What is Fall?

Now that Fall is officially here... I can say that I love this time of year. Yeah, I am really sad that beach weather is in the rear view mirror until May, but I do enjoy the Fall for many reasons.

Autumn

I love seeing the leaves change.
I love the crispness in the air as the days get shorter.
I love the smell in the air when people have a fire going in their wood burning stoves or fireplaces.
I love when the wind blows & I watch the beautiful orange, yellow & red leaves blow across the ground.


I love going pumpkin picking and mums. (We need to get some!)
I love going to the farms and seeing the kids petting the animals, taking a hay ride, playing on the hay bales, and going through the corn mazes.



I love the Fall Festivals, Harvestfest & Octoberfests. I wish I could go to them all.
I love the Halloween Pet Parade in Chester, NJ.
Actually, I love going to Chester in the fall anytime!
Carving pumpkins - Messy but fun!
I love decorations like scarecrows, hay bales, cornstalks, pumpkins, gourds and mums.
Oh and Apple Picking - I can't think about fall without thinking about Apples! Brian makes Apple Crisp every year.

I have to add Pumpkin Pie & Pumpkin Bread to the list.

Candy-corn. Who doesn't love that? Although it's very easy to OD on that - Too much sugar. Caramel Apples - Yummm - and anything made with squash. Notice how this turned into a food list! Can you tell where my priorities are?

Halloween 

I will admit I am not a big fan of Halloween as an adult, especially since I never had kids ... up until now. I am not into dressing up in a costume and it gets kind of annoying to hear knocking on the door every few minutes. (Yeah I know, Bah Humbug!)

Knock knock knock ... "Trick or Treat" .... then the dog goes ballistic... bark bark bark snarl snarl growl bark ... Then me trying to hold the little Jack Russell beast back while I fight her to open the door... woof woof bark bark ... Then the terrified looks on the kids faces after they hear the dog, when I open the door. I try to hand the kids their candy while holding the beast back, and trying to figure out what costumes they are wearing & force a smile. Some of the kids are clearly too old to be trick or treating and don't even bother to wear a costume. I should sick Pepper on them.

I remember one year not feeling good, and setting a huge bowl of candy out in the front of the door with a note to take ONE piece of candy only. Well, of course you know, the first kid came and knew he hit the mother lode & dumped the whole bowl into his sack.

This year is very different. I am very excited about Halloween because I get to dress up my daughter in a fun costume. We might even take her trick or treating LOL! (Yeah you know darned well the candy is for us, not her!). I won't say what her costume is yet, but you know I'll be posting many pictures of that! I will say this - it is very cute and made Brian & I hysterically laugh. More to come...

This is Brian and I picking our first pumpkin as a married couple.

Little did we know we would have our very own little "pumpkin" this year!

Here are a couple of pictures I took of a local farm a few years ago