San Diego Fall Bucket List 2018

We may not have a dramatic changing of seasons here in San Diego but there is plenty to do to celebrate Fall! Whether you are local or visiting, here's my list of must-do events and places to visit to celebrate Fall in SoCal. Considering we have to fit in having baby, checking off the entire list may be a bit ambitious for us this year. What are you most looking forward to this season? 

1. Visit Bates Nut Farm pumpkin patch
Visiting the field of Big Macs at Bates is an annual tradition for us. The pumpkin patches are the main attraction but every year the celebration seems to get bigger and better. We love visiting and feeding the goats, the pony rides and hayrides and straw maze. Go early in the season when the patches are still full of pumpkins for the best photo opportunities. Go early in the day because the traffic to get to the farm gets crazy backed up.You can see photos and my mom tips from last year's visit here.

[Every year the Big Macs look smaller next to my growing kid]

2. Julian Apple Season
Drive just an hour from the city and you will be in a whole other world/time. Julian offers all the rustic, leaf-crunching Fall fun that you can't find anywhere else in the county. Starting early September, you can go and do alllll the apple things: apple picking, apple cider drinking (SO GOOD), apple pie eating. We love visiting the Julian Mining Company, Mom's Pies and browsing the shops on main street. Apple picking season varies year to year so be sure to call ahead if you are planning to visit a particular orchard.

[Itty bitty baby Parker at Volcan Valley Apple Farm]

3. Celebrate Dia De Los Muertos in around town
Culturally immerse yourself and honor lost loved ones in one of Mexico's most important holidays, Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead). There are many celebrations around town but the biggest can be found in Old Town where you can find entertainment, authentic food, activities for all ages including a catrina and catrin costume contest, arts & crafts and skeleton displays. If your kiddo is a fan of Coco, they will love celebrating Day of the Dead.

4. Legoland Halloween Brick-or-Treat
You love Legos? You love Halloween? Every October, the theme park hosts Brick-or-Treat, a special ticketed event that gives guests access to Halloween exclusives and special goodies throughout the park. We've never been but it looks like a great event and we are planning to attend this year.

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Hey Pass Members! You can purchase special rate tickets for Brick-or-Treat Party Nights on MyLEGOLAND.com. Merlin Annual Pass Premium and Ambassador Pass Members receive FREE admission.

A post shared by LEGOLAND California (@legolandcalifornia) on Aug 26, 2018 at 7:02pm PDT

5. Mid-Autumn Moon Festival
The Mid-Autumn moon festival was one of my favorite holidays to celebrate as a kid. My parents would let us stay up late, parade our lanterns around and eat decadent moon cakes. My favorite moon cake is the one with the double yoke but I have been wanting to learn how to make snow skin mooncakes for a few years. Maybe this will be the year! Here is a list of ideas on how to celebrate the Moon Festival with kids.

6. Kids free in October
The huge summer crowds are gone and now is perfect the time to visit San Diego's top attractions, hotels and restaurants. The list of locations offering free admission to kids is massive (100+) and includes some of our favorites like the Birch Aquarium, New Children's Museum, Fleet Science Center and the Living Coast Discovery Center. 

7. Stuff your face with seasonal pies from some of the best local bakeries.
This may be a pregnancy thing but I'm really really into pies right now. Fall is the best because every bakery is stocked with pumpkin, apple and berry pies. My personal favorite places to get pie are Pop Pie Co. and Moms Pies where they make everything from scratch. Don't forget the scoop of ice cream!

Comment below if there are any local events that you think should be on this list!

10th Annual Chu Family Pumpkin Carving Contest

It's hard to believe that we have been hosting our annual Chu Family Pumpkin Carving Contest (now known as CFPCC) for 10 years now. Every year we switch it up with a new theme/rules to make carving a little more challenging. This year we cut the carving down to 1 hour to really challenge all the participants (we usually carve for 2-4 hours). Almost everyone carved this year including my dad. The kids are really getting into it now that they are older and we can trust them with sharp objects. Pumpkin carving is one of my absolute favorite family traditions and I can't wait to to dethrone Tania in 2018! Scroll down to see the winners of this year's contest. Happy Halloween from our family to yours!

[What's that, Tim Gunn?]

2017 Winners

Adult Category

[1st place - Tania's Oogie Boogie]

[2nd place - Noah's Scary Clown]

[3rd place - My Pennywise]

Kids Category

[2nd place - Parker's crab]

[3rd place - Andrew's Dracula]

Pumpkins that didn't make the cut (pun intended).

Annual Bates Nut Farm Visit 2017

I remember the first time we took Parker to Bates Nut Farm to see the big macs. He was barely standing and we had to lean him against the big macs to get the shots. He was shorter than some of the pumpkins! Fast forward to 2017, and my now 4 year old could barely stand still for a photo. He wanted to run through the fields, pick up the pumpkins and was totally distracted by the tractor rides. I started this blog as a public diary of our journey through parenthood in San Diego. Annual traditions like visiting Bates are reminders of how far we've come as parents and how Parker growing into a handsome, independent little boy. 

2016

2015

2014

2013

Bates Nut Farm

15954 Woods Valley Road

Valley Center, CA 92802

Mom tips:

-Sunblock, water and closed toe shoes are a must.

-Bring quarters if you want to buy corn to feed to animals.

-Bates now charges a $5 cash only parking fee

-The number of vendors and food trucks has increased significantly. Woo hoo!

-We visiting late in the season this year and most of the big macs were already gone. There were still plenty of pumpkins though!

Glow Stick Halloween Printable

Can you believe that Halloween is next Monday? I'm so excited! P's class is having a costume party to celebrate and I worked with my talented sister Tania to come up with a teal pumpkin project friendly Halloween treat for the kids in his class. I've been a supporter of the teal pumpkin project for the past couple of years and am happy to continue the tradition with these fun glow stick treats this year. 

Instructions

All you have to do is click on the download icon below for the printable file, print and cut along the two black lines then insert a bracelet sized glow stick (8"). Glow sticks are plentiful in-store this time of year and very affordable. You can also order 100 for $10 on Amazon.

For more information on how you can help to raise awareness of food allergies and promote inclusion of all trick-or-treaters this Halloween season visit the F.A.R.E. teal pumpkin project website. 

Click on the icon below to download the printable!

Epic Octopus Costume Photos and Instructions

After many many hours of watching Jonathan Bird's Blue World videos on Youtube, Parker decided he wanted to be an octopus for Halloween this year. Not just any octopus, a blue ringed octopus. Threenagers have very specific needs. You feel me, mamas? So I said challenge accepted and started researching octopus costumes and inspo. If you follow me on Pinterest and were wondering what I was up to, now you know. There is a method to my madness! I lucked out in finding this octopus costume pattern and tutorial from Martha Stewart and the rest was history. Enjoy these snaps of my little octopus contemplating his return to the sea. All photo credits belong to my wonderful husband who is totally supportive of my crazy ideas. 

This costume took a total of 4 hours of actual sewing and construction time. Add a few hours for the time it took for the puffy paint to dry. In total, it took me 4 days to complete the whole project because trying to find 4 hours of time to craft is nearly impossible.

I perused the aisles of Joann's to find a solid yellow cotton similar to this and a lighter patterned yellow cotton for the interior that looked like octopus suckers. I used the instructions from this DIY Octopus Costume tutorial to add a bit of a curl to the tentacles.

After sewing the outer part of the cape together, I pulled up a few photos of blue ringed octopuses (octopi?) and drew the blue ringed octopus pattern onto the outer part of the cape using brown and blue puffy paint. I had considered cutting the rings out of felt and sewing them on but figured puffy paint would be less time consuming. The paint actually gives the costume a cool texture too. Threenagers totally appreciate hand painted fabric, right?

After the paint dried overnight, I finished sewing all the parts of the costume together and let Parker help me stuff the tentacles and head with poly-fil. He loved that part! Side note: the "filling tool" aka single chopstick that comes in the poly-fil bag is such a joke. HA!

I was so happy with how the costume turned out that I made Parker and Tuan go down to La Jolla Shores to snap some photos. We arrived as the sun was setting and the tide was low. It was perfect and Tuan did a fantastic job capturing the essence of the costume.

Now the only thing left to do is make my tiger shrimp costume and our family will be all set for Halloween. Happy crafting, everyone!

If you have any questions about the costume, leave a comment below!