Naturally Nutty...a fall centerpiece

A certain little someone in our house has fallen in love.  With preschool.

We planned on giving him Labor Day off since Daddy would be home, but he insisted that he wanted to do it with Daddy there.  So, we continued on with our Fall and Nature themes.  We traced some different shaped leaves in his journal, did some activity sheets, then we decided to get out in nature and experience it hands-on.

First, we headed to our favorite local orchard where pick-your-own apples are in season!

As always, we had fun riding the tractor, and Little Crafter had a ball picking the fruit off the trees.

We also took some time to play on the playground there, of course, and to take this silly picture.

Cracks. me. up.

Then, after we got home, we went hunting for nuts.  Yup, that's right.  Last week, we happened to be at a playground with some friends of ours and there were acorns everywhere.  Little Crafter and his buddies had the best time hunting for them and then tossing them at trees...  Anyway, he thought there should be some at home too.  Except that I didn't know of any nut-producing trees within walking distance of our house.  He insisted that we keep looking, and sure enough, we did come upon one single tree that had what we were looking for...kind of.  I have no idea what kind of nuts these are, but we collected them by the bagful!

Anyone want to enlighten me?  I know they're not acorns and they're  not walnuts, but I'm not exactly a nut expert. ;)  Whatever they are, we decided to use them for our centerpiece since now that Labor Day is here I can officially start making fall crafts!

First, we had to shell {peel?} them.  Easier said than done.

Then, we put them in my trusty hurricane vase.  Have I mentioned how much I love this thing?  For a look at how I've used it for every season this past year, check out my Cheap & Easy Centerpieces post.

I love how fall-y it looks without having the Halloween vibe that last year's candy corn did.  I'll use this for the rest of September, then switch it out for the candy in October {don't worry, Matt, I won't keep it inedible forever}.

Well, I'm off to enjoy the rest of the day with my boys.

Meanwhile, hope this inspires you to get ready for the Fall Craft Challenge...

the first topic comes out this Friday! {If you think you already saw it, you're not going crazy...it accidently auto-posted for just a few hours last Friday before I realized it and took it down}.

I'm looking forward to seeing what beautiful things you all make!