When our daughter was 3 we decided to stop celebrating Halloween w/ spooky stuff.  Now we have a "Fall Party" each year. Each year gets more and more elaborate.  Invitations: Cut a small barn out of red paper (don't forget to cut the doors so, they'll open) and a green "hill". Glue the hill down first on the front of the card and then the barn.  Next add fuzzy barnyard animal and leaf stickers. Wording printed on inside using computer:  "Down on the farm, that's where we'll be... to celebrate Fall with your family.  Pigs, ducks, and chickens, too....  the only thing we'll need is you."  Then give the details.  These are time consuming but worth it. Food:  Everyone brings a dish. We used to make hot dogs but potluck is just easier.  I make pumpkin, leaf, and acorn shaped cookies for the kids to decorate and I make cupcakes with orange frosting decorated with candy pumpkins or chocolate leaves (made with candy mold). Also, I have made a pumpkin cake using two bundt pans (place the bottoms together and use orange frosting, add chocolate leaves and a stem). I make a pumpkin dip with cream cheese, pumpkin pie filling, and marshmallow cream that I serve in a small pumpkin with ginger snaps. We serve sodas from a red wagon lined with plastic and galvanized buckets hold bottled water. I also make apple "cider" with apple juice and melted red hot candy (but we live in Texas so, I serve it cold!). Decorations:  When you pull into the circle drive, in the middle, is an old tractor w/ a scarecrow wired to it and some bales of hay and pumpkins.  The front gate and fence have grapevines and fall leaf garlands along the top.  White lights are wound into it as well and raffia is tied in large bows with Indian corn on both sides of the gate.  On the gate is a large wreath with a scare crow and a wooden plaque saying, "Welcome". There is a old red wagon on the front porch with a small scarecrow and mini bales of hay.  Inside preserved fall leaves are arranged everywhere along the bookcases, the tops of the kitchen cabinets, and along the dining table.  I fill glass hurricane vases with unpopped popcorn and arrange dried wheat and preserved fall leaves. I even have a tiny light up fall village that I set out.  There is a long table on the back porch that I cover with a table cloth I made using black fabric with fall leaves and I top it with a smaller table cover that has fall scenes with barns and farm animals, pumpkins, and scarecrows.  This is where I do a large tablescape.  I arrange small bales of hay, a small scarecrow, mini gourds, pumpkins, small watering can, a red barn bird feeder, an rusty wire egg basket w/ eggs, a small sign that says, "Farm Fresh Eggs", a small rake, a wooden cow, and a few antique milk bottles in a rusty wire rack, fall leaves, Indian corn, and on each end of the table are the large galvanized buckets w/ water.  The red wagon w/ sodas sits in front. We also have a large white tent for shade and I wrap garlands of fall leaves along the edges and hang scare crows.  We set large bales of hay around and we rent long tables and folding chairs for under the tent.  I cover the tables with brown packing paper and I set small terra cotta pots with orange and yellow mums for centerpieces. I have small round tables and little chairs for the kids and these have orange tablecloths with fabric fall leaves ironed on w/ fusible webbing. Also, all around the place I put pots of orange and yellow mums and large pumpkins. Activities:  The best thing is the petting zoo.  We hire them to come and they set up a large pen and they have pigs, baby goats, bunnies, ducks, chickens, roosters, geese, and turkeys. We also have a tractor with a wagon attached that we fill with hay for hay rides around the 5 acres. There is cookie decorating, pin the nose on the pumpkin, duck pond game (plastic ducks in a galvanized bucket), bobbing for apples, and needle in the hay stack (prizes and candy hidden in a large pile of hay, crochet needle wins the grand prize).  I can usually find these little orange wicker baskets that look like pumpkins that I give as "Grand Prizes".  I collect left over birthday party favors, fast food kids' meal toys, and yard sale matchbox cars and various "junk" for the games all year.  Also, bags of small plastic farm animals. Sometimes I give straw cowboy hats as prizes.  Oriental Trading has some good prizes as well.  This year we are planning to have the families bring pumpkins to decorate and we will have a winner for "Best Decorated". We might do pony rides this year, too.   Most kids come in their costumes and everyone has a great time.  No one misses the scary spiders and monsters usually found at parties this time of year.