Oak Glen - Apples

We spent the day at Oak Glen where we drove around the 5 mile circle visiting all the different farms and ranches. I wanted to pick apples; but learned earlier in the week that all the apples had been picked.  Oh well, I guess I saved some money though.  Our first stop was Riley's at Los Rio Rancho where we ate a picnic lunch on the grassy hill.  After lunch we explored the country store, got a good smell of tri-tip and roasted corn.  They have plenty of activities for the kids such as a petting zoo, hay rides, cider pressing and a nature trail. 

After Riley's, we drove to http://www.snow-line.com/where they are famous for their apple cider mini donuts.  For about $4 we got a dozen.  You get to see how they are made and they come hot off the press to enjoy a warm snack.  They were delish!

From there we went to Willowbrook Farm for their cider pressing.  They are the only place we found that will sell the cider in a half gallon instead of a gallon.  We did the half gallon for $9.  After tasting the cider we made, we wished we would have bought the gallon.  But I didn't want to spend $15-$16 on cider.  It was a fun and labor intensive experience.  The girls chose the apples they wanted from the variety they had in the very cold watered bucket and filled up a wooden basket.   One girl put the apples in the pressing machine while the other one turned the crank.  Luckily for me the girls did all the work with the help of a friendly employee. 

 

 

 

Our next stop was Riley's Apple Farm where the girls had fun playing in a cabin type playhouse.  They also had some archery, tomahawk throw, hayrides, cider pressing.

 

Our last stop was Oak Tree Village. I was hoping to try some apple pie at the famous Apple Annies; but the line was wrapped around outside, so I passed.  This area was very crowded.  We stayed only a few minutes since we were getting tired and didn't want to deal with the crowds.  Oak Glen was definitely a fun and different experience.

Pumpkin Party - Valencia Library

The Valencia Library was having a pumpkin party to decorate pumpkins using inexpensive and unique materials.  Thanks to Nancy's Ranch for the pumpkin donations and the library, the girls had a great time decorating their pumpkin, eating cookie treats and listening to some great holiday music.  Here are the pumpkins they made.

Bow Wows and Meows Pet Fair

Aloha Beach Festival

We escaped to Ventura beach for a taste of Hawaii at the Aloha Beach Festival. 

The festival is free admission; but we did pay $5 for parking.  I've never seen such enthusiasm from a parking attendant before.  He would excitedly wave people into the lot, then start counting the wad of money he had collected. 

At the festival were several vendor and food booths along with an entertainment stage.  We got the lay of the land; and saw surfers out in the distance.  I think there was some sort of surfing contest going on.  A K-9 Frisbee performance was scheduled; but didn't see where that was.  The only thing that we found that the girls were interested in were the hula hoops scattered on the lawn that a vendor was selling.  The girls had fun hula hooping while the hula dancing was being performed. 

Since there was not much else to do, we walked down a few steps to the beach.  We spent quite a bit of time there, then grabbed a sno-cone and left for home.

Children's Hunger Fund - Dressing Dolls

33 volunteers came out to the Sylmar warehouse this morning and prepped dolls for this year's Toy Wrap! The two hours of time will help deliver hope! — at Children's Hunger Fund.

I was expecting to bag beans or pasta today; but we got to dress dolls!  The dolls came inappropriately dressed with mini skirts; so we had to undress them and put them in some decent outfits. Our girls had lots of fun last time we came and were so jealous we got to dress dolls without them.  The toy wrap event is coming up; so they are excited to help wrap all those toys.

 

 

 

 

Fillmore - Fish and Honey

Not much going on today; so we took about a 20 min. drive out to Fillmore to feed fish, taste honey and buy some fresh produce.

Our first stop was at the Fillmore Fish Hatchery, where the girls had fun feeding the trout that were in trout beds as my daughter described it.  We had gathered about 40 dimes to get handfuls of pellet fish food.  We also brought some plastic cups for them to put the food in.  There is a small bird sanctuary next door to do a little bird and duck watching.  The girls spent about an hour here before we ran out of dimes.  My oldest had to make sure every fish was fed, which was impossible to do.

Down the road is Bennett's Honey Farm.  This is really a small gift shop selling honey and bee products.  There are about 5 different types of honey you can taste including avocado, orange, sage and 2 others.  I was excited to try the avocado since I love avocado.  It did taste like avocado; but I didn't like it as a honey flavor.  My favorite was the sage and bought a small honey bear of it that was on clearance.  They also have a small glass encased display of live bees to watch.

After honey tasting we went to Francisco's Fruits to buy some fresh produce.  We had brought a picnic lunch and purposely didn't pack fruit in order to get it here.  They are the produce stand that is recognized for their red and white tent and has the most cars out of all the other produce stands. Everyone got to pick what they wanted.  My oldest picked baby bananas, the youngest picked strawberries which she shared with me and hubby got apricots.  All the fruit was great!  But the strawberries were the best tasting strawberries.  They were much sweeter than the strawberries we normally have.  Even my oldest who is not a big fan of strawberries liked these ones. It was a fun frugal few hours spent out of the house.

Free Breakfast at Chick-fil-A

From September 9-14, 2013, participating Chick-fil-A® restaurants are giving away a variety of FREE breakfast entrees to customers who make a reservation online. To make your reservation, visit this website beginning Thursday, August 29, 2013 and choose your preferred Restaurant, the date, the time and breakfast entree.