Fall Bucket List

Fall is a busy time of year with school, fall sports, and the never-ending list of chores to get ready for the winter. (This is when having a pool is not that much fun.) One way I try to make sure that we schedule some family fun in there is to make a bucket list of fun things that we want to do.

When I first started doing this, I thought our list had to include things that are bigger, more extravagant… you know, a trip somewhere. But as the kids have gotten older, I’ve asked them what fun things they would like to do. I was surprised at the simple pleasures they’ve come up with and most of them are free or low cost! Woohoo!

Here is our Fall Bucket List

Apple picking

Nothing says fall quite like picking apples. There is a little family owned orchard near us where they let us pick apples and take a little taste test while picking. We went to the orchard in search of Honey Crisp apples, but they were about a week past their peak season. Our disappointment was soon changed when one of the workers introduced us to a different variety of apple that I hadn’t heard of before, the Snow Apple. The worker said it’s also called the lunch box apple because the flesh is snow white and it doesn’t brown quickly after you cut it, like most apples do. Our first bite sold us on the Snow apple. The apple was sweet, juicy, and crisp. I think I might even like it better than the Honey Crisp apple.

Go to ArtPrize (an annual art competition in Grand Rapids)

ArtPrize is an annual international art competition in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan. It requires a lot of walking, so if you’re going, be sure to wear comfortable shoes. We weren’t able to see everything before the kids got tuckered out, but we were able to see a lot of it. Our top three favorites were…

“Mastermind America” I couldn’t get a photo of the full canvas. It was huge and so was the crowd!

“Mastermind America” by Alexi Torres: This one was my favorite. It looks three-dimensional in the photograph, but it isn’t. It’s just oil on canvas. We started playing “I spy” with it for a couple minutes, with everyone picking out something that they noticed. We could’ve spent hours looking at this piece, but the crowd was large and we had to keep moving.

The piece that was around the corner from this one was a large canvas with naked men painted in great detail. I didn’t take a picture of that one. We breezed passed it as fast as we could, while we tried to block the view of our very curious children who were rubbernecking and pointing. Why is it that every time we want to show our kids some culture, there has to be a wanker involved?

Cosmo Joe working his magic with spray paint

Cosmo Joe: This guy can do amazing things with spray paint. We stood by and watched as he created this beautiful painting of the Grand Rapids skyline in less than 15 minutes.

We were so impressed with Cosmo Joe, that we bought this. Amazing what he can do with spray paint!

The String Project: Click on this link to see this incredible collection of photographs from around the world. In the String Project, all of the people are holding the same simple string to symbolize how we are all connected. So cool!