Fun things for kids in the fall

As I kid I did not like fall. All of the pretty green leaves tuned yellow and brown and then fell off the trees making a huge mess all over the street. I remember walking to school amongst the soggy brown leaves wishing we never had to have fall. The weather was always cold and rainy and dark. But as the years have passed, I have grown to love the fall, especially when we are lucky to have an Indian Summer like we did this year. I have learned to appreciate the beauty in the yellow, orange and red leaves and look forward to cozy afternoons with my tea and slippers to keep me warm.

Although fall brings lots of rain our way, I try to make it a point to get our kids out on the sunny days and show them a little about the changing world around them. We go on nature walks to look for cool leaves and pine cones, nuts and seeds and then we bring them inside and create things with them. A few years back, Natalie and I made a great seed chart with all the seeds we found in the yard. She really enjoyed seeing all the different types of seeds and learning their names. This year I took the kids on a walk and we hunted for pine cones. Not just any cones would do, they had to be big pine cones because we were going to make bird feeders out of them. I don't have too many memories of kindergarten, but I do remember making these pine cone bird feeders with peanut butter and birdseed.

As you can see Zander had a great time making his bird feeder.


I love to make eating fun. Who doesn't like to play with food, right, so during the fall I will make this vegetable skeleton and the kids think eating vegetables is great fun! It's all in the presentation. They would never agree to eat a plate full of vegetables at dinner, but if they think they are eating arms and legs, somehow this is more appealing to them! This also opens up discussion for naming different parts of the body...see, they are learning too. Great fun! (In case it is not clear, the head is a bowl filled with ranch dip with broccoli for hair)

What fall would be complete with out a trip to the pumpkin patch? In years past, when Natalie and Zander were babies we made an anual trip to Hood River for our apples and pumpkins. We usually stop off at Rasmussen farms for the pumkin funland, but our our favorite place to get apples is Kiyokawa Family Orchards in Parkdale. Look on their website for extensive descriptions of all their apples and produce. We love to buy from them because, not only are they priced low, but the people there are super friendly. They gladly give you samples of their fruit. That is how we first fell in love with Asian pears. Yum, I can't wait to go get ours this year. We were going to go yesterday, but we got caught up getting things done around the house and yard.

Since we live in B-town now and are surrounded by farms, I thought, why not go get our pumpkins locally and then make a trip to get apples later on. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the pumpkin patch at Liepold Farms. They have a lot of great things for kids including hay rides, a corn maze, a petting zoo and our kids' favorite the corn box (like a sand box, but with corn kernels.) Click on photos to enlarge.


Zander finding his way through the kiddie maze; my three ghosts squinting from the sun; Zander riding on a John Deere Trike; Natalie peeking out of the second story play house


Zander wasted no time filling up his kid-sized wheel barrow; After searching for just the right pumpkin, Natalie claimed hers too and she named it "pumpkinella." Hayden catches on quickly, looking around at all the pumpkins and saying "oooooo." Then he picked out just the right one.

My little "pumpkin" walked onto the pumpkin scale where he weighed in at a whopping 23.8 lbs. The highlight of his day was playing in the corn box.

Here is Natalie dumping a whole bucket of corn on her head. I don't think this would have gone over too well if she were playing in a "sand" box. This is much easier to clean up.




In case you were interested, I updated my Paper Capers blog to include a few fall themed projects.