Celebrating Life with Children in October

With leaves crunching underfoot and gorgeous colors overhead, October is one of the most beautiful times of the year. Here are more than 20 simple ways you can celebrate the simple life with your children this month.

* Take your children to a football game of your alma mater. Have an old-fashioned tailgate party.

* Make an apple pie or, if you are feeling less inspired, a simple apple crisp. Servie it hot and topped with butter pecan ice cream.

* Treat yourself to takeout tonight: a rich soup and fresh crusty bread.

* Make a Halloween costume for your pet.

* Savor the fruits of the harvest this time of year. Make some pumpkin bread or zucchini bread.

* Roast pumpkin seeds.

* Plan a neighborhood Halloween party, or – if your kids are a little older - recruit them to create a spooky haunted house through part of your home or yard.

* Take a drive as a family to see the gorgeous autumn foliage. Stop for apple pie ala mode midway.

* Treat yourself and your kids to cute matching socks in an autumn or Halloween theme.

* Make popcorn and watch a Halloween themed movie as a family. Depending on the ages of your kids, you may choose something scary – or something a little more benign, such as ET or a Halloween special featuring their favorite cartoon characters.

* Bring home a festive fall flower arrangement that you can enjoy all week.

* Make caramel apples. While still warm, roll them in nuts or chocolate.

* Invite the neighbors over for mulled apple cider.

* Rake the leaves into an enormous pile and have all the kids jump into them.

* Stop at a local craft fair and pick up a locally made or handmade item to give someone for the holidays.

* Make a gooey batch of caramel corn.

* Invite the neighbors over to watch a football or baseball game.

* Visit a pumpkin patch and handpick a few of the best to take home.

* Take the kids out to gather leaves and ask each to make a fall collage, using only the items found in your backyard.

* Make a recording of scary Halloween noises to play on your front porch on Halloween night. Kids love to come up with scary ideas: screams, creaking doors, sinister laughter.

* Make some stew in the slow cooker for dinner.

* Give each of the kids a disposable camera, and take a drive, a hike, or a walk through the neighborhood. Ask each child to document the signs of fall in whatever creative way they choose.

* Share the bounty of the harvest with people who are less fortunate. Talk to children about what it means to be thankful - to have an abundant harvest. In what ways is your family enjoying an abundant harvest?

Talk about abundance in all facets of family life, as well as life at school and in the neighborhood. In what ways do your children see abundance all around them? Finish off the discussion by determining, as a family, how you can share your abundance with those less fortunate.

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