Corn Mazes, Now and Then

Since it's starting to rain, and Theo's last soccer practice of the season will probably be canceled, I'll try to get a post done.  This fall has had a lot of wet Wednedays, but at least the weekends have been beautiful.  We've gotten in a lot of fall outdoor fun.

2011

One of our favorite places in Delaware (well, Maryland, but from when we lived in Delaware) was Kilby Cream.  This place had some awesome ice cream and a fun petting zoo.  And, in fall, has a corn maze!  I think this was the first corn maze I ever visited, and we went in both 2011 the first year our oldest could walk and again in 2012 with our newborn and our 2 year old.  I think Eli slept through the whole thing in his sling.  And maybe other than being a little crowded our second visit, it was a great place to go to get lost in a field of corn.  See old post, here.

                                           2011                                                                         2012

2012

I remember Theo just loved bossing us around through the maze, and "reading" the maps.  Their current prices are $7 for 10 and older, $5 for 3-9 year olds, and free for under three year olds.  And this year that includes an additional kiddy maze.  I was half tempted to make the drive all the way back there this October to visit again, but decided we should try something a little closer to home.

Enter The Corn Maze in the Plains.  This seemed to be one of the closest places to us that featured a large corn maze.  For the steeper price of $10 for adults, $9 for kids, and 3 and under free, we entered a farm yard filled with obstacle courses, slides, farm animals, and other objects to climb, roll in, or otherwise move.  There was a hay ride, and you could sling shot pumpkins into an open field (apparently Eli's favorite, as this was the only thing all day he signed "more" for).  And then, there was the corn maze.  At 5 acres, it was challenging enough for our family, but not too long to exhaust the boys. 

And now, for an overload of photos from this year:

 We had a little extra fun with the theme of the maze, being "wolves".  I totally did not plan Theo's shirt to match (though, we all know I would have, had I known).

Surprisingly... no one was injured in any of these activities.

Who doesn't love a corn maze?

Cows 'n Corn Fieldtrip (Theo's first fieldtrip)

Knowing we'd be going to a farm for Theo's field trip, we haven't really hit up as many local farms this fall as we might have otherwise.  We were all excited to join Theo's school for a morning on the farm.

Cows 'n Corn is located a county over in Midland, VA.  The farm is open to the public with a large corn maze, ice cream, and lots of play equipment for the kids.  For our field trip, they split us into groups and rotated us through four stations. 

First, we got to go on a hay ride.  Theo was pretty funny correcting a kid who was holding a piece of straw and calling it hay.  He apparently learned this difference between all the farm and fair visits to Indiana.

 Their Holsteins are a bit spoiled-they have an automatic back scratcher (yellow), that was something I've never saw before. 

Next they got to go learn a bit more about a heifer, and pet her, as well as some other farm animals.

The third station was a butter-making demonstration.  The kids all got their chance to shake the cream until it turned to butter, and got a taste.  Theo was the first in line to claim his cracker.

 And the fourth was pumpkin class, which included a story reading by a calf puppet.  Theo has been really into our hand puppets lately, so this was perfect for him. 

 Lastly, there was plenty of equipment to play on throughout the farm, including a rope spider web, crawling tubes, wooden trains, and a huge stack of hay bales.  And, of course, all the kids got a little bit of ice cream.

 Elmo especially enjoyed the field trip (he is going everywhere with us lately).

Fall Bucket List 2013

I'm not sure why, but every year I seem to love fall more and more.  I don't think I was ever very excited about fall as a kid (other than my birthday towards the end), but now I'm so in love with the season.  This year, I decided to go ahead and write up a bucket-list so I'd be sure not to forget anything we like to do.  (We've checked off a handful of these things already!)

-Camp!
-Pick Apples
-Go on a hay ride at dark
-Watch ASU play (getting harder and harder to see the games without cable)
-Make Apple Pie
-Make Kids Costumes
-Collect Leaves
-Make pumpkin muffins/breads
-See DC United play a game
-Roast Marshmallows
-Do a Corn Maze
- Do a fall craft
-Watch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
-Cheer/play at Soccer Games
-Make homemade apple sauce

-Get one jug of apple cider
-Go for a scenic drive to find changing colors
-Pick Pumpkins
-Go to a live football game
-Find some good fall books for pre-schoolers
-Trick-or-Treat
-Make Pumpkin Pie
-Harvest the squash from our garden
-Go for a hike (and have a scavenger hunt)
-Have a photo shoot in a leaf pile
-Make Pumpkin Dip
-Decorate/Carve Pumpkins
-Give Thanks

And hopefully, learn to take better portraits when mama wants to take them.

Soccer Mom and Apple Picking

 This past weekend I officially became a "soccer mom".  I drive an SUV (crossover) already, so it wasn't a stretch to become an actual soccer mom as we drove Theo to his first ever game.  He was pretty adorable running around the field, and would wave and shout "Mom!" to me when he ran by.  Too cute.  He did well (listened, cheered, stayed near the ball), and was one of only a couple who made it through the game without crying or throwing a fit, so that was excellent.

Eli was a great cheerleader too!

 

Afterwards we decided to unofficially start Autumn a little earlier than Sept. 22nd by heading out to the mountains to find an apple picking spot. 

Doing some quick research online I found that there were a couple off of I-66 about an hour from where we live.  This is what I refer to as NOVA wine country, since when driving through here before I noticed that there are several exits in a row, exits with as many as four signs for the local wineries.  In earlier days of our marriage we would have been stopping there for a taste, but with two boys in tow we went to the more family friendly apple orchard instead.

There are two orchards here to choose from.  One charges a fee to come in and has many activities, corn mazes, and a festival feel; the other has apples.  We chose the simpler one today (Stribling Orchard), and weren't the only ones that did.  The place was pretty full of families, but we still felt like we were the only ones there and enjoyed some peaceful family time in a beautiful setting.  Pictures can't really do justice of how beautiful it really was to be in such a calm, quiet place in the middle of the rolling hills. 

When you arrive here, you can drive right up to the check-in station where you can get bags, pickers, and a map.  Then you can either park there near the store, or drive out into the orchard and park nearest your favorite tree.  If you choose to walk like we did, you could probably use a stroller for your non-walker if you wanted, but we chose just to carry him today.  It was a little warm for a carrier.

Theodore has learned from Daniel Tiger that, "If you can't do it alone just work together!"  This seemed to be his motto for the day.

The McIntoshs were ready, so we picked those (though they did say you could pick other varieties if you really wanted to).  Like most places, they placed ribbons on these trees so you would know which ones were ripe.

Our big bag, and Theo's tiny bag for himself and Eli.

Once done, we headed up to the shop to pay.  The shop contained many different types of canned products, as well as some local products like eggs, cheese, and peanuts.  Here Theo learned the difference between jam and jelly (we call everything jam around here for some reason). 

The aroma coming from the baking pies there smelled so delicious that we had to buy at least some baked product at the time.  We picked up some "apple sticks" and had a little picnic in the shade of the trees.  Both boys relaxed and played and we enjoyed soaking up the sun on this last drop of summer/first taste of fall.

Plans for apples:  Apple Salsa, Applesauce, a pie or two, and fruit salad