Caramel Apples

The public school kids had a day off from school (Veteran’s Day or something, I can’t remember exactly) so my good friend, Hillary, invited us over to make caramel apples.  Almost all of our kids line up perfectly in age and they all play super well together.  We all have so much fun hanging out together!  Hillary is a much braver woman than I and made all the caramel from scratch, teaching the kids as we went.  (She should be the homeschooler - not me!  She’d be WAY better at!)  

We put the big girls to work right away roughing up those apples.  

Four kids under 3!  I brought the little girls’ highchairs so we could contain them for a little while.  They were happy there with a snack.  

We put the biggest boys to work chopping up some nuts for the toppings.  

Cade’s face!  Hahaha!  He is serious about his pecan chopping.

After the first couple of tries, the kids learned to be in the kitchen when Hill tested the candy.  She explained that we were looking for the ‘soft-ball stage’.  It did not take them long to figure out they could eat each test piece.  

After stirring that pot for what seemed like hours the caramel was finally ready!  We had the kids come into the kitchen to decorate them in shifts because all 11 of them at once would have been a little much!  Ryley and Cade were first.  

The middle boys were next but I somehow managed to not get a picture of them.  I think they came in right after my camera strap broke and my camera went crashing down on the hard tile floor.  Luckily the filter on the end of the lens was the only thing that broke but it shattered and was bent so I couldn’t get it off.  I put the camera away for a little bit after that.  I didn’t want to NOT get any more pictures though so I tried it out and to my surprise the shards of glass sticking out at the end of the lens didn’t even show up!  I still haven’t been able to get the bent ring from the filter off of the end of my lens - grrrr!  

I think Maddie ate more toppings than she put on her apples.  :)

We took home 3 apples for all of us (except the little girls who wouldn’t eat them anyway) so that was 15 apples!

Hillary was so thoughtful in packing this box up for us while I was making lunch for the kids - making sure that none of Cash’s apples touched any other apples that had chocolate on them.  She is the seriously best!

We ate caramel apples for a week!  They were gooooood too.  Thanks for a wonderful and fun morning, Hill!