Love leaves

Beautiful changing colors are definitely one of the hallmarks of fall. Most states have regional “fall foliage color” hotlines (really!) that tell you which areas have which trees and the most dazzling hues, or you can call the USDA Forest Service National Fall Color hotline at 1/800-354-4595 (American calls only) to get the latest scoop. In Canada, visit http://www.theweathernetwork.com/ and click on “Fall Colour Report.” Then hop in the car, pack a picnic lunch, and get ready for a breathtaking hike or drive. Closer to home, pick up some leaves to do fall crafts, like a Fall Leaf Print, Stained Glass Window or Pressed Leaves Placemat. Find more fall crafts here. Use leaves in your outside games too. For example, play a game of tag and designate a leaf pile or two as a “safe” area—use your imagination!

Enjoy the harvest

Familiar, colorful produce like pumpkins and apples are especially appealing to little ones. Visit a local “pick your own” farm to —you guessed it!—select your own. Most farms will have related activities geared to families, like apple cider pressing, a hay ride or a corn maze. Back at home, try these yummy recipes: Creamy Pumpkin Dip, Miniature Baked Pumpkins, Apple Butter and Apple Cinnamon Bran Mini-Muffins. Find more tasty fall recipes here.

You can use your harvest for crafts like Apple Printing too. Pumpkin Seed Spiders are cool as well. Paint clean dry pumpkin seeds with fun designs, add yarn legs and attach to a spider web drawing, suggests The Anti-Boredom Book, edited by Marilyn Baillie and Catherine Ripley. Or put a bit of tape on the spider seeds and play “Stick the Spider on the Web.”