No doubt you’ve seen the proliferation of pumpkins and mums at every store in town–fall is officially here!  If you missed our earlier post on the city’s Pumpkin Patches and Apple Orchards, check it out–there are so many to choose from, and they are located in every corner of the metro.

Speaking of pumpkin patches, you won’t want to miss the annual Crown Center Pumpkin Patch, which will be Saturday, October 10, 2009, at Crown Center Square, from 10am until 5pm.  Featuring over 30000 pounds of pumpkins, the event benefits Children’s Therapeutic Learning Center (CTLC), one of our valued community partners.  Proceeds help support the mission of CTLC, which is to provide therapeutic and educational services for children with disabilities in an environment which fosters their independence and celebrates their successes.  This is lots and lots of fun!

Another fun place you won’t want to miss is Lee’s Summit’s Paradise Park.  I wrote about Paradise Park this summer, after a great outing with my son.  We rode the go-karts and went miniature golfing in July.  Now that fall is here, Paradise Park has a Tractor-Pulled Hayride and Pumpkin Patch, a Haunted Castle Maze and the popular Foam Factory has transformed into “Ollie’s Haunted Foam Factory”!  For those of you celebrating fall birthdays…you can even host a birthday party–complete with s’mores, pizza, birthday cake and video games.  What fun!

If you missed our listing of Fall Consignment Sales, don’t worry.  There are still many held during the month of October.  Here We Grown Again has one coming up this weekend in Shawnee, KS, in fact!  You can find great deals on back-to-school clothes (in case your kids have shot up a few inches already!!) as well as toys and other necessities.  Consignment sales aren’t just for shoppers…you can make a few bucks, too!  Contact the particular sale you’re interested in and typically for a small entry fee, you can tag your items for resale and bag up to 70% of the sale price.  Not bad!