Awesome Autumn

So, this time last year, I still had a stash of buckets and spades in the boot of my car and suncream in my handbag but well… not this year! Autumn has arrived and it has felt pretty chilly as I hustle the girls into the car on the way to school for the last couple of weeks. I always think of my family as being a real summer loving bunch; we are real beach bums and spend as much time there as possible but these last few more autumnal weeks have reminded me just how much my kids and I LOVE AWESOME AUTUMN!

Beas been learning about Autumn at school this week too so we have thrown ourselves headlong into our leaf loving, welly boot wearing lifestyle. Summer is fun but Autumn offers SO much more to do (or it certainly feels like it!)

Our 5 favourite things to do are:

Splashing in (muddy) puddles
Who doesnt love this? Freyas favourite TV show is by far Peppa Pig at the moment (remember this) so we just love donning our waterproof trousers (I bought these for Bea, cheap and brilliant!) and off we go splashing!

Crunching in and collecting pretty leaves
As long as we don’t stumble in some annoyingly left behind dog poo, walking round the lanes is more like a treasure hunt in the Autumn isn’t it? There are some simply beautiful leaves to collect in every colour of green, red and brown. There are loads of easy crafts to do with leaves too:

We made these lovely Forest crowns (above) at a country fair this weekend. They are so simple but look so beautiful. With a plain cardboard strip, long enough to fit around your little ones head, stick some double sided tape down the middle and get sticking of some lovely leaves and grasses and seed heads you find along the hedgerow, look what you can create! The brilliant Imagination Tree also made a leaf crown, take a look if you don’t get how to make it happen!

We also did some lovely leaf prints like these for Beas homework last week which was all about things that fall from trees (can’t show you the real thing as we have had to hand it in to her teacher sorry!) it was great fun and I was quite distracted making my own pretty prints too – you can get some lovely patterns without very much paint on the leaves and get left with some really pretty painted leaves for another craft on another day!

Conker collecting
There is little else as beautiful in nature as a glossy shiny conker nestling in its prickly case. Seeing your kids squishing the funny looking conkers and delightedly finding the most amazing treasures inside is just brilliant! There are loads of things to do with conkers but a lot of them are a bit tricky for very little fingers or require a drill to make the holes first which is a bit hardcore for me! We usually stick to the simple things like rolling them in paint and then rolling the painty conkers around some paper (in a tray) which is fun or getting them all gluey and glittery which has some lovely results too. We use them for number play and they make lovely treasures to use as money in our pretend shop! Are you bonkers for conkers? What do you do with yours?!

Apple eating
My parents have 4 little apple trees in their back garden and this time of year that results in all of us eating A LOT of apples. Small crunchy ones or big shiny red ones I love that the girls yet again have that tangible realisation that food really does grow on trees and doesn’t always come plastic wrapped. Years ago, a friend gave me one of these Apple Peeler, corer, slicer which is brilliant fun and a guaranteed result if you are looking for your kids to help with your apple overload. My girls also love simply cooked apples in a little water with a drop of vanilla essence served with lashings of custard.

HALLOWEEN
Ah me… its official – Bea told me last week that she thinks Halloween is more fun than Christmas (WOW!) What it really means is that her memory of Halloween so far is that she gets to dress up, have face paint, eat sweets and GO OUT IN THE DARK – the latter of which is a majorly exciting event in her world! (i am a stickler for being in bed on time normally!)

We don’t do anything scary, I live in a lovely quiet and friendly little close of houses which is also full of children so we all know that our kids are going to trick or treat each other and don’t stray further afield – which to me is just the right level of revelry. We are in the UK this year at my brother in laws farm where he has been growing pumpkins this year so what we lack in chocolate eating as the farm is pretty remote we will gain in pumpkin carving fun!

For some more Awesome Autumn ideas, take a look at some other brilliant blogs for ideas like these compiled by Nurture Store: