![\"pumpkinparty\"](\"http:\/\/momfactually.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/pumpkinparty.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n1. Don’t buy items in the season section if you can get them elsewhere.<\/strong><\/p>\n I realize you probably know this one, but it can be easy to forget. Target had orange plastic flatware in the Halloween section. I looked around in the regular party section for orange but couldn’t find any. Then, around a corner, there it was. The same amount as in the Halloween section, but at half the cost. We’re not talking big dollars here, it was $6 vs. $3, but every little bit helps. My forks may not have had the silver flecks, but no one seemed to notice.<\/p>\n 2. Leave time for photos, or not.<\/strong><\/p>\n I did not get And I thought briefly about taking a photo of the kids decorating pie pumpkins, because it was cute to see all different ages sharing glitter stickers and washi tape and all other accoutrements. A friend stopped to look out into the backyard with me, and it was so nice to share that moment and soak it in rather than reach for the phone.<\/p>\n And then in a flash there were drinks to pour and laughs to share. While I love sharing here with you, I’m working hard to remember that sharing with the people I am with and be present in the moment it just as important.<\/p>\n Also, I trust you’ve seen kids decorate pumpkins before.<\/p>\n I have mixed feelings on Martha, but I loved these cute clementine pumpkins that were the trifecta of hostessing goodness:<\/p>\n – easy and fast<\/p>\n – healthy<\/p>\n – cute and seasonal<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 4. Ditch the guilt and embrace the theme.<\/strong><\/p>\n I may have gone a bit overboard on the pumpkin theme, but you know what? It was worth it.<\/p>\n My kiddo is really big on recycling and when I was getting the aforementioned orange flatware, I felt guilty. I know, the walking landfill statistic sharer shouldn’t get to me like that. Then I figured we do this once a year and frankly, we didn’t have a lot of options, as I don’t have silverware for 20+. I shelved the guilt and decided the orange forks were fun (and pumpkin napkins, and orange plates, and orange cups, etc.).<\/p>\n We recycled where we could, and I figured that it’s been a decade since I’ve purchased a lot of orange items. We’ll hang on to the extras for next year given that it doesn’t appear we’ll be hosting a Chicago Bears Super Bowl party. (Good grief that team is just bad!)<\/p>\n 5. Clean up can wait.<\/strong><\/p>\n This may be my favorite lesson of all.<\/p>\n I usually like to clean up right away, but yesterday was the warmest day we had had in October. It was 70 degrees and sunny, so when my husband suggested a hike at the Arboretum, I just couldn’t say no.<\/p>\n Confession: I did get one load in the dishwasher and running quickly before left, which probably made it much more enjoyable for me.<\/p>\n The cookie sheets, silpats, muffin tins? Those all sat, and we walked.<\/p>\n A day with fun friends, yummy food and quality family time is as good as it gets, I think.<\/p>\n Please like Mom Factually on Facebook<\/a>.<\/strong> You can also find MF on Pinterest<\/a>, Twitter, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fall is such a fun time and full of so many wonderful flavors that I thought the last weekend of October would be perfect timing for hosting a fall brunch. Yesterday was the big day and all together we had 22 people – 12 children ranging in age from 5 to 14 and 9 adults. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=789"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6088,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789\/revisions\/6088"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}m<\/del>any photos, but really I was just lucky that my hair wasn’t sopping wet when my guests showed up. One friend did take the photo below of some of the food.<\/p>\n<\/a>3. Martha Stewart isn’t all wrong.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/a>Seems like Martha new that simple was best with these items. Sounds silly, but it was a reminder that I can take what works for me from sources, and leave what doesn’t.<\/p>\n<\/a>Not only did the world keep spinning, but we had a great time outdoors, soaking up the golden last days of fall. I’m so glad that we had that time and that I didn’t miss it standing at the sink.<\/p>\n