Fall Activities

One of my favorite things about October is the changing of the seasons - especially the leaves and the cooler temperatures (although it has been 80 degrees this week).  I heard an advertisement on the radio this morning about fall. It said: “Your home décor is like a leaf, it changes in the fall.”

Now I’m not the type of person that completely changes everything in my apartment with each new season, but I do appreciate a few fall decorations. With the creation of Pinterest, it is easy to see how many people are much more creative than I am when it comes to home décor.  

From what I can tell, this fall is all about mums, wreaths, and of course pumpkins.  When I was younger, I remember picking out the biggest one I could carry from the local pumpkin patch outside of town. When my sisters and I were little, my mom would only let us decorate the outside of the pumpkins with markers. It was a contest to see who could draw the scariest face! It was only when we were older that we actually got to carve them.

I also remember the contest in school to guess how many pumpkin seeds were inside. You would pull out the “guts” with your hands to see how close you got to your guess.  (This is still one of my favorite memories.)

The Washington State Fair has a Giant Pumpkin Carving celebration on their Fairgrounds during the fall. The public is invited to watch giant pumpkins turn into works of art. Maybe one day, the Fairgrounds 5k will expand into a Fall Festival. With food, music, and pumpkin carving contests in addition to the run. Would there be any Fair-goers that would eat a Fair Square, funnel cake or even bacon along the race route?  I’d hope so!

New for this year’s Fairgrounds 5K, corndogs will be served after the race. Nothing compares to an Iowa State Fair corndog and now you can enjoy one “guilt free” after running.

This October I hope you enjoy; the changing weather, carving pumpkins and I encourage you to add running the 5K to support the Iowa State Fair to your list!