Sunday marks the first official day of fall. I, for one, am more than ready to say goodbye to the 90-degree days we’ve had this week and welcome crisp fall air at last with open arms and cozy cardigans. Fall is my favorite season: The weather is perfect for being outside, not too hot and not too buggy. You can wear jeans and layers and boots. Harvest flavors of pumpkin and cranberry and cinnamon are everywhere. And there are an endless number of fun fall activities to keep your family busy.
I rounded up my favorite ways to celebrate the autumn season as a family with my cute printable Fall Family Bucket List. (Don’t worry: I learned from the Summer Bucket List experience and kept our fall list to a more manageable number.)
Download: Fall Family Bucket List
Apologies in advance for the long post, but here’s what you need to know to get started. Look for more posts with the details and recaps of our adventures coming all autumn long.
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Fall Family Bucket List: Kid-Friendly Activities to Celebrate the Autumn Season
1. Go apple picking.
Nowadays, apple picking is a full experience — actually harvesting fruit from the trees is almost an afterthought. There are petting zoos and jumping pillows and mini train rides and corn pits and all kinds of other activities for the kids. (Be prepared to pay for those activities – the experience isn’t cheap.)
That being said, the apple orchard is still my top “pick” for fall fun. Searching out the perfect apples is fun for all of us, and we can sample the local wares until our stomachs hurt. Plus, we come home with a (literal) bushel full of fresh apples for baking, cooking, and snacks. Also, there’s this little thing called an apple cider donut … if you haven’t tried one yet, get to an apple orchard this weekend. Best right out of the fryer, still warm and covered in cinnamon sugar, it’s a fall treat worth cheating for.
Local: Our family favorites are Jonamac Orchard in Malta and County Line Orchard in Hobart, Indiana. Jonamac recently introduced a tasting barn with hard ciders and wines, so they will always have my heart as a mom whose kids drive her to drink on a regular basis. Plus, we need to update our yearly “family sitting in a giant rocking chair photo.”
2. Collect and press pretty fall leaves.
This is a such a simple weekend activity. Take a walk with your kids: in the neighborhood, to a park, at a forest preserve. Have them pick pretty leaves of each color and use it as an opportunity to teach colors, shapes, and similarities vs. differences. Take your best finds home to press. To do this, simply place between two sheets of wax or parchment paper and place between heavy books. Leave for about 1 week. After 1 week, check to make sure leaves are not rotting. You will probably need to leave them pressing for another 1-2 weeks before they are ready to be used. Once pressed, use to decorate around the house or in craft projects.
3. Go on a hayride.
A hayride, complete with tractor or horses to pull it, is one of my kids’ favorite fall activities. Personally, I find the hay scratchy and uncomfortable but the boys’ delight at bumping along through a field is contagious. What’s better than a giant John Deere? Drink hot apple cider and eat kettle corn while you’re riding to add to that fall vibe.
Local: Most of the pumpkin patches offer some version of a hayride, often out to the picking patch. This usually satisfies my family’s hayride desires. In the western suburbs, the Danada Equestrian Center offers hayrides on weekends at set times from September 22 to October 7 and October 27 to November 11. The cost is $5 for all riders over age 5, and free for kids under 5. The Forest Preserve of DuPage County is also presenting Fall Festival at Danada on Sunday, October 14 from 11 AM to 5 PM at the Equestrian Center. Activities include hayrides, pony rides, face painting and more; fees may apply for some activities.
4. Make caramel apples.
What to do with all those apples you pick? A homemade caramel apple bar is a messy, fun project treat for the whole family. Set up bowls with all kinds of topping options: various Halloween or fall sprinkles, mini chocolate chips, mini M&Ms, candy eyeballs, crushed peanuts, crushed candy bars of your choice, the possibilities are endless. To get really fancy, melt seasonal-colored candy melts to drizzle over the end product as well. Wilton Orange, Lavender, Vibrant Green, and Black make for some spooky combinations. Homemade caramel sauce is as easy as melting store-bought soft caramels with some heavy cream and stirring frequently; add a pinch of Himalayan pink salt for that salted caramel twist.
5. Rake an epic leaf pile for jumping.
Grab a rake and your leaf bags and put the kids to work helping with the yard clean-up. We have gotten a lot of mileage out of this inexpensive kids’ garden tool set; bonus that it has two different types of rakes so the boys don’t have to share. Once the leaf pile gets big enough, pull the Little Tikes slide into it for more fun. When your kids are all jumped out (and you’re sick of raking), challenge them to a leaf-bagging race. See how quickly they can get that entire leaf pile into the paper bags, and just like that, your yardwork is done.
6. Visit a pumpkin patch.
There’s nothing more quintessentially fall than a visit to a local pumpkin patch. The photo ops are endless, and the boys love to traipse through the fields turning over all the pumpkins to find one that’s the perfect combination of GIANT and flawless. Pumpkin patches, like apple orchards, have turned pretty commercial with tons of kids’ activities to entertain, but honestly, those activities now symbolize fall for our family just as much as actually selecting an (overpriced, muddy) pumpkin from the patch. We typically don’t buy the giant pumpkins from the farm; we look at them and buy a pie pumpkin or mini gourd from the gift shop, then buy our giant pumpkins at Aldi on the way home. The cost savings there offsets the pumpkin farm admission fees.
Local: Goebbert’s has become our family favorite; the boys’ Uncle Andrew has been visiting this South Barrington landmark since he was a kid and introduced us to its famous Pumpkin-Eating Dinosaur last year (there is a second location in Hampshire as well). Abbey Farms in Aurora is another lovely spot, with a great petting zoo and lots to do with very few upcharges — plus it helps to support the monks at Marmion Abbey nearby. Johansen Farms in Bolingbrook is perfectly set up for toddlers, so if you have younger kids, consider starting with this one.
7. Hike the fall color change.
#DoneWithFun Daddy gave me a Look when he read this item out loud off the bucket list. “What exactly are you thinking?” he asked me warily. I know he was flashing back to our infamous hiking with kids adventure at Starved Rock this summer. Luckily, I learned from our missteps and am dramatically scaling back any hiking this family does this fall. Even a walk through a shady neighborhood can be a way to soak up the changing leaves and rich fall colors.
Local: The Morton Arboretum is the obvious spot for color change (be on the lookout for trolls!), but there are many other hidden gems of the Forest Preserve of DuPage County. Blackwell Forest Preserve in Warrenville is stunning and made me question why we ever felt the need to drive all the way to Starved Rock in the first place. Hidden Lake Forest Preserve in Downers Grove is a smaller preserve, with two lakes and stroller-friendly gravel paths and a quiet, less busy environment.
8. Cook with pumpkin.
I’ll dare to be bold and say the Starbucks PSL isn’t my favorite. I can go a whole season without one and not miss it at all. But I do love so many other pumpkin dishes: pumpkin oatmeal, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin bread, pumpkin risotto, pumpkin chili, and, of course, cream cheese-frosted pumpkin squares for dessert. Even if you think you don’t like pumpkin, try one of these recipes (try something savory if you’ve ruled out pumpkin desserts, but if you’re a pumpkin novice, just start right in on the dessert).
9. Carve (or paint) a jack ‘o’ lantern.
I am embarrassed to admit that our family doesn’t carve a jack ‘o’ lantern every year. Last year (when Easton was almost 5!!) was our very first time. He and I drew out the plan for the face, and then I carved the intricate shapes while he corrected my technique. It looked pretty good when we were finished, and I was feeling proud of our first effort.
Until about a week later, when I learned the hard way that carved pumpkins reside on people’s front porches for a reason. Our painstakingly designed jack ‘o’ lantern had completely molded inside and collapsed in a green, hairy slimy mess … right in the middle of the kitchen table. Easton discovered it when he came down for breakfast, and it was touch-and-go for a few minutes on whether there would be tears.
Lesson learned: If you carve your pumpkin, keep it outside. Consider spraying it with Bitter Apple spray or hairspray and/or sprinkling it with cayenne pepper to ward off hungry critters who see a feast instead of a masterpiece.
This year, we’re going to try painting our pumpkins instead of carving. That way, we can keep them inside as a centerpiece on the kitchen table where we can enjoy them all October without fear of mold. Grab a set of Elmer’s Painters markers or Sharpie Oil-Based Paint Markers (Medium tip works best for pumpkins) and let the kids go to town on their pumpkins. Just make sure you do it outside on the grass or on newspaper, and put your kids in old t-shirts or smocks, as the markers do stain clothing.
10. Wear costumes to a Halloween party.
No matter how old I am, I’ll always love dress-up. As a boy mom, I don’t have a lot of opportunities to play dress-up unless it’s Army soldiers or construction workers (not exactly the look I had in mind). So Halloween is my time to play. Find at least one event this season where you can all get dressed up — kids and adults alike. Family theme costumes are my favorite, but as the boys get older, it’s harder to convince them to go along with my vision. I’ve resigned myself to respecting their choices instead of stifling their individuality in favor of that one perfect family Instagram moment. Instead, I’ll focus my energies on getting my own costume just right. Watch for DIYs coming to the blog in October!
So there you have it: 10 kid-friendly ideas for making the most of fall as a family. If you haven’t already, print out the free Fall Family Bucket List printable and grab some fun fall leaf stickers. Every time you complete one of these activities, let the kids put a leaf sticker on it to check it off your list. (If you want to drink a hard cider or eat a Fun Size candy bar in celebration yourself, I certainly won’t judge.)
I hope you have as much fun with your Fall Family Bucket List adventures as we do! Share your favorite fall moments with #NeverDoneWithFun.
