Monday, September 26, 2011

Johnny Appleseed Day!

Today is Johnny Appleseed Day! Getting into the spirit of the Fall Season, we took the kids apple picking at our local farm yesterday. The kids had a blast!

It was amazing walking down the rows of apple filled trees, and made us feel closer to our food now that we were seeing it right on the tree. We just decided to make this a tradition. We are looking forward to the baked items we are now going to make with all our fresh apples!

Lauren: "Eating all the different kinds of apples at the orchard"

Matthew: "picking the first apple and my dad getting the really big apples".

Here are a few ways you can celebrate Johnny Appleseed Day:

Stamp an Apple-Picking Bag

From Family Fun

You can make apple prints on T-shirts. On wrapping paper. On tablecloths. On backs and bellies. Heck, you can stamp them just about anywhere (including walls, as my three-year-old has joyfully pointed out). Even the youngest children can make this aptly apple-y sack to use on your next excursion to a pick-your-own orchard.

MATERIALS

Fabric bag (cloth grocery sacks work well)
Newspaper
Fabric paint (green, red and brown)
Paintbrush
Apple

HOW IT'S MADE: Fold over some newspaper and insert it into the fabric bag, laying it flat so that the paint will not seep through. With a brush, use brown paint to fashion a tree trunk and let dry. Then use a horizontally cut apple to make leaves by brushing a thin layer of green fabric paint onto the apple and pressing it around the top of the trunk. Repeat several times (make sure to look for the star in the print). After the green paint dries, cut an apple in half vertically. Pick the side that still has the stem and brush with red fabric paint. Then "hang" juicy apples on the tree.

Make a Paper Bag Apple Tree