It’s that time! The air is starting to crisp up and the leaves are showing hints of yellow. Additionally, the pumpkin starts making its appearance in a variety of ways from the PSL to the actual gourds gracing the shelves of stores. This means Fall is on the horizon. Fall is one of my favorite times of year because not only do I love the cooler weather, but it also means my two favorite holidays are around the corner: Halloween and Thanksgiving. I also love it because I live in Colorado where the season seems to disappear in the blink of an eye. Therefore, I really feel like I need to make the most of it.

Here are some of my favorite activities to get things kicked off, focusing on pumpkins. If you’re wanting more ideas and inspiration, read my post Leafy Adventures: Easy Fall Activities Your Kids Will Love.

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Pumpkins Pumpkins Pumpkins

As soon as these golden globes start appearing in stores, I like to grab a few. This year, I bought a bag of small pumpkins as well as a large one to get us started having fun for the season, as well as decorating my house.

Pumpkin Exploration

First off, the large pumpkin! For this one, I cut it open and we scooped out the guts. Even though the kids were skeptical at first, they quickly started getting in to it. As time went on, they started commenting on how it felt like slime and couldn’t stop laughing. This is ultimately a fantastic sensory activity and the kids absolutely love it (check out my post on sensory activities for more ideas).

Pumpkin Seeds

As we were exploring our pumpkin, we made sure we pulled out the seeds. After the kids were done playing, I spent some time picking and washing the seeds. Once they were dried, I tossed them with some olive oil, salt, and pepper and roasted them at 300 degrees for 30 minutes. The kids were amazed that you could eat the seeds and enjoyed them quite a bit. My husband and I were also happy to have this super healthy snack on hand for the week.

Pumpkin Washing

For the smaller pumpkins, I decided to make bubble foam and let the kids wash them. This also helped me get them ready for decorating. Bubble foam is super easy to make: put about equal parts water and dish soap in a container, then use an electric whisk until you have tons of foam.

Play Dough and Slime

If you’ve read my Play Dough post, you know I love making some homemade play dough for the kids. To kick off the Fall season, I made my basic play dough recipe listed in the blog post and added some Cinnamon Essential Oil and food coloring. Giving them the play dough along with these Fall vase fillers and this play dough set kept them entertained for a long long time!

We also decided to make some Cinnamon slime from Kimspired DIY. It was a huge hit as you can see below.

I hope this post has inspired you to have some fun as a family in order to kick off the Fall season. Comment below if you tried anything here as I’d love to hear about it!