I don’t know about you, but my kids get bored all year round. Like, whining, fighting, make-me-want-to-pull-my-freakin-hair-out bored. Yet, for some reason, the only times of the year that people talk about keeping them occupied are during the summer and the winter.

What the cuss?! (Sorry, we just watched The Fantastic Mr. Fox this weekend and I just can’t stop). I mean, I guess it makes sense since summer and winter breaks are when they’re in our hair and non-stop bored the most. But right now I could really use some fall boredom busters. Like, stat.

I wrote a post last week for NY Metro Parents about a doing an easy DIY fall scavenger hunt with the kids. Aside from being adaptable to pretty much any situation, scavenger hunts are quick and simple ways to get the kids outside and distract them from anything they may be considering throwing a tantrum about.

Even better? You can bring the treasures they find inside (as long as they’re not wet and gross, of course) and let them go craft crazy.

Check out what we did…

Here in New York, the nights have been getting a little crisper. I even busted out my favorite furry slippers this week. The kids are all officially back in school. Some of the trees are already even getting small spots of color. Basically, it really feels like fall. And when I think fall, I think apples!

We’re going apple picking with friends next weekend, which means I’m in full on apple recipe collecting mode. I want all the apples and all the delicious recipes that go along with them.

I also want to try and make sure that at least a few of the recipes I use attempt to be a bit healthier. I don’t want to do all butter all the time. I mean I do, but I’d rather not have to invest in a whole new wardrobe when my butt explodes from all the indulging.

When my husband steps in the door from work at night, both of my girls do the necessary shrieking, running, hugging, etc. But as soon as that business is taken care of, my little toddler points to the kitchen and says “Cook!” (score one for effectively turning gender roles on their heads… or for being a crappy cook. Whichever).

As soon as my husband starts making dinner she will claw at his legs, trying to scale him like a mountain in an effort to get a better view of the chopping or sauteing or whatever else might be going on. Girlfriend is obsessed.

She never shouts this little command at me, mind you. I think she must know better. But yesterday I decided to blow her mind. It was mid afternoon and she was seriously cranky. It was also a little chilly in the house, so I decided to do a little baking and let her get in on the action. Pumpkin bread is pretty much my favorite cold weather comfort treat ever–and even I can’t mess it up.

I definitely learned a lesson or two about cooking with toddlers in the process.

1. These mysterious creatures really like an abundance of bowls and dry ingredients.

As soon as I lined up a trio of bowls on the table, crank face transformed into a happy, open individual that was eager to participate in whatever experiment was about to be conducted.

Once I broke out the flour, eagerness morphed into straight up glee. Wait. Are we about to cook here?! She was like the dog in the Beggin’ Strips commercial. She went to town on those bowls, even seeming to conduct a mini orchestra.

2. Wet ingredients are the devil.

Then there were the wet ingredients. The evil, horrible, no good, very bad wet ingredients.

They’re not so bad on their own, in their own little bowl. In fact, they’re kind of fun to squish around. But don’t you even dream of getting rid of the beloved dry ingredients by tainting them with wet ingredients. That’s just straight up blasphemous and may require an exorcism to help the toddler who suddenly seems to be possessed by the devil.

There will be screaming. And crying. There will be flailing limbs and ingredients flying through the air (in our case it was allspice).

3. Beginning to clean up is the most efficient method of toddler exorcism.

When it was obvious that my monster baby was inconsolable, I started to clean up. Something about my movements and whatever I was mumbling under my breath must have completely magical because you know what? She recovered. Instantly.

Suddenly she really, really needed to stir it up a bit more, to make sure I did everything right.

(Don’t you just want to bite those little wrist rolls?!)

The pumpkin bread turned out fantastic, by the way. It was moist and totally comforting. And let me tell you, I really needed that.

Here’s the recipe I used. Total and complete meltdown not included.

Let me tell you a little love story. It’s the unlikely story of a girl and her can of spray paint. Seriously. I’m in love. I’ve been holding onto this can of Krylon chrome spray paint for awhile now, unsure of what to do with it. When the calendar changed to September I immediately started hunting for DIY fall decor ideas. This is where our love story got started.

I was wandering around the dollar store looking for compasses to make a necklace that I saw over on Henry Happened. Compasses and cotton candy for Samantha (to her, the dollar store is synonymous with cotton candy). While we wandered, I saw a few sort of cheesy looking pumpkins and a little light went off inside my head. Why not use the spray paint on them?

Here’s all you need to do for some fab DIY fall decor:

Be still, my cheap little heart. I’m in love. This would also look good in gold (which is a little more autumnal, I guess). But I’m happy with how mine came out. I broke out the roll of burlap I purchased from the Michaels floral section a while back and put it underneath. I sprinkled a couple of the leaves I had removed around the pumpkins and put votives and pine cones (not pictured) on the ends.

I love my little fall vignette and now I want to spray paint everything! You can bet there will be more spray paint DIYs in the very near future.

As a side note, you know this cheap girl did not just leave it at that when there was extra foliage left over. Oh no. I don’t care how much I spent. I took those flowers and turned them into a little clip for my ladies (check out this post if you want to see how. It’s the same principle, you just swap out the headband for clips).

Here’s my monster baby decked out in it. Can you tell why I had such a hard time getting pictures for this post? She’s totally standing on the table that’s under our window trying to destroy my cheapo decor. This is why we don’t have nice things.

Have you found or made any fall decor yet?

Summer: Forever21 shorts / Tinley Road chevron necklace / Old Navy tami (tank + cami) / Guess flip flops / Fall layers: Old Navy cardigan / Forever21 layered necklace / Forever21 striped knit tights / Steve Madden oxfords

One of my favorite things about fall is the layers that go along with it. As it slowly gets cooler, we pile on more and more pieces to stay warm–which means we really get to experiment with what’s inside our closets.

The look I put together here is the perfect example of what I mean. It’s a mish mash (which, I’ll have you know, is a seriously technical term) of some of the most versatile pieces you could own.

If you’re trying to save some money, there’s no reason to run out and buy a whole new wardrobe for fall. Instead, shop your closet and add fall colors and textures to your summer faves. Think chunky knits and jewel tones mixed with some of summer’s bright colors. Cobalt is one of the best transitional colors. It goes as well with summer’s carefree tropical palette as it does with fall’s deeper jewel tones.

I am seriously cheap and trying to get on a tight budget, so I will most definitely be using this little tip in the coming weeks. In fact, if I invest in anything this fall it will probably just be a pair of oxfords. I’m kind of obsessed.

How do you transition to cooler temperatures? Are there any pieces that are on your must-have list this fall?