Fall is my favorite season. I love when the temperatures start to cool down and we can all return to the outdoors (because who wants to be outside when its 98 degrees in the summer, right?).I love pumpkin picking, fall festivals, corn mazes, Oktoberfesting and nights by the fire pit. I love pumpkin spice, baking cookies and hearty soups for dinner. If fall was a person, it would be my bestie.

Now that you know all the things I love about fall, I will share one thing that I don’t enjoy year round – cleaning. I love when our home is tidy and cozy but cleaning just doesn’t float my boat. I love finding ways to get things done quickly so that we can get back to all the fun stuff!

Off all the chores there are to do, cleaning the floors is my least favorite, but if you have kids or pets (or both) you know that cleaning the floors is one of the most important chores. Even though Alex is 9, he still spends most of his time laying around and playing on the floor and with our new puppy, cleaning the floors is even more necessary because dogs shed in the fall! Enter Bona to the rescue!

The Bona Quick Clean System is designed to speed up cleaning and give you extra time for all the fun stuff. The Bona mop has an extra large head that covers more surface area in each swipe. The dusting pads are great at picking up dog hair and holding it in with their 3D fibers, but the wet pads are the real MVPs. They lock into place on the mop head with special locking strips and clean the floor better than a traditional mop and bucket. They are infused with Bona cleaner, which is water based and GREENGUARD GOLD certified to ensure a safe product for your family, pets and our planet. The solution is residue-free and dries quickly which is great because we all know that little feet are especially attracted to wet, freshly mopped floors.

Since the Bona wet pads eliminate the need for a bucket full of water, I feel good about enlisting the help of the kiddo in cleaning the floors. The only thing that is worse than a dirty floor is a bucket of dirty water that needs to be lugged to the bathroom to be spilled out. I can also feel good letting him learn to mop with the Bona because I know it won’t leave streaks on the floor because the solutions dries quickly.

With the Bona Quick Clean System, we are able to cross off all the chores on the list together and return to our regularly scheduled fall fun! When you live in a town with four pumpkin patches, you know there is a lot of fall fun to be had!

What are your favorite fall activities? What is your least favorite chore?

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The pinecones in the vases are ones that I picked and dried myself. They have been going strong for 3 years!

Felt pumpkins and pumpkin bowl are from the Target dollar spot.

The tree print is from The Print Cafe on Etsy and was our wedding guest book. The leaves are signed by all of our guests. I love that we have a daily reminder of all our loved ones who celebrated the day with us.

The hedgehog has measuring cups stored in the log!

After Halloween, I put away the halloween themed items and replace them with a few things that I have for Thanksgiving. All of the general fall decor stays the same.

Copper Candle Lantern | Lightbox | Apple Vase Filler | Pumpkin Vase Filler | Letterboard | Orange Mercury Glass Pumpkin (similar) | Silver Mercury Glass Pumpkin (similar) | Boo Pillow (similar)| Hedgehog Measuring Cups | Leaf Garland

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Once we got to the top of the hill where the orchards are located, we were given some boxes and a map to show us where different varieties of applies grew. We went mostly for Golden Delicious and Cortland apples.

Alex loved climbing under the trees to get the lowest hanging apples.

He also had some help getting the apples at the very top. I think we had an advantage being so tall because the tops of the trees where covered in apples, while the middles were almost bare.

The leaves have started changing colors already and it was just nice to stop and look around because the views were just so gorgeous.

We made it home with a bushel and a half of apples. We gave a whole bunch away already and still have more than a box left. We have all been snacking on apples and we also made one of my fall favs – apple crisp.

The whole house smells like fall and I LOVE IT!

Do you go apple picking? What are your favorite fall activities?

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When we were at the pumpkin patch, we ate Apple Cider Donuts

that were amazing. They were warm, gooey and on my mind for days. Since driving back to the patch wasn’t an option, I decided to make my own with a healthy twist.

Baked Whole Wheat Apple Cider Donuts

 

Print

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

15 mins

Total time

30 mins

 

Serves: 24 mini donuts

Ingredients

• Apple Cider Donuts
• 2 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ¼ tsp nutmeg
• ¼ tsp allspice
• ½ tsp salt
• ⅔ cup maple syrup
• ½ cup apple cider
• ½ cup apple sauce
• 1 tbsp coconut oil
• Apple Cider Glaze
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 tbsp apple cider

Instructions

1. Preheat the over to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and spices and set aside.
3. In a separate bowl mix together the maple syrup, apple cider, apple sauce and melted coconut oil.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until well combined.
5. Pour the mixture into donut pan. (If you don't have donut pan, these would also work as muffins!)
6. Bake for 10-15 minutes (longer if you're using a muffin pan) or until a toothpick comes out clean.
7. To make the glaze whisk together apple cider and powdered sugar.
8. Once donuts are cooled drizzle with glaze and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

3.2.1255

I hope you enjoy these!

What’s your favorite fall treat?

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I had read online that a new playground opened recently in Prospect Park that used trees that fell during Hurricane Sandy as play equipment for kids, so we decided to check it out.The little man loved it and it was really fun to climb the huge branches and tree stumps. It goes to show that you don’t need fancy park equipment for a kid to have a good time!

I love Prospect Park because it is quiet, serene and makes you feel like you’ve escaped NYC, but you can walk a few minutes in any direction and hit the busy streets. We had a lot of fun exploring the less trafficked paths through the park. I was surprised to see that not all of the leaves on the trees had changed colors, but it was fun spotting the bright reds and yellows among the green.

I am definitely soaking up the warm and sunny days before it gets too cold to go on these types of adventures. I wish fall never had to end!

What’s your favorite local nature spot?

P.S. There’s a winner on my Skinny Limits Juice Cleanse giveaway! Congrats Elena!  Congrats Jesse! Send me an email at frolicthroughlife@gmail.com so we can get you set up with your cleanse!

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On Sunday we headed out to Long Island to go pumpkin picking at Stakey’s Pumpkin Farm. Going to Stakey’s with Tommy’s goddaughter has become a family tradition and every single year, it seems that the weather stinks. Either way we always have a blast, and what kid doesn’t like getting muddy, right?

I love Stakey’s because you get to actually go out into the field and pick your pumpkins off the vine, they have a ton of different varieties and their fields are huge. You could walk around for hours picking out pumpkins and if you’re like me, you find way too many perfect pumpkins and have a hard time choosing which ones to bring home. My favorite part is that you can pay for your pumpkin by the pound or do the all you can carry option, which is just what it sounds like. For $25 you can take home anything you can carry. We got 84 pounds of pumpkin!

No trip to the pumpkin farm is complete without some Apple Cider donuts. These were made while we waited and the little hands couldn’t wait for them to cool.

Now to carve the pumpkins!

Do you have any fall traditions? Do you go pumpkin picking?

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I can’t wait to start crossing things off my list and I know that a few will be out after this weekend!

What’s on your fall bucket list?

P.S. The VTech Roll & Learn Activity Suitcase winner was chosen. Check if it was you!

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First up are two of my favorite fall breakfasts – pumpkin pancakes and pumpkin french toast!

Dinners have been yummy too, and the perfect things to warm you up on a chilly afternoon.

Tortellini Soup with a side of Corn Bread.

Spaghetti Squash with Turkey Meatballs and Mushroom Marinara.

Desserts have been pretty amazing too!

We baked pink Madeleine’s for the Breast Cancer Bake Sale at my mom’s work. We also dipped some in white chocolate and sprinkles with pink heart sprinkles. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture of the final product…they were so cute, and a hit at the sale!

A 16 Handles opened up just a few blocks from my subway stop and I had to indulge. Fist Pumpkin, Salted Caramel and Graham Cracker topped with some berries, mini peanut butter cups and sprinkles.

I’ve also been loving Oktoberfest and Pumpkin beers, but those deserve a post of their own so I will leave you with just this teaser!

What’s the best thing you’ve eaten lately?

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BOOM! How cute and silly are these guys?

When I first saw this idea in Rachael Ray’s Everyday magazine, I figured that it would be time-consuming and messy, but that was soo far from the case.

We made sure to put down a tarp to keep our sidewalk from getting painted and got to work. We used just the cheapo, Home Depot store brand spray paint, and it worked great.

I enlisted the help of Tommy to do the painting. We used quick, short sprays to cover the pumpkins, making sure not to overspray and leave drip marks. Even though the paint cans said that it should be dry withing 15 minutes, we waited overnight. The next day I flipped the pumpkins and painted their butts.

I left them to dry for about an hour to dry before flipping them back over, and painting on the eyes. This is probably the only part that I regret joining cheapo on. I opted to buy acrylic craft paint and a plain old paintbrush, but it would’ve worked better if I spent the extra three bucks and bought a paint pen. Live and learn.

Anyway, I drew on the outlines of the eyes with a pen and filled it

in with the paint. I drew on the irises and fixed the outlines with a black sharpie and viola!

Do you decorate for Halloween?

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Stakey’s has a flat rate for all you can carry, so we loaded up all eight pumpkin and had Tommy carry them. He almost lost a few along the way, but luckily they all made it to the register in one piece. The kiddies also got to jump in the bouncy castle before the rain returned. I was hoping on getting into the corn maze, but we had to get going and out of the rain. All in all, we had a great time, and got a great deal on our pumpkins!

I love these little traditions that we are starting with Munchkin and I cannot wait to decorate our pumpkins and the rest of the house.

What are your fall traditions?

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