If fall isn’t your favorite season…you’re basically wrong. The weather is great, the clothes are great, the food is warm and comforting, and then there’s Halloween and Thanksgiving. My friend Riju loves Halloween and in an effort to keep me very busy during the month of October, she sent me the “31 Days of Halloween to do list” to do. This blog will be my recap…with one caveat: some of the items were modified but totally still count!
No. 1 – Bake Halloween cookies. Krista, Nicole and the cookie-decorating master Avery helped out with this one.



No. 2 – Drink cider

No. 3 – Watch a classic monster movie. This one was completed…just not documented. I watched some freaky movie about Halloween.
No. 4 – Make pumpkin bread with fresh pumpkin. This one was also completed with help from Krista.



No. 5 – Collect different color fall leaves. I didn’t know what I would do with a handful of leaves, so I just took pictures during a hike.



No. 6 – Eat a caramel apple. I got this one at Treinen Farm in Lodi.


No. 7 – Build a fire. This one was very unconventional…but fire is fire right?

No. 8 – Go on a hay ride. The hay ride at Treinen Farm was pretty interesting. It was one of the only cold and rainy days in October, but Nicole, miss Avery and I made the best of it!

No. 9 – Eat a Halloween Oreo. They don’t taste different, but I feel like they should!



No. 10 – Wear orange. I don’t own anything orange, so this scarf will have to do.
This picture also qualifies as No. 21, which is eat a caramel apple Milky way…but they don’t make those anymore, so I had a caramel apple pop instead!

No. 11 – Watch Hocus Pocus. Thanks to Mary and Kevin Arbuckle for the movie access and the prop!

No. 12 – Drink a pumpkin spice latte.


No. 13 – Eat candy corn. This nasty Halloween treat goes pretty well with coffee!


No. 14 – Play in the leaves…see No. 5.
No. 15 – Drink spicy tea. The Trader Joe’s version I got was not good.


No. 16 – Bake an apple pie. I thought this was going to be one of the hardest ones on the list…but Krista and I made a pretty great pie!




No. 17 – Carve a pumpkin. Steph and I carved Frank the Pumpkin…harvested at Treinen Farms for No. 23.







No. 18 – Host a spooky movie night. I’d say mine was technically a movie afternoon…but it totally counts.
No. 19 – Eat Frankenberry, BooBerry or Count Chocula. I chose BooBerry…


No. 20 – Drink pumpkin ale or beer. Thanks Marissa for sharing your pumpkin beer!

No. 21 – Eat a caramel apple Milky Way. See No. 10.

No. 22 – Roast pumpkin seeds. Steph and I roasted the shit out of Frank’s seeds!







No. 23 – Visit a pumpkin patch. Nicole, miss Avery and I braved the rain and cold to find Frank the Pumpkin at Treinen Farm.


No. 24 – Dance to Thriller. Mary Arbuckle and I got our groove on. A short, yet extremely entertaining video, is available on Facebook.

No. 25 – Visit an OctoberFest…was replaced with “drink an OctoberFest beer.” Thanks Kevin Arbuckle for the beer!

No. 26 – Collect cool pumpkins. Thanks for the pumpkins dad!

No. 27 – Sit on the porch and smell the rain…this one seemed odd, but here’s a rainy picture from my balcony.

No. 28 – Visit a haunted house. I hate haunted houses, but Mary Arbuckle found one for little kids…so I consented. Favorite quote of the night: “Hannah…stop screaming, you’re scaring the giraffe (who was probably about 2 and being carried by her dad).”

No. 29 – Make a Halloween playlist.

No. 30 – Decorate the house – inside and out. Thanks to the instigator of all of this, Riju, for the new Halloween owl!




No. 31 – Go trick or treating. I gave away candy at Kevin and Mary’s…I also got trick-or-treat candy at the haunted house…all of this counts…none of it is documented.
SUCCESS! #Fallbucketlist complete!