Fall Family Fun Bucket List |

Fall. As a kid, I always loved and looked forward to summer, but as an adult, fall is definitely my favorite. The weather becomes actually bearable, which means fun outdoor play is possible. I love the colors of fall, the smells, the crisp air, football, and all things pumpkin.

Since the boys are getting a little bit older, I thought it would be fun for them to see a “fall bucket list” to create anticipation for the weeks and months ahead. I love seeing them experience the joy of each season. So here is our list, many of these things we have done in the past, but there are a couple of new ones I am really excited about! (scroll down to the bottom to read 4 truths about seasons)

Our visit to the pumpkin patch at a local Methodist church last year. They do such a great job setting up great photo opportunities each year and it’s free! (you can donate money by “buying” a small pumpkin)

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Go to a pumpkin patch
C, just 5 weeks old.
Make a leaf collection
Decorate for fall
Paint pumpkins
Attend a football game
Participate in a maze made of corn or hay
Visit a farm- if you’re in the Houston area, Dewberry, Blessington farms and the Oil Ranch are all fun
The Oil Ranch when C was newly 1

The next year when C was 2 and D was 7 months
Bake an apple pie from scratch
Go on a nature walk and look for “treasures”
Carve a pumpkin- even better, read this great book (The Pumpkin Patch Parable) to give meaning to the process. We read this to the boys last year and they loved it.
They were so excited to give the pumpkin a face
Jump in a pile of leaves.
Get dressed up/ go trick or treating.
I had so much fun making this costume, even if making that hat took me 3 different tries, lol. Clearly, I am no seamstress. Side note: they still play with it today, 2 years later.

The man in the yellow hat and Curious George

The joy Caleb had being the old man (Mr. Fredrickson) from Up! He did not want to stop pushing the walker Paw Paw made with pvc pipe. This was a last minute costume, and so much fun.
Create a “what I am thankful for” turkey or tree (or get this one to hang on a wall in your home during the month of November and add to it each day).
I snagged this tree from the dollar spot at Target a couple years ago, but they have some options on amazon. Or you could always make a simple one by hanging a large brand on the wall and attaching pieces of yarn to it, tying a leaf to each piece of yarn.

our super simple turkeys from last year
Do a fall themed act of kindness (surprise someone with a PSL, some mums, a googly-eyed pumpkin, bring some muffins to a neighbor). Here are some wonderful ideas from Happy Home Fairy
Go to a tailgate.
Roast pumpkin seeds
Make pumpkin shaped rice krispie treats
this isn’t the best picture, but you use some orange food coloring while making rice kripie treats the normal way. Then you form into balls and finish off with a mini reeses for the stem and a green m and m for the leaf.
Do a fun fall craft with your kids (google fun fall craft and pick one that is age appropriate for your kids and one you already have the materials for)
Go camping
Go to a local fall festival- many churches have wonderful options
Watch Charlie Brown and the great pumpkin/ thanksgiving (Peanuts Holiday Collection )
Play hide and seek with glow sticks (idea from Busy Toddler).
Make this delicious fall trail mix: candy corn, m and ms, honey roasted peanuts. Just trust me, it is wonderful (and I don’t even love candy corn that much just by itself)
Go to zoo boo (or something similar that your city offers)

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4 seasons.

Do you ever think about why God chose to create the earth in this way?

Summer to Fall to Winter to Spring. I wonder which one came first in the Garden. Or was it perpetual spring in Eden? Would seasons even exist if not for the fall? I don’t know.

But, these are the seasons that make up our days, and they must teach us something about our need for God. Wouldn’t it be boring if there was never any change? I love the change of seasons. I get so excited to decorate our fireplace mantel (when we were looking at homes last summer it was a must-have on my short list of must-haves). There is just something fun about celebrating each season as it comes.

However, I know sometimes I feel stuck in a season of life. The summer drags on for what seems like a few too many weeks too late. I felt stuck in my season of singleness. I’ve felt stuck in certain baby/toddler seasons (namely ones of colic and tantrums). I’ve felt stuck in seasons of waiting: waiting for God to move in my heart, in our circumstances regarding our home or finances, in my lack of certainty concerning several major life decisions, waiting for Him to bring growth to my ability to trust Him more.

Yet, if we aren’t careful we can spend our days wishing away the very season we are in. We can waste away those sweet summer days and even come to despise them in hopes of the cooler weather fall brings. We miss the opportunity to enjoy the leaves crunching under our feet when we just cannot wait for new growth to come forth as spring ushers in.

“When would I be the bride?”, I wondered for years, and at times forgot to truly make the most of the many resources available to me during those single years (namely time and money). I longed for those hard newborn days (or in my case months) to get easier, and I forgot to stop and cherish the sleeping baby heavy on my chest. Yes, some seasons are hard. There are some, if I’m honest, I’d rather not pass through at all. Sometimes winter is just bitterly cold and you aren’t prepared with the right attire. Sometimes summer days leave you parched and dry, zapped of energy and with nothing left to give. There is a delicate dance when it comes to enjoying the season, looking for joy in the midst of your pain and also rightly longing for a break-through and looking forward with hopeful expectation for God’s provision. We want Him to bring the harvest. We pray. We wait. We anticipate. We acknowledge the difficulty along side the hope that knowing Christ brings. Motherhood is so often like this for me- hard, so very hard, and it is good to know I am not alone in thinking it is difficult. That’s why it is my aim to speak honestly about my experience because what’s the point in pretending you have it all together? I know I definitely do not. But, I also want to point you to the hope and joy to be found in Jesus, to offer empathy and truth, and to remind you of the beauty found in this season.

But here are 4 truths to claim today about the season you’re in:

He is still God. He is good (Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever. Psalm 136:1). His goodness does not shift or change based on your vantage point. Years ago, as I hopped into my car all alone to drive from a friends’ wedding to the reception, I sat there for a moment trying to collect myself. It was a season of many weddings. I was in a dozen or so in my 20’s and one time in an attempt to answer one of my students’ questions, I attempted to count the number of weddings I attended: it had to be somewhere around 50. I had been to countless weddings alone, and yet for some reason, this particular evening as I sat in the pews hearing the couple’s incredible love story, I’m embarrassed to admit my heart sank. I broke down. The wedding was beautiful, and of course it was NOT about me. I was just a guest. How selfish of me, really to be throwing my own little pity party in my mind. I just had a moment where I wondered, “How long, Oh Lord?” I so longed to have a love like the husband and wife shared and felt like my decade of prayers had just been hitting the ceiling. As I saw their life long prayers answered in one another, I was tempted to think, “Lord, what about me? Have you forgotten me? Why have you not answered my prayers?” But in my car that day, when I turned on the car, the radio was playing Desert Song by Hillsong United, and as I listened to, “All of my life, in every season, you are still God. I have a reason to sing. I have a reason to worship”, I heard the Holy Spirit whisper to me- “in every season….Imagine your wedding day. Imagine holding your newborn baby. Imagine how much you will want to praise me that day, how your heart will feel towards me, how much you will want to say that I am good on that special day, the day you’ve longed for. I am THAT good today. My goodness does not depend on your circumstance.” I have thought about that day 7 years ago many times since then.
The good news (and perhaps the bad depending on where you are) is that the season you are in will not last forever (“Behold, I am making all things new” Revelation 21:5). And even if your prayers do got answered the way you had hoped for, one day when we see Him face to face, He will redeem all things and make all things new. He can redeem the season you are in.
But more importantly, the God of the seasons will be WITH you (“And behold, I am with you always until the end of the age.” Matthew 28:20). He is there, patiently waiting for you to turn to Him, to trust Him, and He alone is worthy of all of our praise. He will give you grace to sustain each day- no matter how hard the road is that you are walking on- lean on Him.
The grand story is not about us (“I am the Lord, that is my Name, my glory I give to no other” Isaiah 42:8). We are not the center. So many of my problems arise from that one simple fact: trying to make my plans central and incorrectly thinking my plans and my ways are better than His. (“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither or my ways your ways, declares the Lord.” Isaiah 55:8-9)