Fall is our favorite time of year. It cools down, the leaves change color, we break out the hot apple cider and tell ghost stores. Here are our top six family activities you may want to try this fall.

1. Take a hike

Sometime during the beginning of autumn the leaves start to turn color. This is prime time to get out and enjoy nature, just be sure to bring your camera along. Watch the local weather forecasts, or ask the locals in your area if you are unsure when the leaves will be at their best. Pack a warm mug of cider, and take the kids out for some beautiful, uplifting scenery.

2. Leaf Collage

For small kids, one of our favorite family activities includes leaves and wax paper. We venture out with paper bags to collect the most beautiful leaves, glowing in all their orange and red brilliance. At home, we sandwich them between two pieces of wax paper, place a thin cloth over the top, and iron them flat. The wax paper sticks to itself and helps preserve our piece of nature. These leaf pictures are fragile after ironed, and should be handled with care.

3. Neighborhood Walkabout

If you can organize your neighborhood, this would be the ideal activity for you. Get a few families to volunteer for goodies and draw a simple map with a date and time. Copy your map and hand it out to your neighbors. When the anticipated date arrives, start at the beginning of your map and take a walk around the neighborhood. Have fun looking at your neighbors' decorations and maybe even make some new friends. Be sure to stop by the volunteer homes for some goodies along the way.

4. Hot Apple Cider Stand

We see the cute little ones with lemonade in the summer, why not send them out with hot apple cider in the fall? Parents need to be a little more involved in the apple cider stand, you don't want your children to handle hot water alone, but this can be a great way to spend time with your kids on a chilly afternoon. You could even suggest the kids sell the cider to support a cause, or a family, that is in need of assistance.

5. Attack of the Acorn men

Kids love collecting acorns, pinecones, and many other types of nuts that fall from our local trees. Take them home and give them a rinse, then break out the googly eyes and the hot glue gun. You can get as simple or as extravagant as you want creating your acorn army. This is also a great activity to get Dad involved in, watch his inner boy come to life as he glues googly eyes on nuts and giggles with his children.

6. Leave some room

When the leaves start to fall off the trees we dust off our trusty rakes and go to work. We try and rake our leaves into a pile, or loosely in a few bags, in anticipation of our leaf celebration. When we finally decide we have enough leaves, we find a spot in our front yard and invite the neighborhood kids over. We dump all the leaves into one enormous pile and let the kids have fun. This can mulch leaves into tiny pieces in your lawn. If you prefer for this not to happen we would suggest creating your leaf pile in your garden area, or even your driveway where you can sweep or blow away the debris.

Whatever your family decides to do this fall, do it together. The time you spend giggling and celebrating will mean more to you than all the quiet evenings alone in the world. Get out and enjoy the fall season, who knows, it may become your favorite season too!