out going child.

Pinata time!  I found this boot at Hobby Lobby by chance for a steal of price.

In the background, you can see the only picture I have of the bouncer. lol  Something Elsie really wanted.

Time to open presents!  The kids all look to good right here, but I had to continually remind them to all sit down so the adults behind them could see too.  They all wanted to help Elsie open her gifts!

In case you can't tell, this is supposed to be a cowgirl barrel racing at the rodeo.

Make a wish!!!

My brother turned 36 years on the day of Elsie's party, so I re-lit the candles for him to blow out too.  I also made two dips (ranch & onion) per his request, to honor his birthday.

It was also 5 years ago this day, that Elsie was taken off of the ventilator and was able to breath on her own for the first time.  I also had to leave her behind in the hospital, as I was discharged this day.  I feel so blessed to have her here with us everyday, as she has brought so much joy to all of our lives.  Happy Birthday Sweetie!!!!