Fall Bucket List

While we were sitting outside on our deck one night over the weekend, Tyler & I started naming a few fun things that we knew we'd want to do this fall in somewhat of an attempt to get rid of my end-of-summer-blues.  This inspired us to make up a fall bucket list.  Here's what we've come up with so far.

1.)  Go apple picking.  We went here last year since it's just a few minutes away from our house.  We went in late September, and things were already a little picked over (no pun intended) but they have all different kinds of apples to choose from.  We're going to plan on going a little earlier in the season this year so we can make sure we get some good ones!

2.) Make an apple pie (or two, or three...).  I usually don't like "cooked fruit", so any type of fruit pie is usually a no-go, but I love my own apple pie. It's so good.  Just sayin'.

3.) Get pumpkins & decorate the inside and outside of our house.  Last year I went on a hunt to find white pumpkins and couldn't find them anywhere. I was seriously sad about this.  If anyone who lives in the area has any suggestions, please let me know!

4.)  Carve a jack-o-lantern for Halloween.  We didn't get any trick-or-treaters last year because we live kind of in the middle of nowhere, but I would still like to have a pumpkin or two lit up, just in case!  I love how these pumpkins look ("carved" using a drill), and they seem so much easier to make.  These ones are also illuminated with white string lights inside the holes.  We've only got a few hundred extra of those after I accidentally bought the white strings instead of green for our Christmas tree one year. Maybe now I can put them to good use!

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5.) Hike a mountain.  We'll probably end up hiking Mt. Wachusett since it's the closet and most convenient to get to (and right near where we grew up), but maybe we'll venture a little further north to some of the bigger mountains.

6.) Drink a million gallons of apple cider. Get as many apple ciders from Dunkin' Donuts as I can before they're gone for the season.  Angry Orchard falls under this cider-drinking category, too.  Some apple cider sangria or this festive apple cider drink also sound delish. If you couldn't tell, I just really like a good apple cider.

7.)  Football Sundays with some turkey chili, and chips, salsa & guacamole!  I just kind of pretend to know what's going on, but I have to admit that football is my favorite sport to watch even if I'm not the biggest fan.  Go Patriots! ;)

8.)  Make pumpkin bread/muffins, maybe a pumpkin pie, & drink lots of pumpkin coffee (basically, pumpkin flavored everything).  Apparently, I'll also have to workout a lot this season because of all the junk I'll be eating.

9.) Make a stove-top potpourri. Here's the one I made last year around Christmas time - it smelt really good and just makes the house feel cozy. I don't remember exactly what I put in it (measurement wise), but I believe it was just water, cranberries, bay leaves, oranges, cinnamon sticks & cloves (i.e. exactly what you see in the picture).  It takes all of 2 minutes to throw together in a pot and you can just leave on simmer all day.  It'll stay for a couple days, if you add a little more water as it starts to evaporate. After the first day, everything starts to look kind of brown but it'll still smell just as good!

10.) Pile on the sweatshirts & blankets, and have a campfire (without the mosquitos!). Maybe while drinking some of the beverages in #6.

11.) Have a festive Halloween-themed breakfast, with these candy corn waffles (which will also give me an excuse to buy that waffle maker I've been wanting to get for a while).  Because candy corn waffles are normal for two 25 year olds with no kids, right? :)

12.)  Try not to complain too much about all of the leaves we'll have to clean up out of our yard.  Hoping the 13 trees we took down last spring will make a little bit of a difference! Last year was pretty brutal.

Now back to enjoying the unofficial last week of summer! The weather is feeling more like it should in August again, and I'm more than okay with that. :)