autumn

100 Things to Do this Autumn with Your Family

Autumn is my favorite season, or at least it always is in the Maritimes. The colors of the trees are like nothing else with the reds, oranges, yellows. The temperatures are usually a little bit warm getting cooler in the evenings but not cold enough that you have to bundle up in winter coats. There are so many fun things to do during Autumn with your family, I have a list of 100 here, but I could have added more easily.

100 Things to Do this Autumn

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The Great Outdoors

Go apple picking
Go through a corn maze
Take a hot-air balloon ride
play football with friends
Go for a hike
Go for a hay ride
Collect colorful leaves
Press leaves
Tailgate at your local football team
Plant bulbs for next spring
Run a race
Rent a cabin in the woods – maybe for Thanksgiving
Make a peanut butter and pine cone bird feeder
Jump in a pile of leaves
Step on dried leaves – crunch crunch
Watch for geese flying south for the winter
Collect pine cones for decorations in your home
Visit a pumpkin patch
Go on a spooky graveyard tour
Go on a scenic drive
Puddle jumping
Bike around your town
Picnic in the leaves
Scavenger hunt
Nature walk
Visit a sunflower farm – so beautiful
Have your last bonfire of the year
Fly a kite
Go to the playground
Camping – in the back yard or your living room
Walk your dog
Take pictures of the fall foliage
Collect leaves
Cloud watch
Bird watching
Go to a fall festival
Yard sale – have one – go to one
Visit an apple orchard
Play “I Spy” during a walk
Roll down a hill

Inside Activities

Leaf science experiment – Why Do Leaves Change Color?
Make a pumpkin pie
Eat a candy apple
Drink hot apple cider
Make homemade bread
Learn to knit
Learn to crochet
Host a movie night
Craft with leaves
Drink hot cocoa
Roast pumpkin seeds
Throw a themed party – include things from this list at your party
Face painting – my mom used to use Crayola markers for easier “painting” and they always washed off easily
Make Halloween treats
Read a Halloween book
Read a Thanksgiving book
Read a Autumn book
Use outdoor items in play – pine cones, acorns, leaves
Make an apple pie
Bake apple chips
Make popcorn balls
Bake seasonal cookies
Play hide-and-seek with glow sticks
Make Crock-Pot applesauce

Holiday Ideas

Crave a pumpkin
Go to a haunted house
Make your own Halloween costume
Watch a scary movie – or Halloween movie depending on your kids’ ages
Hand out treats to trick or treaters
Take a pie to a neighbor
Take your Christmas photo
Visit a local farm
Decorate for Halloween
Decorate for Thanksgiving
Decorate for Christmas
Bob for apples
Collect food for the food bank

Kids Crafts

Symmetrical leaf drawing
Leaf rubbing
Play with playdough scented with autumn spices (add it to the dough as you make it)
Paint pumpkins
Melt crayons over your pumpkin
Go on a nature walk
Make an easy bird feeder
Paint pine cones
Make a scarecrow
Apple stamping
Leaf painting
Make a Halloween gingerbread house
Make mitten puppets
Make Christmas gifts
Collect acorns and paint faces on them
Iron leaves between two sheets of waxed paper and hang them in the window
Make Halloween cards
Make stamps out of wine corks

For Adults Only

Go on a wine tour
Visit a craft brewery
Enjoy some hard cider
Make a pumpkin latte
Oktoberfest

10 Indoor Energy Burning Activities

by Ashley Mullen Leave a Comment

Cooler weather is upon us here in Saskatchewan already. Our seasons are so messed up, we go from hot summer, to cool fall in a week. And then very quickly we end up in winter. It’s all summer, summer, summer, fall, winter, winter, winter, spring, and back to summer all over again. From one extreme to the next. Having indoor energy burning activities is a must for rainy days and cold winter days.

10 Indoor Energy Burning Activities

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Simon Says

This is a favorite kids game. It can be fun and easy for parents to bust some energy out of their kids simply by calling our “Simon says ____. ” You can have your kids hopping in place or crab walking around the dining room table.

Red Light, Green Light

If you have a good amount of space for your kids to move back and forth red light, green light is fun. We like to change it up a bit with crab walking, wiggling like a worm, etc. Different movements to burn energy.

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Painter’s Tape Hop Scotch

Painter’s Tape doesn’t leave a sticky residue behind so you can use it on the floors. Make a Hop Scotch for them to hop through in between subjects or on the way to a different room.

Music

Just turning music on in my house is enough for my kids to bust a move and burn energy. Plus it can be a fun workout for moms too!

Twister Game

You might have to buy this one or make it with some paper plates. Its a fun way to spend a rainy afternoon.

Why Do Leaves Change Color? Autumn Science

by Ashley Mullen Leave a Comment

It’s the first day of Autumn ya’ll, and I love Autumn. My girls ask every year why the leaves change color, and I finally found an experiment to show them the colors of leaves, the colors they change, instead of just just trying to explain it. This is fun and easy to do. I love getting hands on with science with my kids, they learn a lot more when they are involved.

Why Do Leaves Change Color?

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It’s really simple actually, just a few things from around your house and yard.

Rubbing alcohol, jars or glasses, some leaves from your yard, and some coffee filters.

I started this by asking my kids the question that they ask me”why do leaves change color?” The answer I got, was that they change because it is autumn, a simple answer and it completely makes sense for kids. They change because the season changes.

I grabbed 3 different leaves – 2 red leaves from the vine crawling up our shed, 2 green leaves from the vine crawling up our shed, and 2 green leave from a tree.

3 jars, one for each set of leaves I had.

Tear the leaves up and put into each jar.

Pour just enough rubbing alcohol into each jar to cover the leaves.

There are two (or many more) ways to do the next part. You can cut your coffee filters into strips, or roll it into a cone shape, either will work.

Now you wait. It took 6-8 hours before we saw anything, and 24 hours before it was clear. I took this pictures after about 24 hours.

The Why Behind It?

Chlorophyll would be the answer. It is the dominate pigment in the leaves (green). It covers the other colors that are there in the leaves, the reds, and yellows. The leaves stay green the water that the tree takes in through its roots.

Why does the green disappear? The trees realize that summer is coming to an end (due to less sunlight) and stop taking in so much water. Without the water, the green chlorophyll starts to disappear and the other colors in the leaf and the yellow and the orange can be seen.

So leaves don’t really “change” color so much as lose color. You can clearly see the different colors on the filter. Do this with your kids. You only need some coffee filters and rubbing alcohol. You have kids, so you probably already have the rubbing alcohol and coffee filters.

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Soups for Autumn’s Cold Weather

by Ashley Mullen Leave a Comment

With autumn coming in fast, the time has come for warmer meals. Soups for autumn are a favorite here, on the stove or in the slow cooker. They are perfect for reheating, often tasting better the next day… if there is any left, which there usually isn’t.

Soups for Autumn’s Cold Weather

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I love making and eating soups during the cooler months of the year. They are perfect for warming up from the inside out. They are great for putting in a thermos for your kids to take to school, getting warmed up before heading outside to play.

Cheese Broccoli Soup by Megan at Raising Memories

Thia Wedding Soup and Pasta and Bean Soup by Brandi at Yee Wittle Things

Spicy Barley and Vegetable Soup by Elizabeth at Frugal Mom Eh!