Ready for Autumn? The air is crisp in the mornings and at night, the summer’s bounty is about to be harvested, and it is a time to enjoy the season with your children and family. Here’s to a celebration of the traditional season of fall. If your child is having a party in September or October, this is an excellent theme.

This is a great party to do either at your home or at an outside venue, such as a local farm. So, take a look around and see if there are any local farms in your area that allow for parties. If you hold your party at such a location, the hayride and picking of apples and pumpkins will be great activities.

Invitations:
Cut out leaf shapes or autumn harvest shapes and place them on card stock and include all of the information on the inside of your card.

Decorations:
Orange, brown, and yellow are great colors for this theme. Purchase party and table ware in these colors. Alternatively, you can use leaf patterns.
Use mini pumpkins for your table centerpiece.
Tall cornhusks and bales of hay would add another decorative touch to the party.

Crafts: 

Paint/Decorate mini-pumpkins and have the kids can take these home. 

Make Scarecrow Candy Necklaces. Using straw, have the kids string round candies with holes in the center to make their necklaces.
Sponge paint placemats with leaf shapes.

Games/Activities: 

Bob for apples. 

Have a Pumpkin Roll Contest. Divide the kids into two teams and provide a pumpkin to each team. Have the kids roll it to one end and back and pass it along to the next person. 

Throw a Hula Hoop around a large pumpkin.
If you have bales of hay, have the kids jump over the bales of hay as an obstacle relay race.
String up donuts and tie the kids’ arms behind their backs. Have them eat the donuts off of the line without using their hands.
Hold a scavenger hunt outdoors. If at night, hand out glow sticks for the kids to search for the loot.
Fill a large cardboard box with leaves and place toys in the leaves. Have the kids put their hands inside the box and pick out a toy.
Play Hot Pumpkin, like Hot Potato. 


Menu:
BBQ is always good for this type of a party; spice it up with spare ribs. 

Chili is also an excellent option. Have all of the fixn’s so that people can enjoy topping it off. 

Serve corn bread muffins.
Make Rice Krispie Treats and add orange food coloring to them. Stick them on a Popsicle stick for a treat.
Serve Apple Cider. As an added treat, place caramels on fancy sticks and have the kids stir it into their apple cider for Hot Caramelized Apple Cider.
Make caramel apples.
Make sugar cookies cut out into autumn shapes. Have the kids decorate the cookies with frosting and candies.
Make a batch of cupcakes and ice them with orange frosting and little black, orange, and white sprinkles. The kids can always do the decorating.

Goody Bags:
Purchase little plastic pumpkins, which are so popular as trick or treat bags this time of year. Fill it with all things “fall” - caramel apple cider packets with a cinnamon stick, little themed notebooks, pencils, erasers, pumpkin candy, and candy corn packets.

Banana Splits are so yummy, especially for kids during summertime. One of the BEST parts of this ice cream classic is that you can either make your own concoctions or stick to the tried and true. If your child loves to make and eat banana splits, a great summer-themed party could revolve all around making, judging, and eating them!

Make invitations using bright yellow construction paper cut out into the shape of bananas. Write all of the party details on one side, and draw brown spots on the other. Alternatively, hand-deliver real bananas with tags tied to them that include all of the party details. In the invitation, ask the guests to bring their own favorite ingredient for making banana splits along with them, or have them bring a banana that they dress up in some way, i.e. with a hat on it.

Decorate the party area with yellow and brown balloons, streamers, and party ware. Have a large piece of butcher paper lying flat on a table. The kids can draw a huge banana split together and hang it in the party area.

Make the banana splits on the party table. Be sure to arrange the table so that there are dishes with all of the toppings laid out, as well as spoons, bowls, etc. You may want to pull the chairs away from the table while the kids are making their sundaes.

The main activity of the party will be making banana splits. You can have a competition where the kids make their splits using the ingredients you have laid out and the special ingredient they brought. Hold a tasting competition, where everyone gets to taste everyone else’s and wins prizes.

If you have had the kids bring a banana that is “dressed up,” have a competition to see whose is most creative, the funniest, etc. Hand out banana candies as prizes and make sure everyone wins!

Play Pass the Banana like Pass the Parcel.

Have the kids jump up and down and do “banana splits!”

Hold a series of relay races with bananas. Divide the kids into two teams, and have a bowl of bananas at the opposite end of where the kids race from. When a kid runs down, he or she must peel a banana, eat it, place the peel on his or her head, and race back to the team. The first team done wins!

For another relay race, have the kids peel a banana at the start, race down to the other end and make a mini banana split, eat it, and race back. The next kid must do the same. The first team done wins!

Spring is upon us! The kids are tired of being indoors, drinking hot cocoa, and watching the snow fall. The days are longer, the sun is shining brighter, there's a hint of spring flowers in the air, and snow is turning to rain; it's spring!

The vernal equinox is a wonderful time to plan some spring fun with your children. If you want to mark the entrance of spring this year, here are some resources and ideas to enjoy:

1. Plant flowers together! Head out to your local garden center, and let your kids pick out the flower bulbs they would like to plant. Have them not only plant the bulbs, but water them throughout spring and watch them grow!

2. Give your children a watercolor set and white construction paper, and have them paint their own spring masterpieces to hang around the house.

3. Enjoy bird watching! Birds are now migrating north, so it is the perfect time to head out to an open field and watch them. Of course, with it being spring, there are many opportunities to feed ducks, watch scampering squirrels, and take in the natural world coming to life.

4. When a rainy day pops up, pull on your galoshes and go splash in the puddles. Make it fun!

5. Enjoy playing Leap Frog!

6. Fly kites!

7. Play Frisbee. To make it even more interesting, play Frisbee Golf. Hang buckets from trees, and have the players toss the Frisbee into the buckets for points.

8. Purchase small terra cotta plant holders for the kids to decorate with tempera paint. They can paint bugs, butterflies, or anything else they like!

9. Gussy up lollipops to look like flowers. Using felt, googly eyes, heavy card stock, and a glue stick, create flower faces atop the lollipop. A sweet treat.

10. Make Paper Mache Eggs. Blow up small balloons and paper mache the balloon with liquid starch and newspaper strips. When the balloon is dry, stick a pin in and pop the balloon. Cut out a hole large enough for the goodies you will place inside. Fill your egg with the treats, and seal the flap with either paper mache or tape. Paint the eggs with tempura paint in a variety of spring colors, and have the kids write their names on their eggs with markers.

Have a great time celebrating spring with your kids and their friends this year. It will be a bloom'n good time!

There are a number of fun family activities associated with holidays. One of the holidays that can be especially for kids (and parents) is Valentine's Day. It's a great time to teach your children about giving heartfelt messages -- no expensive gifts required. One of my favorite Valentine's Day crafts is the melted crayon heart. The heart can be given as a gift, or it can be taped to paper or cardstock to make a homemade Valentine card.

Making a Valentine's Day Crayon Heart
First of all, you will need the following items to make the melted crayon heart:

• Pieces from crayons (old and broken crayons are great for this), with the paper wrappers removed.
• Muffin tin with heart shapes (you can find these at most baking stores -- especially in February).

If you plan to mount the crayon heart in order to make a Valentine card, you will need these additional items:

• Heavy construction paper or card stock.
• Mounting foam available at most craft stores or art supply shops (double sided -- regular tape will not be strong enough).
• Scissors
• Markers

The first thing to do is heat the oven to 250 degrees. While the oven is warming up, send your kids in search of crayon pieces. Put the crayon pieces in the heart shaped muffin tin molds. It takes between 10 and 15 minutes for the pieces to melt into fun, swirled hearts. A cookie sheet placed under the muffin tin can catch overflow.

Let the crayon hearts cool. While this is happening, I like to increase the temperature in the oven and make sugar cookies with my son. When we're ready to bake the cookies, the melted hearts have usually cooled so that we can take them out of the molds.

If you plan to make cards with the melted crayon hearts, take the heavy paper and cut out large shapes (circles, squares -- or even larger hearts). Use the mounting foam to stick the crayon hearts to the heavy paper and use the markers to write a message and decorate to your heart's desire.