Happy Halloween, my friends!
Disclaimer: This post is unsponsored (just sharing things I love); however, it does include affiliate links to the products mentioned. As always, feel free to shop around for the best deal! See my disclosure for more info.
Little Man is thrilled that he has preschool on Halloween so he gets to wear his costume and go trick-or-treating at school. We also get to go trick-or-treating at Daddy’s work (my boys think it’s the coolest thing ever to visit Dad’s office), and then more trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. By the end of the day, I’m sure we’ll have far more candy than we know what to do with.
What are your plans for the holiday? Or have you been so busy celebrating all month long that you’re ready to be done?
We’ve been slowly but surely working our way through our fall bucket list, and I’ve loved having a little more family time in our schedules. September was so busy with soccer and getting back into the routine of school that I felt like I was constantly running off somewhere. In October, I’ve tried to slow down a bit and make spending quality time with the people I love a priority. It’s been so good for my family and for my soul.
Here are some of the highlights…
Hiking through the colorful leaves.
Utah has the most gorgeous fall leaves! I love when it look like the whole forest is on fire…in a non-destructive way, that is.
Leaf scavenger hunts.
Now that the leaves are changing near our house, we’ve gone leaf hunting and used our collection of colors for some fun home preschool activities. I love the variety of leaves in a way I never recognized until a few years ago. Yellow honeylocust, red sumac, rusty oaks…beautiful.
Going to the pumpkin patch.
This is always a highlight of the season for me, and it’s a big deal (as my husband learned our first year of marriage). I’m not content to just pick out pumpkins at the grocery store. No siree. Give me time to wander the fields in search of a pumpkin that speaks to me. Give me dirt on my pants and hay stuck to my socks. Give me giggling boys running through corn stalks like it’s a forest of adventures. Give me memories.
Carving pumpkins.
We reached a new milestone with Little Man this year: he actually scooped the guts out of his own pumpkin. He designed the face, too, and then I carved it–under close supervision from him for quality control purposes.
Little brother was more interested in the homemade root beer bubbling out of the pot. These two could have been little witches for all their cackling over the cauldron.
Needless to say, we’ve been busy making memories this month.
Here are a few more favorite things:
Favorite kid lit: The Ugly Pumpkin by Dave Horowitz
If you have not read this book, you NEED to find it. It’s a Halloween/Thanksgiving retelling of The Ugly Duckling, and it makes me laugh every time. Can you guess what the ugly pumpkin actually is?
Favorite “I want”: One Line a Day memory book
I keep my main journal on my computer, but I love the idea of this simple little journal. The format is neat because it has one page for each day of the year, but there are spaces for 5 entries on each page. So, each year you can add another line and look back at what you did that same day the year before. Cool! Plus it’s cute enough to just leave sitting on my nightstand. It’s going on my Christmas list…or I might get impatient and just buy it myself.
Favorite dessert: Pumpkin Cinnamon Pull Apart Bread
Yum. Think cinnamon roll in loaf form with a little pumpkin flair. Just yum.
Favorite new kid resource: Storyline Online
This site is so cool, people. It’s like a modern Reading Rainbow. Essentially, you can watch read-alouds of your favorite stories performed by famous actors like Betty White and Sean Astin. I’ve been so impressed by the quality of the readings as well as the videography. My boys love to watch them. I still prefer to read to my boys myself most of the time (there’s nothing better than that), but this is a great option for when I want to share a book with them that I couldn’t find at the library, or just to change things up a bit.
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