It's the middle of October, which means you are in one of two camps. Either the orchard is done and the costume is handled, or you are looking at the calendar wondering how it got to be the 12th already.

If you are in the second camp, this is for you. There is still a good month of fall left, and the back half has things going for it. The crowds thin out, the color peaks, and the pressure to pull off the big photogenic outing is mostly behind you.

Here is the honest math. You have about four usable weekends between now and Thanksgiving. One will get rained out. One will have a birthday party in it. So you are really planning two.

This guide is built around that. It is not a list of forty things you will never get to. It's what actually fits in the time that's left.

Start with the weekday stuff, because that's where the rest of fall lives

Weekends get all the attention, and they are also the part of the calendar you have the least control over. What ends up mattering is usually the small recurring thing that happens on a Tuesday.

Story time is the easiest yes. It costs little or nothing, it takes forty five minutes, and it does not require signing up for a whole season. Our Jump in a Book series with Jen is running now and continues through winter. It's less sit still and listen than it sounds. Jen reads, and then the story turns into something the kids get to make or do.

Library programs across Hennepin and Carver counties run free story times and events all season, and they are genuinely good. Check your closest branch calendar, because the popular sessions fill.

Park district programs in Hopkins, Chanhassen, and St. Louis Park run short fall and winter sessions, often free or a few dollars.

One note worth saying out loud: do not sign up for four things. Parents who register for a music class, a sports thing, and a weekend program in the same season almost always drop two of them, having paid for all three. Pick one. Protect it. Let it be the thing.

The weekend list, sorted by how much effort it takes

Low effort, high payoff:

The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chaska is at its best right about now. The fall color is the obvious draw, but the real reason to go with kids is that there is a lot of room to run and nobody cares how loud they are. Weekday morning if you can swing it.

Hopkins and the surrounding downtown areas have farmers markets running into the fall. An hour, a snack, something in a bag to bring home, done before anybody melts down.

Minnehaha Falls in October is one of the better free hours you can spend in this state. Bring a thermos. Let them climb on things.

Worth the drive:

Apple orchards. You have not missed the window, but you need to be smarter about it now. Go in the morning, and go on a weekday if you can possibly manage it. A sunny Saturday afternoon in mid October means parking in a field and waiting forty minutes for a donut. Sever's and the orchards out toward Afton and the St. Croix valley are worth the trip if you leave early.

Pumpkin patches follow the same rule, with one addition. If you have not been yet, this weekend or next is your last comfortable shot before the selection thins out.

The neighborhood version:

You do not have to drive anywhere. A leaf pile, a walk around the block after dinner, and a decision to let them jump in the puddle covers most of what a kid actually wants out of fall. The photo you are chasing is usually available in your own yard.

Free and low cost things worth putting on the calendar

Fall gets expensive fast if you say yes to everything. These cost little or nothing:

• Our mini pumpkin decorating event, this Friday and Saturday, October 16 and 17. Free, ages 3 and up, 30 minute slots from 10:30am to 4:15pm at all three locations: Hopkins, Chanhassen, and St. Louis Park. Kids decorate their own mini pumpkin with gems, stickers, markers, and wiki sticks, then take it home. One registration per child, and adults do not need to register. Spots are limited and they fill, so if this is on your list, book it today.
• Library story times and events, check your local library
• Morning story times with Jen at our Hopkins and Chanhassen locations on Wednesday mornings
• Park district programs in Hopkins, Chanhassen, and St. Louis Park
• Trick or treating events at local business districts, usually the weekend before Halloween
• Nature centers across the metro run free or donation based weekend programming

The cold and rainy day backup plan

You will need this more than you think. A good share of what is left of fall is going to be gray, forty degrees, and unworkable outdoors, and a kid who was promised an orchard does not accept weather as an explanation.

Have two or three of these ready before you need them:

A project box that lives in the closet and only comes out on bad days. Craft supplies, a building set, something with a lot of pieces. The rule is that it's only for rainy days, which is what makes it feel like an occasion instead of a Tuesday.

Baking something, ideally something that takes longer than you would normally allow. The mess is the activity.

An indoor play destination. Museums, indoor play spaces, and yes, a toy store where kids are allowed to actually touch things. Ours are set up so you can browse for twenty minutes while your kid is genuinely occupied, which is the whole design.

A fort. Every blanket in the house. It buys you an hour and costs nothing.

Your checklist for the rest of the season

Screenshot this!

This week

• Book any limited spot event you actually want to do, including our pumpkin decorating on the 16th and 17th
• Lock the Halloween costume. Every day you wait makes this harder.
• Put one recurring weekday thing on the calendar, like story time

Next weekend

• The orchard, if you have not been. Morning, not afternoon.
• Peak color, so take the walk even if it's just around the neighborhood

Late October

• Halloween week. Keep the rest of the calendar deliberately light.
• Assemble the rainy day project box before you need it, because you will need it
• Start holiday gifts. Seriously. The good stuff sells out in November and panic shopping in December is the worst version of this.

November

• Shift fully to indoor mode
• Restock the project box
• Finish holiday shopping before Thanksgiving if you possibly can

The actual point

You are not going to do all of this. That's just the reality of having kids and that's OK.

Pick two things between now and Halloween. Put them on the calendar. Let everything else be optional, and don't spend the back half of fall feeling behind on a list you invented.

The orchard photo is nice. The Tuesday afternoon where your kid sat on a rug while Jen read a book and then got to make something out of it is the part they will actually remember.

kiddywampus is an inspired place for kids with locations in Hopkins, Chanhassen, and St. Louis Park. Story time is running now, and our mini pumpkin decorating event is this Friday and Saturday.

Register for Mini Pumpkin Decorating · View all Morning Story Times