Autumn is my favorite time of year. Once my birthday concludes at the end of September it’s right into pumpkin spice and apple cider season. The weather cools down, walks become that much more enjoyable, and so many spooky activities to enjoy! Some years I enjoy a little horror film festival, which did a little bit this year, but most nights I opted to go to bed early instead. The weekends were a flurry of activities though, just a few days after I returned from IBM TechXchange 2025 in Orlando, MJ was off on an international trip and the boys and I were off to the pumpkin patch.
But first, we decorated! I’ve been putting up Halloween lights for the past few years, and the boys have enjoyed putting up their own decorations that they buy at the dollar store or Target. Adam asked for a smoke machine and a lot more elaborate decorations, but he’s still only six years old and if carving pumpkins is any indication, I’d be the one doing all the work 10 minutes after he got bored with it, hah! Maybe in a few years.
The first Saturday was spent at Joan’s Farm and Pumpkin Patch in Livermore, which we arrived at just after they opened at 10AM. I’d been searching for an autumn activity with the boys that had the right mix of activities that we’d all be happy, but also wouldn’t be overly expensive. This place checked all the boxes. It was a little bit of a drive out to Livermore, but I got wristbands for the boys so they had unlimited activities, from a giant bouncy slide to pumpkin bowling, a corn maze, and hayrides.
They got to visit with animals on the farm, and pick out pumpkins, with Adam naturally picking one of the largest he could find. We even managed to get lunch there, which both the boys actually ate, before running off to activities again.
Back in town, we grabbed dinner at one of our favorite local restaurants before heading off to our evening activity: A dinosaur-themed unhaunted house at a local nature center! Parking was a bit of a nightmare and I don’t think we scheduled enough time to enjoy the Halloween carnival, but these are good things to know for next year. The unhaunted house was fun, with Aaron getting to pet some animals and all of us learning a bit about dinosaurs and their descendants.
The carnival portion was pretty cute, with various little stands set up where the boys could play games and then their favorite activity, jumping around in a big inflatable bubble with balloons floating all around.
We spent the next day closer to home. After morning swim class, the boys helped me replace the artificial grass in the back yard that we have covering a section of tile (mostly broken) and slab concrete we have out back. It’s not the solution I want for the back yard, it feels quite wasteful to change out the fake grass every few years, but until we can plan for a nicer back yard, this is a good middle ground to making it usable.
Adam also helped me rearrange the furniture and play things out there, which has all been a nice change. What was not a nice change was discovering wasps in our big umbrella out there, but fortunately the cooler weather seems to be dispensing with them naturally.