Fall Fun On The Patio

As the days get shorter and the nights get cooler, it's time to enjoy your patio while you still can. The cooler weather means you can take down that umbrella, and bring out the fire pit or chimenea. Put some warm blankets on the chairs and benches, and take a long walk to work up a hearty appetite for some warm fall-style food over the grill. If there aren't any good places to hike, you can play some games in the yard, like a bean-bag toss, pumpkin seed toss, or musical chairs (with hay bales instead of chairs, of course!).

To keep with the fall theme, decorate your patio with dried corn husks, pumpkins, gourds, and artificial leaves. You may even want to decorate the center of your cast aluminum table set with pumpkins and gourds. The decorations can even extend out into the yard, where you might want to feature bales of hay, a scarecrow, more pumpkins, and perhaps even a wheelbarrow full of straw and a cornucopia in the center. Enjoy the fresh, crisp air, and keep warm with those thick blankets and a roaring fire in your chimenea.