Our Annual Herrmann Family Fall Festival

I’m not sure when this tradition began, but sometime within the last 5-10 years or so my mom started inviting all her grand kids to my parents’ house in October for a day of fun fall activities. It’s quickly become one of my favorite family activities. The first event began modestly enough, with a hayride on my dad’s tractor and decorating pumpkins. Now, the family ‘fall festival’ has evolved into a day packed with so many activities that this year we were still outside past 9pm, stuffing scarecrows and mixing spooky potions. The grand kids (and their parents) love it, and the day ranks right up there with Christmas in the family get-together rankings.

If you’re looking for some fun fall activities for your kids to do at home, Kathy Herrmann can help. Here is just a sample of the fun she had planned for us last weekend.

BYOBP. The only thing we need to bring for each of the kids is a pair of black pants. Every year my mom buys new matching skeleton shirts for each grandkid to wear. She usually finds them at The Children’s Place. They're really cheap, offer something matching in every size, and the shirts glow in the dark   

My mom decorates the house inside and out. The fall festival decorations this year included two ghosts she made that were about 5 feet tall. She used sheets purchased at a thrift store and my dad’s tomato plant cages give them the height and shape. Later on, my nieces (who are about 5 feet tall) decided to remove the tomato plant cages and hide inside the sheets. They scared anyone who walked outside and got me pretty good! Even the fallen leaves served as great fall festival decor. Piles were a perfect backdrop for photos too. Here's baby Walter attempting to sit in the leaves.

The activities for the day were nonstop. We had to focus on moving from one thing to another quickly, or we’d never get to it all. In was a pretty tall order, but we did our best attempting to get to it all.

The hayride is (in my opinion), the must-have activity for the fall festival each year. My dad hitches the trailer to his riding lawnmower, fills it with hay and we all climb in. Oh, and this part is very important…don’t forget the cheese balls. I don’t know how this became a necessity, but everyone gets a bag of cheese balls for the ride. It’s one of my favorite parts of the day. It’s fun to ride around the neighborhood and see everyone’s decorations, and we time it for right around sunset for an even prettier ride.

There was also scarecrow stuffing, an RIP coffin beanbag game, a scavenger hunt, “magic potions” using Alka Seltzer, a witches hat and spider ring toss, mummy toilet paper races, and another favorite: the apple cider donut eating contest.

The crafts this year were top notch. Unexpectedly, our 2 year-old’s favorite activity was a rubber hand that you add stickers and blow up with a straw. She had fun making it and is still playing with it to this day. We also made ghosts, light pumpkins with lollipop ghosts, and “eye balls” using donut holes, gummy rings and M&M’s.

The food is usually the center of any Herrmann party. Fall Fest did not disappoint. Witches fingers, broomsticks, mummy hotdogs, chili, caramel apples and more. The orange punch was Trudy’s favorite, complete with a frozen ice hand and floating eyeballs.