The fall season is fun. Everyone enjoys the cooler weather and changing colors. But it can honestly be chaos as well-getting back into a school routine and trying to squeeze in all the fun fall activities before the inevitable winter. There are many activities you can do to enjoy the fall weather without spending a ton of money or even running around all over town.
Pumpkin patches seem like a requirement anymore. There are big named pumpkin patches in the Omaha metro area that attract many visitors. But there are other ways to enjoy the outdoors without spending a lot. I truly enjoy the small fall projects we can do at home between our busy times. Here are a few of them.
Carving pumpkins
Ah. A classic. You can get big pumpkins fairly cheap at about any store. Once you find the perfect ones, bring them home, put the kids in old clothes and start carving away! When they are young, they may not be complete artistic masterpieces but that’s ok! Let them experience the wonderful goo inside the pumpkin and make a mess. I would suggest doing this one on a nice evening outside on the deck. Finally, get some flameless LED tealights and sit them on the front porch. Easy decorating for the fall season!
Painting Pumpkins
There are many fun ways to paint with small pumpkins, gourds, and apples. You can paint on paper with the apples or pumpkins as your “brush” or you can have the children paint the pumpkins and gourds. After your children have painted the pumpkins and gourds, you can add faces or eyes to make them look like ghosts or other fun fall characters!
Jumping in leaf piles
Leaf piles are always fun. We always have multiple rakes to make it a competition. Who can rake up the biggest pile? Who can rake the fastest? Once they are done, you can continue the competition by seeing who has the best jump into the leaves, who can bury themselves the best among the leaves, or who can get them in the bag the quickest. One last note: Don’t mention to your children that this is actually helping you do yard work. They’ll never know!
Creating art
Leaves aren’t only for raking. Creating art with leaves is always fun! You can chose multiple types of leaves and use them as paint brushes (much like the small pumpkins and apples). You can also put leaves under a piece of paper and have your children color with crayons over the leaf, leaving an imprint for refrigerator art.
Child-based art
There are also many fun ways to paint for your children. You can use a footprint to make spooky ghosts (white paint then add googley eyes when dried) or you can paint the brown base and branches of a tree and have them use fall paint to fingerprint fall leaves. Hand prints can be turned into a little turkey, adding what they are thankful for in marker after it has dried.
The fall season is truly wonderful. Go to the pumpkin patches and the football games and all of the fun outings. But do a few small things at home that you can cherish and keep around as memories forever! You and your children will remember those little things for years to come.
