I think it’s finally starting to feel like fall here. The leaves have been changing and falling for a while, and pumpkins have been out, but when everyone’s still wearing shorts, it’s hard to get in the mood. But finally we looked at the calendar and said it was time. Saturday was our town’s 2nd annual fall fest. We’re still trying to get the hang of it, and always leave feeling like we were a bit confused and not sure we made the most of the day. We ate some food that was not as great as we were expecting, and tried the bounce houses but found them too crowded and aggressive, and waited in a line for far too long for a train ride (that at least everyone said was fun!) We saw a lot of people that we knew, but the whole thing was so crowded and frenzied, that it felt hard to actually hold a conversation. We rushed by booths and were constantly trying to get to one place or another.
Last Fall Shoutout
Time to dump a bunch of pictures and maybe some memories tied to them. I wasn’t kidding when I said the fall was non stop events, to the point I forgot we even did some of these things until I saw the pictures.
We checked out a new local farm for pumpkins, hay rides, and to E’s excitement - a corn maze! We also later went to our local farm stand to do their corn maze, which is much more my speed - and F’s too. They open at 7am, so we like to go early in the morning and let the kids run through the maze for an hour until they’re tired.
Crazy Fall Life
There’s something about fall that is non stop crazy every year. More so than summer when we’re dealing with vacations and no school and camps. More so than spring when we’re dealing with non stop birthdays and big holidays. September through December just fly by.
This year is no exception. We’re still getting used to a new elementary school with a new teacher, new administration, new rules and bus routes and everything that goes with it. It’s involving a lot more phone calls and meetings than I expected, but hopefully things will settle down soon.
More Fall Fun
Okay we’re going to ignore how tired Tom and I are and how never ending life seems, and pretend life is all candy corn and pumpkin spice instead, just like my coffee.
We’ve been indulging the kids and doing all the fall activities lately. We’ve made mummy brownies and bat cookies. We’ve painted decorations, carved pumpkins and made monsters with popsicle sticks, cotton ball ghosts and Halloween sand art crafts.
Pumpkin Month
Every single day, E wakes up and asks if we can go trick or treating.
I kind of thought he’d forget about trick or treating after a year, but three year olds have amazing memories. Besides the fact it’s the first week of October and trick or treating is not really an option, I’m not sure there will be trick or treating this year, period. We’ve been debating doing an egg hunt in the yard, or trick or treating just to the neighbor’s house, but either way, we’ll need some distractions for the next few weeks.
Fall Weekend
Our new cat is howling and pacing and I’m assuming there are kittens coming, but to distract myself from that let’s recap our weekend! I have a ton of posts in draft trying to explain how we’re feeling lately and what life is like, but I’m having a hard time putting them together. So instead let’s do something easy.
Last weekend we decided to join every other person in New England and go apple picking. Seriously, on my morning team meeting Monday, everyone was eating apple something. My boss had just finished an apple muffin and was talking about dropping an apple pie off at his son’s house, a coworker was debating apple pancakes for breakfast, and I was telling them all about the apple coffee cake and apple chips we’d just made.
October Things!
October. The month that says summer is finally over, and it’s time to embrace fall. Pumpkin lattes, crisp leaves, sweaters and pumpkins. You can either spend your time mourning the end to a fun summer, or you can have some fall fun.
Which is probably why whenever I look at my phone I see all of my friends at apple orchards and petting zoos and pumpkin patches. It looks like a ton of fun and makes me want to do it too. But it also seems like a lot, and sometimes it stresses me out. Am I making plans because it’s fun, or because I’ll feel like I’m missing out if I don’t?
Always More Pumpkins
Christmas is going to be interesting this year.
Well, in more ways than one. But let me back up - I’m actually talking decoration wise. And no, I don’t have my tress up (yet!). I did start pulling out my Halloween/Fall decorations, though. Not all of them, but a few pumpkins here and there. It didn’t take long for a certain tiny human to notice… and demand that he be allowed to carry them around everywhere!
Fall Fun
Fall has something the rest of the year doesn’t have - these crazy big pumpkin/apple farms that open up for picking. Well that’s the general premise anyway, but they’ve become so much more than that. They’re comparable to amusement parks in their size and activities, and they’re only open for two-ish months in the fall where everyone flocks to them.
They’re so overwhelming that Tom and I are a bit afraid of them. We’ve been to all the big ones and have had bad experiences dealing with lines and traffic and getting lost, so we usually stick to the smaller and less intimidating ones. Of course that means they offer less to do while you’re there.