Making "kid beer"

The boys love to help Nathan make beer, but they constantly ask to drink some. Last year we made them a batch of "kid beer". We had some 8oz glass coke bottles, we decided to use for kid beer. We had the kids help bottle apple cider, then we pasteurized it. They loved drinking it and sharing it with friends. 
This year, they asked to do it again. We asked some friends to come to. We all had a great time.

Nathan and Leaf checking out the apple press at the beer brewing club party.

 This months party was at a friends house who lives on a farm. She has sheep, chickens, ducks and bees. I thought the kids would love all of that, but the huge dirt pile was MUCH more fun.

 Everest and Elliot played on the dirt pile all night. Micah and Leaf joined them for a while too. All kids were quite dirty.

 Leaf, Micah and Elliot washing the apples before putting them in the press.

 Everest and Elliot got on each side of the bar and walked in circles pressing the apples.

 Elliot enjoyed her first experience with an apple press.

Apples, apples and more apples

It is that time of year. We picked LOTS of apples again this year. We didn't get pictures of us picking this year. Bonnie was here when we picked the apples. She and Nathan spent the weekend making and canning apple sauce. Nathan estimated we canned between 200-300 pounds of apples. I think we have close to 120 quart jars of apple sauce. We shared some with friends, but the majority will be eaten by the boys. They can eat a quart a day.

Here are a few jars. You can see the different color apples we used. We picked a lot of yellow apples this year, so we have yellow apple sauce. We eat plain yogurt with apple sauce, coconut and granola. The kids (and us) love it.

We had plenty of apples left over. Everest's school had a craft show and bake sale. We decided to make caramel apples for  it. Everest helped make them. We had to wash and dry all the apples first.

Tada. Yes, I did try to make them fancy and add candy corn and chocolate chips to the bottom. That is easier said than done. I think we dipped them too quickly because the candy corn and chocolate chips ended up laying beside the apples. Live and learn. We had fun making them. We actually have not tried any yet, so I can't even say they were good. We have 3 in our freezer for a rainy day.