Tag: Fall

Friday FALL Favorites {09.08.23}

Posted on by Lauren Lane

I always seem to be in the minority around this time of year. I don’t wait excitedly for fall with bated breath, eager to get the latest seasonal drink at my local coffee shop. I don’t pull out all the fall decor starting September 1st at home. I think I’ve finally come to accept that it’s just not my season. There are beautiful things about it: the cooler weather, the changing leaves. There are things that I look forward to so much: going to the pumpkin patch, picking out Halloween costumes, our wedding anniversary, and chili simmering on the stove.

The changing of the seasons also brings a fresh perspective, at the very least. And in about two to three weeks, I’ll be particularly annoyed by the number of flies that seem to make their way into my house through doors left open by little hands. At that point, I will declare myself “over the heat” and ready for cooler temps of fall and a nice freeze to kill off the bugs. It happens every year that way like clockwork.

You all are full blown fall people, though. I know. I’ve asked before, and I’m in the minority.

I dip my toe into the fall pool around this time of year. There are just a few things that I just can barely seem to resist. And in a couple of weeks, I’ll be there with you in my oversized sweatshirt and joggers, and a cup of hot coffee in my hand.

I’ve picked up some of my favorite fall things for when I’m ready to fully embrace fall in a couple of weeks. 🙂

Candles always feel like coziness and fall to me. And this is one of my favorites. I ordered a couple to have on hand a few weeks ago.

A few new fresh fall stems. I’m a bit of a stickler on fake flowers. They have to look really good and almost real for me to buy them. It’s the gardener in me. Both of these are from Hobby Lobby and met my faux floral standard. 🙂 White berry stem + Blush pink berry stem

I brought in a handful of hydrangea stems to dry for fall decor. Put a little bit of water in the bottom of your vase, and let it naturally evaporate for gorgeous dried hydrangeas this fall.

And some pumpkin spice oatmilk for my afternoon decaf cold brew.

What are the things that make you feel like fall?

Halloween 2022

Posted on by Lauren Lane

I love Halloween with little kids. When Nathan and I first moved into our neighborhood, we were the youngest people in the neighborhood by at least ten, but probably close to 15 years. Our very first Halloween, I was so excited to have trick-or-treaters in a real neighborhood! And we had about 5 total trick-or-treaters. But slowly, our neighborhood has turned over in the past five years. Younger families have moved in that have kids around our age or are in elementary school, and it’s so fun seeing the neighborhood alive with kids on Halloween night running from house to house!

We started our Halloween at the boys’ daycare trunk-or-treat. They were so excited to wear their costumes for the first time and see their friends from school!

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How to *Almost* Squirrel-Proof Your Pumpkins

Posted on by Lauren Lane

I thought this was the year. The year that I finally figured it out. You’ve probably been hearing me complain for years about our squirrels eating my pumpkins, digging up my plants, eating my flowers. The squirrels in Prairie Village, Kansas are vicious. They take no prisoners.

And this year…I thought I figured it out. Figured out how to squirrel proof my pumpkins from becoming soon-to-be hibernating squirrels food.

Every year, I put out my sweet little pumpkins, and everything looks cute and fall-ish for a week at best. And then, they find the pumpkins. And they chew through them like they aren’t being fed off-cast seeds from my bird feeder every dang day (which they are. They are very well fed squirrels.).

I had a small success. Maybe with my outrageous squirrels you’d call is more than just small success…but this year, my pumpkins were out for well over a month before they met their fate.

Here’s what I did….

  • Clear semi-gloss spray paint
  • Red pepper

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Friday Favorites {10.21.22}

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Monday morning was Jonathan’s first day back at daycare after spending the previous week at home with me potty training. Guys, I felt ALMOST as nervous as the day I dropped off Harrison at daycare for the first time. Would they pay attention to his cues enough? Would he be successful? (Because I so badly wanted him to have an awesome day & week showing off his new skill!) I checked my daycare app about twenty times that day. And he did awesome. So relieved! It wasn’t perfect, but so, so, so good. Whew.

I rounded up a lot of family favorites from the past few weeks to share today!

I had so much fun going pumpkin patchin’ with the boys and their cousins a couple of weeks ago! It’s truly one of my favorite days of the year. Trying to take a picture of two, much less four kids together is pretty much impossible at this age. So I offer up some very bad group kids pics. 🙂

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Outdoors Fall Tour 2022

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Oh this is has been a week. It’s been potty training week for Baby J, and I am exhausted. But were here. We’ve made it to Friday! And being home all week with a 2 year old gave me enough time to finish my fall outside refresh!

I love refreshing my outdoors for the fall. While some gardens I take out completely and clean up for the upcoming season, I try to do a few fall containers to hold on to some of the beautiful fall color. It’s refreshing to see fall colors outside in my containers to match the pretty leaves that start to fall this time of year.

I went around the outside of our house and snapped pictures of anything I spruced up for the fall season. If I salvaged some of my summer container for the fall, I’m including a picture of what it looked like for the summer, as well. Often times, I find I don’t need to pull everything when many things still look really good into the fall, and can instead just add to them.

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Fall Bucket List 2021

Posted on by Lauren Lane

It’s fall bucket list day! I love dreaming about what little (and big!) things I’m looking forward to each season. These bucket lists gives me ideas of things to do on the weekends, if we happen to have a free weekend and nothing planned. I pick something from our list to check off for the season.

  • Go patchin’ (that is pumpkin patchin’). Aside from the blistering cold weather on our patch day last year, this is one of my very favorite things to do with the kids in the fall!
  • Have a fall backyard bbq
  • Host our second annual Halloween carnival! With COVID last year, we opted to have the cousins come over for a Halloween carnival a la elementary school style bash. (Were we the only ones who had Halloween carnivals at school?? My sister and I have fond memories of this in our younger years.) With a cake walk (minus the cake), fishing for treats, Halloween egg hunting (because Easter shouldn’t be the only holiday with a fun egg hunt, right?)
  • Carve pumpkins
  • Trick-or-treating with the boys
  • Lots of fall walks with Sawyer
  • Hot chocolate and spooky movie night
  • Watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade and make our traditional biscuits and gravy
  • Watch a lot of CHIEFS games!
  • Make pumpkin spice donuts
  • Read at least one seasonal book
  • Lots and lots and lots of fall candles

So now I need to know, do you have any good fall seasonal books for me to read???

What are you looking forward to this season?

We are headed to the airport in the morning for a long awaited family vacation, so I’ll be gone from this little space of the internet this next week spending time focusing on my family and relaxing.

Let’s Look At…How We Pumpkin

Posted on by Lauren Lane

I’m currently sitting on my couch, holding a baby, and trying to type at the same time. If that isn’t a picture of life lately, I don’t know what is. If your’e new here, once a month, I link up with two of my favorite blogs (Shay @ Mix and Match Mama and Erika @ A Little Bit of Everything), to share a “look” into some little aspect of our life. Here’s a peak back at what we’ve “looked” at so far this year:

And I missed August and September adjusting to life with two kiddos.

Today we’re sharing how we pumpkin. So many directions I could take this, but I thought I’d share my outside decor for fall! Plus it gives me good motivation to get in gear to get all of my pumpkins out.

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Fun Fall Date Ideas

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Fall can be such a romantic couple of months. With the leaves changing and the chill in the air, I love getting outside and getting to enjoy the cooler days after a hot summer.

One of the things that Nathan and I try to do on a regular basis is having at least a monthly date night. We take turns planning the date. Sometimes we like to surprise the other with the activity, and other times it’s planned well in advance. I look forward to these date nights like I look forward to sleep in the evening. It’s a few hours where we focus on each other and us; having fun together, talking, and remembering why we fell in love in the first place. Here are some of our favorite fall dates:

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Friday Favorites {10.18.19}

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Today is our fifth anniversary!

I wrote a little post reflecting on what I’ve learned in our first five years of marriage yesterday here. We’re going out tonight to celebrate, but our real celebration is a trip away just the two of us in about a month. It’s going to be so much fun, while also missing my little man like crazy. But I think it’s so important to have one on one time with your partner, so I’m really looking forward to a few days away with my guy. Having no agenda, eating amazing food, and just soaking up good conversations and dreaming with him.

But, today is a FRIDAY FAVORITES post! A couple of weeks ago, Harrison helped me plant up my fall plants. So I wanted to give you a little tour of our outdoors right now, decked out in some fall decor! I love some fresh plants and pumpkins to give our house a refresh come September and October. I don’t go as overboard in the fall as I do for the summer with plants. I just do a few things here and there, so it’s totally manageable and easy to do.

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