Autumn Activities for the Family

Autumn is the perfect time for making memories with your family. From engaging outdoor adventures to creating beautiful fall crafts, there’s no shortage of fun to be had this season. Take a look at some of our ideas for some fun autumn activities for the whole family:

Get Outside

Now that it’s the peak of autumn, it’s the perfect time to take your family for an outdoor adventure. Go on a nature walk and encourage your kids to take up a curiosity and passion for the outdoors. One great way to do is to bird watch. Encourage your kids to spot and identify as many birds as they can. Continue this curiosity at home by building a birdhouse or bird feeder together.

Collect Leaves

Another great way to encourage their interest in nature can be through leaf collecting. Encourage them to collect leaves throughout the season, identify which trees they come from, and write that information down in a leaf log. Preserve their favorite leaves between contact paper and show them how to make fun leaf rubbings, prints, and stamps.

Go Camping

Fall can be a wonderful time to go camping. Just pack your car with some vital supplies, and find the perfect setting to pitch your tent under some stunning fall foliage. Take this opportunity to make some wonderful memories. Teach them to set up a tent, build a campfire, how to fish and catch dinner, and how to roast the perfect marshmallow. Now that the days are shorter, it’s also the perfect time to stargaze. Grab a stargazing scavenger hunt (like this one) and start planning your trip.

Staple Fall Activities

If you haven’t already, treat your family to a classic fall weekend. Go apple picking and pumpkin carving, and bake delicious treats from your harvest. Explore a corn maze, fall festival, or haunted house for a thrilling weekend adventure.

Fall Crafts

Autumn is also the perfect time for crafting. Just make some hot cocoa or apple cider, light some pumpkin scented candles, and engage in an afternoon of arts and crafts with your family. Knit some new hats and scarves with older kids for when the temperature dips even lower. Have the whole family decorate the house with fun Halloween and Thanksgiving crafts.

Here are some more ideas for fall crafts:

• Collect some leaves, pinecones, and fabric to make a new front-door wreath
• Paint pumpkins for the front porch
• Make homemade Halloween costumes
• Paint some mugs with your favorite fall themes and colors
• Explore Pinterest for adorable ideas like Pumpkin Apple Stamps, DIY Twig Candles, or an Autumn Handprint Tree

Bonding with some different autumn activities will help you reconnect as a family from your busy fall schedules, while time spent outdoors hiking, camping, and exploring your community will revitalize you.

With an abundance of fun and adventure left to be had this season, start making wonderful memories that will last you a lifetime today. For more ways to celebrate the season and to start celebrating the holidays early, visit Gifts ‘N Things today.

Throwing a Halloween Spooktacular Party for Your Kids

Zombies, ghouls, witches, oh my! Everybody’s favorite and spookiest holiday is right around the corner, so what better way is there to celebrate than by throwing a Halloween spooktacular party for your kids? Get in the spirit early with these tips for a kid-friendly Halloween party. From decorations, games, food, and treats, we’ve got you covered. [Note: Costumes and a spooky fun playlist are an absolute must.]

Devious Decorations

From streamers and balloons to spider webbing and pumpkins galore, where do you get started with colorful and fun Halloween décor for kids? A simple way to start is to set out tall vases and bowls full of orange and black candy around your house. This will serve double as decorations and treats, and if you have kids guess how many candies are in each vase or bowl, it can serve as a game, too!

For more devious decorations:

DIY Bat Garland
Spooky Eye Wreath
Monster Doors
Monster Tissue Pom Poms
11 Easy and Awesome Halloween Decorations

Ghostly Games

For starters, have a Mummy Relay Race in your backyard. Divide kids into teams of three, and have them choose one teammate to be the mummy. Have all the mummies stand on one side of the yard. The remaining members of each team will start on the opposite side of the yard, and on a count of three, they will run to and wrap the mummy in toilet paper as fast as possible. Whichever team makes it back across the line with their mummy wins!

For more ghostly games:
Pin the Spider on the Web
Tin Can Bowling
Halloween Bingo
Trick or Treat: Poke-a-Pumpkin
Apple Bobbing

Spine-Tingling Snacks

Have some spooky snacks and drinks on hand between games and activities, like these mummy juice boxes: Grab a juice box and wrap it in white tape. Add some googly eyes, and there you have a wrapped mummy surprise juice box.

For more spine-tingling snacks:
Witches’ Broom
Magic Potion Punch
Jack ‘O Lantern Burgers
Ghostly Pizza
Mummy Dogs

Terrifying Treats

For more than store-bought sweets and decorated cupcakes, cookies, and cakes, set out a DIY decorating sweets bar. Set out frosting bags and a variety of little candies for your spooky little guests to decorate pre-baked cupcakes for DIY fun. Get creative and use black-dipped sugar cones for witches’ hats or Milano cookies cut in half for sweet tombstones.

For more terrifying treats:
Frozen Ghost Pops
Frankenstein Marshmallow Pops
Pumpkin Krispies
Gooey Monster Cookies
26 Healthy Halloween Snacks

Prickly Party Favors

Send some favors home with each guest along with any leftover treats and candies. (It’s only once a year, right?) One simple and healthy party favor? Grab mandarin orange fruit cups, and draw a pumpkin face on the plastic lid. These are simple, healthy, and yummy.

For more prickly party favors:

5 Candy Boxes
Fizzy Orange Water
Healthy Halloween Treats
Popcorn in a Jar
Glitter Slime Pumpkins
Halloween Smencils

Halloween Fun!

Halloween is a fun time for the whole family. It’s a time to indulge in yummy treats, spooky decorations, and creative costumes that can 'wow' everyone! Unfortunately, these awesome costumes can tend to cost quite a bit of money.

So, why not try making them yourself?!  Since Halloween is just around the corner, here are some money-saving, fun DIY costume ideas!

1. A mad scientist with no head.
Yes, you heard that right. In order to create this spooky getup, just put a t-shirt over the top of the insulation and duct-tape the bottom of the shirt to hold in the stuffing. Then, use two wire coat hangers for arm supports, and top it all off with a large dress shirt and lab coat. Black rubber gloves can be stuffed and taped to the end of stuffed shirt sleeves. The arms can be bent and secured with safety pins to appear to hold the head as it pokes between the button openings of the shirt and lab coat. Add a wig, facial make-up and a pair of safety goggles to complete the look.



2. A pinata
This one is a bit time consuming, so get started today! Fortunately, all you’ll need is some felt and a pair of pajamas. It's pretty straight forward; just cut the felt pieces into strips and hot glue them onto the PJs. The hat is made out of thick cardboards and more felt, and the ears are just cones made out of thick paper. Just make sure no one takes a whack at you with a stick!


3. Jelly Beans
How cute and simple is this? Simply take a large see-through garbage bag and tie it around your child. Then take little colorful balloons, blow them up and stuff them inside the garbage bag. Lastly, print a sign that say, what else? Jelly Beans!



4. A painter
Dress your child in black clothing, and use eyeliner to draw a curly mustache onto their face. Then cut out the shape of an artist’s paint palette from heavy construction cardboard and cut two small holes on the top. Then, thread some black yarn through the hole to hang around their neck. Use hot glue to attach a large decorative to the middle of the paint palette. Lastly, cover the paint palette with painted blobs of colors. Voila!



5. A bumble bee.
Everyone loves a bumble bee! First, use felt black felt and create stripes that can be super glued to a plain yellow shirt. Then, a set of antennae can be crafted by drilling two holes in a black headband using the craft drill, feeding a yellow and black pipe cleaner through each side, twisting, and finally sticking them into foam balls painted yellow.



We hope these simple, creative ideas get your DIY juices flowing. Like any of these in particular? Going to try your hand at one? Leave us a comment and tell us how it came out!

Free Summer Activities

Do you feel like no matter what you do, it costs money? Summer has arrived, the kids are home from school for the season, and keeping them busy and having fun might feel like an expensive endeavor. Well, take heart my thrifty friends; for families trying to stick to a budget, there are a whole host of fun, free - or highly affordable - ways to fully enjoy all that summer has to offer.

1. Plant a Garden

Even for those with the least experienced green thumb, potting your own flowers, herbs and veggies - or creating a small raised bed - is a great way to celebrate the arrival of summer. Start from seeds or buy a few developed plants at a garden center. With a little TLC, your summer plants will add a lovely touch.

2. Lemonade Stand / Car Wash 

Many of us can look back on childhood and remember at least one entrepreneurial summertime endeavor. For this writer, it was definitely a lemonade stand. The great thing? Projects like lemonade stands and car washes become a source of great pride for kids. Plus, they don’t really require a whole lot of initial investment, and often end up being a great way for members of your neighborhood to get to know one another! And obviously, a little extra pocket cash is never a bad thing!

3. Backyard Art Projects / Show

Help the kids stay creative over summer break with group art projects. One cool idea we bumped into? Painting on plain, white sheets for “display” on a clothesline. Once the art has been completed, kids can invite friends over for a “gallery opening.”

4. Handmade Bird Houses / Feeders

This one’s a classic, and thanks to the wonders of Pinterest, there are more variations on the craft than ever before!

5. Backyard Scrabble

Here’s a really cool idea we found while trolling the web. Make words and spelling fun outdoorsy with your own homemade letter tiles...because, on a beautiful day, Words with Friends is much better in person!

6. Dollar Store Spray Bottles = DIY Squirt Guns

Think cheap squirt guns, only more durable in the long run. (Those cheap discount squirt guns tend to break on a dime). Added bonus: add washable paint to the bottles and spray them at bed sheets, pieces of poster board or big sheets of paper to create original outdoor abstract art for your “art show.”

7. Host a Neighborhood Baseball / Kickball / Wiffleball Game

You don’t need a ton of backyard space for a scaled-down version of baseball-diamond style activities. Gather the neighborhood together for a little physical fitness fun...just make sure you get plenty of water!

8. Visit The Library 

Air-conditioning is always a plus on the hottest of summer days, and lots of public libraries host a ton of free activities for kids all summer long!

9. Volunteer

Summertime is a great season to plot out a few days of the month to roll up your sleeves and help out the community. Organizations like Habitat for Humanity, for example, are ultra-busy during the warmer months, and are always looking for a helping hand. Check out your library for fliers from area organizations who could use a little manpower!

10. Bug / Amphibian / Other Critter Hunt

This is just always fun for kids. Find a nature preserve or park near your neighborhood, get out the jars and nets and see what you can find!


These are only a few of the many, many ideas for inexpensive summer fun. Have one of your own? Leave us a comment and tell us about it!