It’s that time of year again… FALL!

And when I asked my neighbors (Emme & Gretta) if they were ready to retire our annual tradition, the…

“Welcome Fall Picnic”

I was sure they would both say “yes”.

But instead, they both said “NOOOOO WAY”!

(secretly… I was thrilled!) 😉

So, I quickly pulled a menu & activities together for us all to enjoy.

We’ve held our annual picnic in The Seasonal Home’s

front yard, back yard & even on the front porch.

[Below are some photos from last year’s]

       

[Also, check out the ideas & details from previous years, located under my FALL category on The Seasonal Home’sHOME Page.]

This year, the girls decided it should be a brunch inside.

And because I’ve been super busy lately, I kept the decorations simple –

Dollar Store paper leaves hanging from the chandelier.

And a simple menu too: homemade French Toast

I found some fun cup clings for $1 (at Dollar General), so everyone decorated their own cup

AND chose their favorite drink…. Apple Cider, OJ or Milk

Because we celebrate ALL of Fall’s Special Days (Fall, Halloween & Thanksgiving) during the picnic,

I pulled out some of my Thanksgiving crackers

and everyone had so much fun

reading the turkey jokes inside, wearing the paper crowns & adding the trinkets into our craft project!

After our yummy breakfast, we began creating Fall or Halloween houses on my latest find… re-usable, plastic candy cottage forms.

We loved it that we could use regular frosting to decorate our cottages…

AND that we will be able to re-use them on future holidays.

But, we also realized that they should be placed in the freezer (to harden) for a few minutes

after applying decorations to each side.

We learned this the hard way when Ashley (Baby Henry’s Mommy!) created a nice neat layer of frosting & skeleton family candies

    

only to have them slightly slide.

The good news:  we LOVED the new SPOOKY & GHOSTLY design her happy accident created! LOL

And here’s the end result of everyone’s creativity…

We also tried our hand at making caramel apples

by melting a package of (unwrapped) caramels (on low) with 3/4 cup of Half & Half,

rolling a few of them in chopped pecans, coconut and/or chocolate chips

and letting them harden on a buttered piece of waxed paper.

In no time at all, they were cooled & ready to eat!

Last, but not least… I always give the girls little boxes with inexpensive Fall treats in them.

This year, I found glow-in-the-dark strips (to apply to their Halloween costumes),

Halloween stick-ons (for their nails),

a Cadbury “Halloween Egg”

and a small music gift card.

Our cottages & apples weren’t perfect, but

we had creative fun and made another year of memories during our day together!

Enjoy the Creativity!