Family Fun Day-Thumbs Up!

The kids were out of school for Columbus day and they have a way of creating traditions and we are thankful they do. Our kids talked throughout the week and weekend about having our "family fun day" and even put themselves in bed early because they were eager for morning to come. 

Last year we visited the Utz Potato Chip Factory, the Harley-Davidson Factory and picked our own pumpkins.  You can see the post from last year here:  Family Fun Day 2011 

The kids decided to stick with a similar theme but change up the activities a little this year. 

Here is a picture of the kiddos as we pulled out of the neighborhood early Monday morning. They were bright eyed and ready to spend the day together.

It is so cool to see the covered bridges scattered throughout Central PA

Our first stop was Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery in Lititz, PA. Julius Sturgis is America’s first commercial  Hard pretzel bakery and the building was built in 1784. The Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The kids learned how to make their very own pretzel and learned the history of the hard pretzel as well as the traditional pretzel shape.  Monks shaped long pieces of leftover dough in the form of children’s arms folded across their chests in prayer. They baked the treats and gave them to children who learned their bible verses. The three holes created by the molded dough came to represent the Christian Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Pretty cool, who would have ever thought the pretzel had such a significant meaning?

On to the next stop!

We arrived at Cherry Hill Orchards in Lancaster, PA. The girls took off running as they spotted a row of trees loaded with apples. There were Fuji, Jonagold, Golden Delicious, Red Delicious and many others. We spent time roaming up and down the rows and picked over 15lbs of apples!  Needless to say, homemade apple crisp was baked that night after dinner.

The kids sampled plenty of apple while we picked. Olivia spotted the "bestest" apples at the tip top of the trees. Daddy could only make it possible to retrieve the "bestest" apples.

 

Crazy Dad, giving instructions in the orchard on the game plan for proper apple picking. Logan enjoyed every second of daddy's silliness.

Team cheer for "apple pickin" Crazy Morrisons!

I tried "tempting" Billy with an apple but he wasn't having it.  We also had as much fun as the kids goofing off and enjoying the day together.

 

For those of you who know this picky eater, this is a BIG deal for her to have tried a new food. You can see she took a few bites but she will not eat one now that we are at home.  

On to the next stop!

We headed out to Flinchbaugh Orchard in York. This is the same corn maze that we went to last year however they change the design each year so it was new all over again. We divided up into "teams" and headed through the maze to find the letters to fill up our punch cards.  

Group shoot before we split up and take off......it started to get a little chilly!

So how am I going to keep up with my little team member to find all the letters in the corn field before the other teams. Ohh my I am realizing more and more how competitive she is.....

Maddy and Breanna headed in one direction

AND....we all ended up some how, some way at the same letter to hole punch our ticket! 

Olivia and I had to take a potty break and she was eager to get back into the maze to find the last letter (we were ahead the whole time and couldn't find the K for the word OINK!) We went back into the maze for a few minutes only to get word the crew had found all the letters and we never could find the missing K! It still irritates me that this was not completed "sigh"

On to the pumpkin pickin!

Logan quickly found his "perfect pumpkin"

Olivia found hers....

Maddy found hers but had to go quickly out of the patch because she had some kind of skin rash appearing..corn? pumpkin patch? hay? who knows but it cleared up in a couple hours. 

Breanna picked out a white pumpkin in the store

So all are happy...

Thumbs up for the Morrison Family Fun Day 2012 edition!