Friday Flashback: This Used to be so Much Easier

Fall has always been my favorite time of the year. I love the colors of the changing leaves, the color of the seasonal produce and, well, the color pallet in general, I suppose. I also love the activities that come with fall, apple picking, corn mazes, trips to the pumpkin patch, pumpkin carving, caramel apple dipping and, a bit later on, Trick-or-Treating on Halloween night.

Unfortunately, as my kids get older, they are becoming, shall we say, less inclined to accompany me on such excursions which, sucks, Big Time.

And, while I enjoy the activities that they are involved in right now, the memories of which will no doubt fold themselves seamlessly into my love of all things autumn; I kind of miss the way it used to be, back when they were small and at my mercy in planning their social routines.

For instance, from the time they were all quite small, Jana and I would take the kids on an annual fall picnic and pinecone-hunting expedition after which, the girls would craft birdfeeders from the pinecones while the boys raced about the yard, raking piles of leaves in which to hurl themselves.

We went to the same picnic spot pretty much every year and, with the exception of perhaps one time, the weather was always picture perfect.

In addition to our picnics, we would take the kids on some other fall expedition, usually featuring a pumpkin patch, a hayride, a corn maze or some combination of the three.

These excursions gave the kids a chance to play together as well as giving me and Jana some much needed adult time and, while we still have an occasional opportunity to get together these days, it just isn’t quite the same.

Oh, and convincing two out of five of the children to dress up for Halloween Trick-or-Treating? Yeah, totally isn’t happening.

And that kind of makes me feel old.