Now, that it is getting closer to fall and winter what do you do for frugal fun in these seasons. I know there is a lot to offer in fall with apple and pumpkin orchards, hayrides and beautiful leaves. What other things does your family do in the fall and winter months that is free or cheap?

well in winter there is building snow men, snow ball fights, and sledding if its good enough snow we will do a snow fort... also we drive around and look at christmas lights.

fall we do the pumkin thing and this year we will be taking picks of fall leaves as the turn and are gonna make a huge collage of fall pics. ds's have gotten into digital photography since dad got a new nikon d80 camera and gave them our older sony cybershot. they seems to enjoy taking pics of the outdoors.

now this weekend we are doing the apple orchard on sun or monday.

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Measure wealth not by the things you have, but by the things you have for which you would not take money.

the apple orchards are always a fun thing to do...and of course the pumpkin patches. we like to talk walk and find all the different beautiful colored leaves that have fallen and compare them in size and color....try to make it into a fun game. Have the kids join in w/ you while you decorate for fall/halloween and of course the fun recipes that are kid-friendly in the kitchen geared towards "pumpkins".

We love to spend as much time outdoors in the fall as possible! Campfires, raking leaves and playing with them- taking nice long walks are always nice!

I am not too much for outside play when winter comes- I enjoy watching DH and the kids play- I am on hot cocoa duty!

My number one pick for fall is leaf jumping! :happy dance: We have a great neighborhood. Our neighbors have an empty lot next door to them on the other side. We make use of it in the fall. There are about 6 houses, some with kids some without that just enjoy watching the kids play. Anyways, we choose a saturday and we all rake ALL of our leaves into the empty lot and end up with a HUGE mountain of leaves. I have great pics each year of about 12 adults and 10 kids playing in this huge leaf pile! Even the adults jump right it. It is so much fun.

Winter, we do snow sculptures in each others yards. It is fun to come home and find some neat snowman or snow sculpture in your yard and try to guess who did it! I ended up with a naughty snow sculpture in our yard last year and it was hilarious! Luckily, the kids (being 3 & 5) didn't quite figure out what it was. We had neighbors coming by all night long taking pictures of themselves with it! It was too funny...we knocked it down before morning though, didn't want to get in trouble with the city for lewd snow sculpturing!

We skip the pumpkin patches. They are really expensive here and they actually charge admission, just to go into them. Even if you don't want to do any of the activities and you just want to pick out a pumpking you still have to pay a few bucks a person...Too expensive for me! I think we are going to host a pumpkin carving potluck for our neighbors this year. Bring a pumpkin and a dish to pass and we'll have a blast.

Other than that, I love baking and sharing it with friends and neighbors. Fall is my favorite season, so we definatly bring alot of nature indoors and spend alot of time outdoors, collecting decorating items, leaves, acorns, etc. We also stock up on stuff for winter decorating, like pine cones and stuff!

I am just holding my breath, waiting for the leaves to turn...I can't wait for fall!

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Sarah

Bake: give extra to neighbors or a fire station (they love it).
Snow: snowball fight, snow angels, forts
Leaves: rake and jump in
Go on a walk on a trail in the fall to see the pretty leaves
Christmas lights: neighborhoods, there is a cemetary that every year has a display with a live nativity scene, there is another display we go to ($5.00 per car but it goes to a charity).
Pumpkin farm
Haunted houses

Some day each fall we take our whole family, grandparents included, to a really cool coulee on a national wildlife refuge. It is incredibly private, surrounded by trees in a little gully, and there's a huge rock shelter there with tables and the biggest fireplace you've ever seen. It's so much fun, even if we just hike around a while and roast hot dogs!

We have corn Mazes here along with the pumpkin patch, The farmers market ends in october so one more month, Holiday light displays, playdates with friends, library story time, Autumn walks , childrens museum

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Kimberly Proud Mommy to Bethany Rose April 2006

There is a nature center on the other side of town that has an area you can tour inside plus they have planned activities outside. There is also a Raptor Center not far away where they rehabiltate injured birds of prey. You can walk around and look at owls, falcons, eagles, etc.

You can also see if there are indoor play areas available. There is a place called Backyard Adventures that has lots of swing set/climbing things--only costs $5.00/kid.

Those are great ideas but I live in Michigan we don't really have indoor play areas, or a Raptor center, I think we might have a nature center though.