Fall Family Activity Ideas

Our family in fall, 2009

Fall is my favorite season.  Even though it is coupled with school starting, I love the promise of crisp weather, football games, apples and baked goods, pumpkins, crafting afternoons and Starbuck's flavored coffees.  Now that I have kids, I have enjoyed introducing them to the fun aspects of fall, and I thought I'd share some ideas with you too!

Pumpkin Math--
I used to do this with my third grade students, but now that my son is in first grade, I can start doing this with him too.  Buy your harvest pumpkin and create a chart where you estimate the circumference of the pumpkin, the weight of the pumpkin, and the number of seeds you think might be inside.
After you all make your guesses/estimates, measure the circumference, weigh the pumpkin and carve the pumpkin--counting the seeds inside.  You can have a small prize for the winner of pumpkin math.

Family Pumpkin Decorating Contest--
We don't always carve our pumpkins.  Last year we did a black glitter monogram on our pumpkin.  If you have older kids, you can have each person decorate their pumpkin (you can even have a theme) by carving/painting/glittering/etc. and then hold a contest.  All the family pumpkins on the porch can begin a fun family tradition.  If you have younger kids, you can draw a pumpkin on paper and have them decorate the paper.  Have a coloring/decorating contest and put all the "entries" on the fridge or family bulletin board.

Pumpkins don't have to be carved to be festive and fun!

Neighborhood Fall Scavenger Hunt--
When I had just a young toddler, I would break up the day with neighborhood walks.  We would walk SLOWLY, so we started noticing all the lawn decorations, leaves, door wreaths and pumpkins.  Each day we would look forward to seeing all the fall decor markers at each house.  We would even see who could find the prettiest fall leaf each day.
If your kids are older, make a list of things you have to find on a neighborhood walk or run.  Make a list with wreaths, pumpkins (whole or carved), a black cat, a lawn scarecrow, leaves of various colors, corn husks, and any other decor that might be in your neighborhood.  See who can find the most items on the list!

Make Leaf Garlands--
Real or die cut leaves can make a pretty garland to decorate the border of your door or the banister of your stairway.  Plus, it is a craft that even my two boys would do with me.

Pumpkin Patches--
My boys count down to pumpkin patches all year long.  We have a free, community patch that has rides (those cost money), animals and tons of pumpkins.  When my oldest was very small, he just wanted to come sit on hay bales, look at the giant pumpkins, and feed the animals.  Now he wants to go on rides, but it is still tons of fun to take pictures on the hay bales and see who can find the largest, ugliest, or most perfect pumpkin.
A regional park near us also has a pumpkin patch, including a hay maze.  There is nothing more perfect than little boys running and giggling through a hay maze.  We love it.

Cooking with Apples--
Apple Cider is SO easy.  Have  a cooking and bonding time where you measure cinnamon, nutmeg and brown sugar into some apple juice.  It will make your house smell so good on a chilly day.
Apple Sauce is also very easy to make, and it is a favorite of kids.  Again, your house will smell delicious.
I also like to dip caramel apples with the kids and make them a special treat.  Who doesn't like caramel apples?

Thanksgiving Tree--
We buy the trees from Oriental Trading Company, but you can make your own.  Have a brown trunk and branches on your wall or door and have each family member add leaves each day that tell for what things they are thankful.  By the time you get to Thanksgiving, you have a beautiful, full tree covered in autumn leaves and notes of gratitude.

Here is the Thanks vertical garland we used last year instead of our traditional thanks tree.  You can read my tutorial here.

Our traditional tree on the inside of our front door. . .

Apple Picking--
Even in Southern California, we have apple orchards somewhat nearby.  A lot of the bigger apple picking places have gold panning and mine tours as well.  What screams fall more than apple picking?  Take a day to pick apples, eat warm apple pie from a bakery and do a photo tour around a historical town.  We love Julian, in Southern California. 

Watch a football game AT the stadium--
Whether you go to a college game or just your local high school game, take a fall night with your family to go watch a football game.  I love the sound of the marching band drums, the chants of the cheerleaders, the clap of the players hitting one another, and the cheers from the crowd.  I have such great memories of going to high school games to watch my oldest sister cheer.  It inspired me to be a cheerleader when I was in high school and to still love chilly, fall nights at a football game.  Take a Friday night and try it together!

Whatever activities you do, make family traditions that you can look forward to doing together, year after year.  Children love to know there are traditions in your family that you will do again and again.  Fall is a perfect season to make this happen!

Ministry Kickoff Party: School Theme

This photo is from a birthday party found on Call Me Martha.  She has SUCH cute ideas, and her attention to detail is amazing. . .

We have a great theme for the marriage ministry in which we co-lead this year:  Wisdom!  We will be going through the wisdom books of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon.

We hold a huge kickoff party at our first meeting, which is September 13th, and I am helping our activities lead to decorate the room in a school/learning theme.  We know that knowledge and wisdom are different (one is knowing the facts and one is the application of the facts), but we plan on making that distinction clear with a lot of the decor details and Bible verses.

The group is big--we will be decorating for about 250 people, but we have a new, beautiful, window lined room for the year.  I can't wait to see how it all looks.

I want to keep the decor a surprise until the event, but I'm having fun planning.  Have you ever thrown a school themed party?  I'd love any fun ideas or suggestions!  The centerpieces are finalized, but we are still working on the rest.

Desk Pad Project

Chevron Prettiness

My hubby is proud to see my crafting hobby is bringing in a little fun money through my Etsy shop of scripture signs.  What he wasn't excited about was my computer and Silhouette machine always sitting out on the kitchen counter with paints, canvases, brushes and vinyl scraps. 

We decided I needed a little desk space where I can store my computer and Silhouette, so he cleared out a wall in the office and gave me some work space.  He also gave me our laundry room cupboard space for all my paints, crafts and other goodies.  (He also installed a lot of shelves into our garage to hold all my fabrics and craft supplies I only use occasionally). 

So, I went to Cost Plus and bought a simple white desk.  My husband had a black computer pad from work that he wasn't using anymore that he gave to me so I don't scratch my desk.  Awesome--except for the black, water-stained, plain look to it. 

Ugh.

Double ugh.

I finally took myself on a trip to Hobby Lobby for fabric and got some beautiful gray and cream chevron fabric.  I simply hot glued the fabric to the bottom of the pad and covered it tightly on top.  Gorgeous!

Much better!

In progress . . .

Now I need to find a mustard or gray chair with arms for my desk.  Any leads?  We will also get white shutters for the window soon.  It was trash day, so you couldn't see it, but usually our lovely trash cans are stored right outside and you can see the tops of them as you look out--awesome.  The white shutters will finish the window and hide the trash cans outside.  Add a pop of color in sky blue or mustard on the desktop wth a vase or accent piece and voila!  I'll be sure to show you all the final product when everything is done.  It is a blessing to have a workspace that is just for my computer and stuff!

Little Thank You

I LOVE giving little thank yous and unexpected encouragements.  Whether it is daily notes and doodles on my kids' lunch napkins, texts or notes of love to my hubby, or little gifts of thought, it makes me really happy to do those little things.  It not only is a joy to others, but it blesses me tremendously--probably WAY more than them!  Every time I do something like this, I think, "I need to do this MORE often!"  I can get my kids involved with projects too--always looking for a way to teach them gratitude and thoughtfulness to their daddy, their teachers, their Sunday School teachers or their friends.

We are having about 70 leaders over to our house in a couple of days to have dinner and train for our upcoming year of ministry in our church marriage ministry.  These couples do SO much discipling and give up tons of free time to serve in ministry.  I wanted to have cost effective, cute little notes of thanks scattered around the tables at the training.  It is the little things that add up into big things!  A continual attitude of support, thankfulness and encouragement are so helpful when people are volunteering and serving. 

I bought little clear goodie bags at Party City= 50 for 1.99
I got 2 bags of mini Mounds and 2 bags of York Peppermint Patties= about 3.00 each bag
I bought 10 pages of scrapbook paper for .45 cents each
Finally, using my Silhouette (you could easily print a regular Word Doc and use scissors) I cut out the labels.

Do you have anyone that needs a "sweet", little note of thanks?  If you are only giving away a couple, you can use larger clear bags or cut the top off a sandwich bag and use full size candy bars.

Have fun blessing someone!

The assembly line of goodies. . .

Another Pinterest Recipe Recommendation: Pan Seared, Honey Salmon

This Pinterest recipe SOUNDS much more complicated than it really is.  I almost didn't make it.  In fact, I even put it off for a night because I didn't feel like major cooking the night I had planned to make it.  Big mistake.

This is SUCH an easy recipe from Cooking Classy.  Honestly, besides zesting a couple limes and chopping up one garlic clove, you don't have to do much prep for this recipe.  The rest of the prep is just pouring, shaking and mixing in ingredients as the salmon cooks.

Besides being easy, it is reaaaaally yummy.  I got a large piece of salmon for Ryan and I, and this recipe was so delicious, that we polished it off completely.  I am talking about lick the plate clean. 

Try it.  You won't regret it.  Let me know how much you liked it.  You're welcome.

Greetings from . . . Our Northern California Road Trip

We are taking a late family trip this summer, and we have been driving all around northern California.  We are from south Orange County--about 20 miles inland of Laguna Beach and Dana Point, so we've done all the Southern California spots many times.   Instead of paying for a flight somewhere, we decided to do a road trip north.  We drove almost 12 hours (counting stops) to get up to Redding our first night.

After a night in Redding and temps around 105, we stopped by the Shasta Lake and Dam and walked across the famous Sundial Bridge. 

It was in Redding that we found out the usefulness of the TripAdvisor app on our phones for restaurants in unfamiliar places.  We typed in cheap and casual and found a BBQ place called Fat Daddy's BBQ.  It was GREAT!  We've had several yummy meals on this trip thanks to TripAdvisor app--Renata's Creperie in Arcada, St. John's Grille in Santa Clara, and Pedro's Mexican in Santa Clara.  Add it to your phone before any trips you take!

We then drove from Redding to Arcada and 55 degree temps, which is on the coast and where Humbolt college is located.  It happened to be smack in the middle of the Giant Redwood forests, which is why we visited.  The boys loved the "tree forests" and got squirrel sticks to help with their hikes.  We drove WAY north--10 minutes from Oregon--during our Redwood drives.

After Arcada, we drove to Fort Bragg and stayed on a beachfront hotel.  This allowed us a stopping place and a little beach fun with the boys.  Northern California beaches are beautiful.  I am partial to Southern California beaches for actual swimming and beach days, but the beaches in the north are BREATHTAKING with wild waves and rocky shores.

From Fort Bragg, we drove through the Russian River Valley and Jenner to San Francisco.  We stayed a couple of nights there and did a whirlwind tour of all the top spots with the boys.  Both Ryan and I had been there several times, but it is SUCH a unique, beautiful city.  It was great to introduce it to the boys.

Finally, we drove to Santa Clara to spend a couple days in Great America, a Northern California amusement park, and stop by Santa Cruz.  That is where we are now. 

Here are some top pics from our trip.  I think we already have about 500 pictures!  I can't help myself with all the beautiful things we have seen . . .

Enjoy!

Shasta Dam

The Redwoods and the infamous squirrel hiking sticks

Beautiful Northern California coast near Arcata

Founders Tree near Avenue of the Giants

Mini golf with my boys in Fort Bragg--the fog means jackets!

The view from our hotel room in Fort Bragg (morning)

A morning beach walk in Fort Bragg

Splashing in the Russian River Valley

The amazing architecture in San Francisco . . . GORGEOUS

Of course

Trolley ride up the hills of San Fracisco

A very foggy Alcatraz Island in the background

Coit Tower, San Francisco

Chinatown for dinner

The Golden Gate bridge in the morning

The San Francisco Zoo--(and a giraffe above my head)

Great America in Santa Clara

Who has started school already and who is still on vacation?

Fun Bible App for Kids to Memorize Scripture

We are on a roadtrip.  We are on a roadtrip that consisted of 10 hours of driving just the first day.  That isn't counting all the hours we are driving all the days after.  Thank goodness for ipads and iphones.  When I was little, my parents played the alphabet game over and over and we sang along to Kenny Rogers on repeat.  I don't think my boys would go for it.  I did print out some car trip bingo and other family games we can do on the road, but we all know the kids will still want some time with the electronic devices.

In adding some new apps to my iphone, I found a great one.  If your kid is in AWANA or you just want to do fun Bible games with them, look up the app, A Good Word. 

It takes selected verses from the NIV (I know--no ESV--super sad face) and has them catagorized by topic.  When you pick a verse from the list, it gives you a choice of two games . . . hangman or a word search.  It will bring up the verse with words missing, and the player has to either guess them in hangman or find them in the word search.  It is PERFECT for my 1st grader.

AND it's free. 

I know, right?  So add it to your smart device. 

By the way, I used to play "hang spider" with my students when I taught.  It takes almost as long to draw a spider hanging from a web string, and it isn't as morbid.  Feel free to borrow the idea for the class or home.  Have fun!