Harvest Festival songs, apple crumble & conkers – An Autumn Bucket List Update!

Last Updated on 14 September 2023 by Colette

Another sunny Autumn Sunday, another great day for ticking tasks off the Autumn bucket list!

Dave has made the most of the good weather and got some jobs done outside – clearing the guttering, resealing the back door (in the hope it might foil some of the slugs who think it’s ok to come in my kitchen every night – yeah I know, super grim) and generally getting some bits of tidying done while I took the chance for Granny and Grandad to have a good old Skype with the kids.  Chlo was very excited to talk to them and kept saying “you house” and telling them that she was playing outside with Ben.  Her language has come on loads recently so it was really nice for them to be able to actually chat with her.  Ben read them his school books and told them all about how he stays at school till tea time now.  In the middle of the conversation Ben suddenly asked “Is it Sunday today?” then got really excited when I told him it was as apparently that meant all the conkers would be falling from the trees!  I had to explain to Mum and Dad that this was in fact because I had told him we could go looking for conkers at the weekend as I’d been at work all week.  We agreed to go to the park after lunch.

Once we’d eaten and Chlo was asleep, Ben got ready to go to the park but decided he’d rather Daddy took him (this has been a bit of a theme this week – apparently he likes it “12 much better” when Daddy takes him to school!)  I set them the challenge of bringing me back a horse chestnut leaf, a conker in its case and one out of its case.  They were back really quickly – with the leaf, which was looking a bit worse for wear, and two conker cases which were surprisingly smooth.  It turned out that when you opened the cases the conkers inside just hadn’t formed – whether this is something to do with the weather this year or a problem with the tree I’m not sure.  We will keep looking but this one might be a bit of a “tried and failed” on the bucket list!

We decided to crack on and make the apple crumble while Chloe was sleeping.  (I really must do some baking with her this week but I decided the crumble was a better job for Ben).  He had a really good go at peeling the apples but it was a bit tricky and he gave up after a while preferring to just eat the apple peel instead!  (I’m not convinced that the peel of cooking apples can have tasted that nice but he seemed to enjoy it!)

While we were preparing the apples we listened to some Harvest Festival songs on youtube – Cauliflowers Fluffy and Autumn Days – he has been practising them for the Harvest Festival at school this week so enjoyed singing them to me – and I enjoyed singing along with him as they are firm favourites from my own school days!

As I cut all the chunks of apple up I explained to him that it needed cooking to make the apples soft and the sugar would stop them tasting bitter.  He enjoyed watching the softening process and told me they were going all mushy.  He was also happy to taste!  Making the crumble topping was quite a good job for Ben – I showed him how to rub the butter into the flour and sugar which he enjoyed – though in fairness I ended up doing a good chunk of it as he got bored!  He was really excited when it came out of the oven and was really looking forward to having it for tea – there were in fact tears when he realised it wasn’t his main course and the pasta would need eating first!

He loved his crumble and ate two helpings! When we told him he’d done a really good job he said “It’s all thanks to you though Mum!” (You can find a great apple crumble recipe here)

So here is the updated last – we’re not doing badly all!

1. Collect conkers 29.09.13 – attempted for 2nd time but poor harvest in our park! 

2. Get wrapped up and go to a bonfire (this might fall by the wayside depending on Beak!)

3. Kick leaves  22.09.13

4. Splash in puddles22.09.13 (and basically every wet school run!) 

5. Make an apple crumble  29.09.13

6. Enjoy the fireworks (assuming Ben and Chloe aren’t scared this year . . . )

7. Introduce Ben and Chloe to the joys of hot Ribena

8. Autumn themed crafts

9. Celebrate my beautiful god daughter’s 1st birthday21.09.13

10. Introduce the kids to the joy of sparklers

11. Blow “dragon breath” in the cold air

12. Leaf rubbings  

If you want to know more about our Autumn Bucket list check out the original post here: Autumn Bucket List