Fall is such a lovely time of year. How can you resist getting out in this weather? This past weekend I had the privilege of taking the two sweetest girls I know to the pumpkin patch in Hayden, my daughters of course.

When we got there, the weather was perfect and due to a certain football game, the crowd wasn’t unreasonable. It was packed out, but not to a bad extent.

At the pumpkin patch you have to pay for everything separate,  so it’s a couple of dollars for the hay ride, for the pumpkin, for the face painting… everything has a cost. About the only free thing to do was to play in a big pile of hay they had by the actual pumpkin patch.

Would you believe that the girls loved playing in that hay more so than any other thing that we did? They even loved it more than the apple pies. They met up with an old friend and I’m pretty sure they were playing a four-year-old’s version of “king of the hill” although in this version there was a foam sword involved.

Yes, fall offers so much for people to do and as we think of fall, it’s impossible to forget the holiday that is just around the corner. Halloween is quickly approaching and if you are behind in the times, you had better get it to the closest store and pick up a costume for yourself and your children.

Around my house while growing up, there was no such thing as buying a costume. That was too easy and expensive. We always made our own costumes with things around the house. This seemed like the worse thing in the world while growing up. But now, looking back, I can see the fun and excitement that comes along with making your costume from random items you already own. There is something about scavenging around the house to put together the perfect little outfit.

I can remember one time my sister wanted to be a California raisin, so my parents used a garbage bag for the body, white gloves and purple face paint. It must have worked out well because we are still remembering that costume after 20 years.

Another thrifty idea my parents came up with was the year one of us decided to go as the Joker from Batman. We used a black cloth with eye holes cut out for the mask, and used black construction paper cut in the shape of question marks to decorate the green shirt. They used a stapler to staple the question marks on and no one was the wiser. It’s so funny to think of the ways that you can improvise when you put your mind to it.

I am a much lazier parent than my own parents, so yes, my children’s costumes will either be recycled from last year or bought off of a half off rack at the local store. As much fun as it seems to be to create a costume, we must remember that if we lack creativity, our costumes will just look plain dumb. That would be the case if I tried to throw together costumes for my girls. So yes, once again they will either be a princess, kangaroo or puppy… whatever they decide, I can guarantee they are cute as a button when they knock on your front door for a treat.