Late Summer

September was Beautiful and we enjoyed every minute outside that we could! We went Raspberry picking at Awald Farms this year and as long as we are here it will be a family tradition. Outside of Buffalo in any direction is gorgeous as long as it's not city. It was so relaxing to be there an pick these delicious berries.

Violette was prepared for the sprinkles.

It was torture for her not to be able to eat any of the raspberries.

The pumpkins there were ginormous! Bigger than Oliver, I believe you could have hollowed them out and floated down the river.

Unfortunately the sprinkles turned into a down pour so our picking was short and our picnic ended up in the car. Don't worry we went back for more a week later.

These beauties (the picture does not do them justice) are Concord Grapes, aka Blue Grapes or Slip Skins as the locals call them. They are so pretty they look fake. Our neighbor gave us bags full, which we turned into delicious jelly and pie. Our family is definitely set for jelly and jam, with our raspberry, strawberry, grapes jams/jelly. We love fresh fruit.

Our neighbor squeezes out the inside which is the green stuff with seeds and swallows the seeds and all without chewing. The skins are not tasty to eat, honestly I didn't even try them because everyone said how awful they were. Penelepe was the only one that loved to do it, and she ate as many as she could get her hands on.

But the skins gave beautiful color and the flavor. (Not that you can really see in this photo)

Solomon is Violette's favorite person. It is so hard to teach a 10 month old to be soft.

She gets so excited when he visits, she races over to him the second she sees him.

One of Oliver's favorite past times this summer.

Penelepe's face just kills me!