Hellobee

I absolutely cannot believe that it is already October. It seems like just yesterday we were swimming and enjoying our summer vacation. I am astonished at how truly fast time flies by. Even though I can’t wrap my head around what time of year it is, I found myself getting very excited and I couldn’t explain it. I was happy and looking forward to so many things and it just hit me… I am so excited for all the things we do as a family throughout the fall season.

I love this time of year. We have made so many traditions with our kids over the last six years including pumpkin patches that we have gone to every year since they were born, family Halloween costumes or celebrating other cultures in our area.  I thought I would share some of our favorite fall activities that we do as a family.

Pumpkin Patches and Harvest festivals

These are all over the place and practically every weekend from the end of September until Halloween. We have gone to one farm every year since the kids were born. We even went the week before Lilly was born and her brothers picked out a Cinderella pumpkin for their little sister. I don’t know when they will get tired of it and not want to go with me anymore, but for now we will continue to go every year. I love going out to a farm and seeing where the pumpkins are grown. I feel giddy thinking about picking the perfect pumpkin and watching the kids find one they love. There is yummy seasonal food and fun carnival style food stands. There are carnival games and a corn maze that make it a perfect family outing. It absolutely cements the fall feeling for me and the beginning of season.

I treasure these pictures. I love seeing how our family has grown and changed.

Last year was the first year we went out to an apple orchard.  There are none close to me in the Los Angeles area, but we did find some that are about an hour and a half away. Although it was quite a drive, we really had a great time and I am looking forward to doing it again this year. We found one place that is famous for its cider and fresh apple cinnamon doughnuts. The kids loved watching the cider being pressed and the doughnuts being made. Mr. Train and I were shocked at the amount of apple varieties they had for sale and enjoyed trying their samples. Then we found an orchard where we could pick our own apples. The kids had such a blast! Lilly, who was just turning two at the time, would not stop eating the apples. She just wanted to take a bite out of all of them.

She carried this one around with her the whole time.

School activities

For the first few years as a family, Halloween was basically just the one night. Sometimes we went to church events as well, but usually we just went trick or treating and passed out candy. But now we are entering a new phase of life. School parades and activities are starting. Last year the boys were all in preschool together so it wasn’t too hard to manage, but this year we have our boys in elementary school and Lilly goes to their old preschool. We might have to start our divide and conquer parenting strategies to cover all our school obligations. I know I will be a bit sad if I can’t make it to both because last year watching our boys walk around in the Halloween parade was just so cute I don’t want to miss it.  They get so much joy out of the excitement of the day I just love it.

Halloween at a preschool has to be the absolute cutest thing on the planet.

Pumpkin carving

I have always enjoyed carving pumpkins for Halloween. Now that we have kids, it has become a huge event. I don’t know if it gets as crazy at everyone else’s house or if it’s  the quantity of children in my house that make it so, but it can take a whole afternoon to help everyone carve their perfect pumpkin. They always make funny faces as they dig their spoons in to remove all the pumpkin guts. They scream and cheer as we help them design their face. Somehow, someone always manages to get seeds and stringy pumpkin mess all over the place. But even though it is loud and messy and chaotic, we do it together as a family and in the end they are always so proud of the Jack o’ lanterns I can’t help but enjoy it (even when I am scrubbing pumpkin off the walls).

Getting a serious photo with four kids is a near impossibility but getting a silly face picture is a piece of cake.

Halloween

Our family has always been pretty into the holiday. Poor Mr. Train… I don’t think he knew what he was getting into when he married me, but he is a good sport and always dresses up with the rest of us. Since the kids were born we have done family costumes and this year is no different. In fact, not only is it my immediate family, but we have dragged both our sets of parents in, my Aunt and her daughter plus her husband and kids. We are all going along with a Wizard of Oz theme and I am just so excited! We have done Star Wars (twice), Three Musketeers, bugs, and pirates in the past, but I think this year will be our most fun yet. I love spending time as a family and bringing in our extended family makes it even better. We will take the kids trick or treating while my parents pass out candy, and then we usually come back and have a little party in the front yard. We get 400+ trick or treaters and usually run out of candy long before the trick or treating stops. Our kids have so much fun handing out candy and looking at all the other costumes, they never want to come inside because they know the night is coming to an end.

Last year was a Star Wars year and the kids played Jedi all night while passing out candy.

Dia De Los Muertos

I know a lot of people do the harvest festivals and Halloween activities, but one of our favorite things to do in the fall is to go to a festival for Dia De Los Muertos (The Day of the Dead). The Hollywood Forever Cemetery puts on a huge festival to celebrate this holiday. There are people in costumes and altars put up all around to remember and honor loved ones who have passed away. Although our family does not celebrate the 3-day holiday, we do enjoy taking our kids to learn about other cultures and their heritage and holidays. The bright decorations and marigolds are beautiful, and the artistry in the costumes and altars are absolutely stunning. Because it takes place in a cemetery, we had to talk with our kids about proper and respectful behavior, but they were able to understand at an early age and they love praying for and remembering some of the people from our own family that are no longer with us.

Lilly and Joe standing near an Alter. Lilly really wanted to take all the marigolds home with us.

New activities for us

This year we have also been invited to an avocado festival that we had never even heard of before. We have tickets for a Jack-O-lantern festival at a garden near our house. We are going to take James to a Civil War Reenactment for his birthday (he is currently obsessed with Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War). And we also have a fall camping trip planned.

Looking at our calendar can be a bit daunting because we have so many things we love to do during this season. But it is all family time and now that they are in school and I don’t have them with me all the time, I value those weekend activities even more.

Do you have any fall traditions that you do with your family?