Aaaah the smell of new notebooks and freshly sharpened pencils. Kids are going BACK TO SCHOOL! And fall is arriving. If you are a bucket-lister, and you are ready to toss out your summer “to do” list, start your fall one with this. Organize a Moms Night Out with some girlfriends. Have some fall-themed activities planned that DO NOT involve glue guns or glitter pens but DO involve what my husband affectionately calls “mommy drinks” (i.e. wine and fruit combinations in fun glasses with charms). Get dressed up (or don’t -- MNO in pjs are fun too), leave the kids with Dad, Grandma, a sitter, etc. or, if you are hosting, put the kids to bed or in front of a movie.
Here are some fall-themed Moms Night Out ideas. Feel free to steal them! Or modify them to fit your group of gal-pals.
Fall recipe swaps:
You cannot go wrong here because as much as we want to escape the mundane aspects of mommyhood, we all know that tomorrow we will be responsible for cooking dinner. And the next night. And the next. So cook up a recipe you have found to be successful (meaning your kids eat it without WWIII breaking out at the table) and share! Soups or other crockpot ideas are great for fall recipe swaps. I hosted a recipe swap last fall and had my counter and kitchen table lined with crockpots full of soups and slow cooker dishes. If you want to liven up the party a bit, prepare a fun fall drink to share instead! Swap that delicious “apple cider” that you have to tell your kids is “only for mommy.” Your contribution, although not practical to feed the kids tomorrow, will likely be the biggest hit of the night!
Accessory swap:
Continuing with the “swap theme”… Have everyone bring a purse, scarf, or piece of jewelry (or one of each -- the more you put in the swap, the more you get to take home!) to share. You could set this up as a free-for-all, meaning everything gets thrown on a table and people start grabbing what they like, or you could design a more organized grab-bag or White Elephant party. These are always fun because your guests can steal what they like from others! But no matter how you do it, everyone goes home with new fall accessories.
Game Night / Latte Bar:
MNO Game nights are always fun (Bunco… Apples to Apples… Balderdash… Cranium… Pictionary…) but cook up some delicious hot fall beverages to share as well and you have yourself a party! Pumpkin spice lattes, cinnamon lattes (or even some of the afore-mentioned “mommy’s apple cider”) and suddenly a game of charades is much more fun!
Fall is a busy time for us moms as we get the kids back to school and start gearing up for (don’t throw something at me for saying it already)… Christmas. So make sure you take some time away from making candy corn cupcakes and glittered pinecone ornaments to have some laughs with your girls. Enjoy a pumpkin latte (spiked or not) and lament over all of the Pinterest projects you have tried that were a dismal failure. But go home with a new auburn scarf!