Oxon Hill Farm, Take Two

Oxon Hill Park, located just a few miles from Brian's work, was the setting for another birthday morning for Eli.  We actually came here on his second birthday, and took some of my favorite photos of him and I thought why not run up for the morning on his fourth birthday as well. 

The farm is a nice little oasis near National Harbor and DC proper.  It is a little tricky to find with google maps, so be sure to get good directions if you decide to visit.  This free park lets the kids run around visiting farm animals, milking the cow (10:00 most days), and riding on a hay ride (10:30 most days).  There are some fun activities in the Visitor Barn as well, and picnic tables and bathrooms to make a stay with pre-schoolers manageable. 

Burnside Farms: Update

Since their prices, location, and dates changed this year, I decided I would do an update post on our favorite you-pick flower place, Burnside Farms.  They are currently in peak bloom for a few more days, and it's supposed to be a beautiful week to enjoy them.

Where:  2617 Logmill Rd, Haymarket, VA 20169  (just a bit further than last year)

Cost: $4 for single entrance, $7 for an unlimited pass, under a year free.  Daffodils $0.50, Dutch Iris $0.75, Tulips $1.00 a stem.  They do accept credit cards (in the middle of a field, isn't technology great).

Daffodils are all yellow, and are cut with scissors.

Tulips come in a variety of colors and are pulled up (sometimes with the bulb).

Extras:  Though not as many as their old location, there are still a couple animals brought in to be seen, a not-so-happy turkey and some goats that will teach your children how babies are made.  They also had brought in a BBQ stand, and face painting the day we were there.

There are some chairs in the field, and they still have the big shoes (boats) to play/pose in.

And they have bunches of wooden shoes to try on.  The boys did this for a long time.

But even with all the changes, it's still a beautiful place to flower gaze (or insect hunt) and of course a great place for photo opportunities (if your children cooperate for that kind of thing).  We were probably there on their busiest day, and were able to have a sweet picnic and have a good time despite the crowds.  Even though it had rained the days before our visit, the fields and parking lot were perfectly dry.  And they do have port-a-potties on sight, always important to know when you're headed out with the pre-school crowd.

Frying Pan Farm Park, Finally

Since it's cold and rainy-ish here this weekend, we're delaying our trip to the flower fields we grew to love last year (see link) and reflecting on some much nicer days we've had this Spring.

One such beautiful day was a recent trip to Frying Pan Farm Park.  This park has been on my radar for quite a while now, as it is always a frequent recommendation by moms in the area.  Like so many of our outings, it is a great agri-tourist activity for when you're trapped in the suburbs like us.  Supposedly, the only working farm left in Fairfax County, Frying Pan Farm Park draws its inspiration from the 1920s-1950s era.  We very much enjoyed visiting the farm, including:

The Tractor Patch:  There were four, kid-sized, kid-safe tractors to climb all over.  Of course Theo had to try out all four.  They would play here for an hour if there weren't other kids waiting for a turn.

Wagon ride ($3 a person, buy tickets in the country store):  This ride circled the farm, with the tour guide making stops to talk about different aspects of the farm.  Theo's hand immediately shot up whenever she asked for questions, and he would think of one (asking about the horse shows, the bull's lack of horns...).  It ran almost half an hour.  Probably shorter if you have less extroverted/curious kids on the ride.

Kidwell Farm:  Where all the animals are, including all the new spring babies.  They've got large pastures so you've got plenty of room to walk.  We didn't have one, but I'd guess the paths were stroller friendly (there are several bathrooms on the property too).

Carousel and playground:  After the drive to get there, the playground let the kids run off some energy right away before hitting up the more educational and interesting aspects of the farm. 

And we didn't even get down to the Visitor Center, so I can't comment on that.  But, we'll probably be back, maybe even for a class as they offer various classes, camps, and other events.

Other Nearby Attractions:  Dulles Airport (perhaps a great last stop before a long flight with kids?) and the Udvar-Hazy National Air and Space Museum (explore indoors a bit and then pair that with the farm outing perhaps) is only 3 miles away.

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?

Agri-tourists Part 3 of 3: PWC Farm Tour

Once I finally got back to blogging, I decided to title this series of posts "agri-tourists", since most of our October adventures have fit this theme.  I think it is so funny that we end up paying money to go place and do things (like hay rides) that were easily free amusements when I grew up in the country.  It's kind of my dream to one day own and run a place that could be considered as an agritourism stop... we'll see what ever comes of that.

 This activity though, the Prince William County Farm Tour, was (almost) completely free.  Every year, several farms/historical agricultural experiences in our county open up their places to visitors during farm tour weekend.  (Saturday 10-4 or Sunday 12-4) I'll go ahead and take you through the tour stop-by-stop.

We went on Sunday after church, so we only had a few hours for our tour.  We started closest to our end of the county.

Stop 1:   Evergreen Acres.  Ok, so we had to actually skip this one because of time and distance.  We've actually been here before though (see this old post) to get our Christmas tree.  Had we gone, we could have taken a wagon ride to view the trees and pumpkin patch.  They also grow tomatoes here.

Stop 2:  Brentsville Courthouse Historic Centre.   Here we visited the restored Haislip-Hall Farmhouse and got to learn about farm life in the 1800s.  Theo and I tried a bit of corn pone that was being cooked, Eli took a walk in the woods, and Theo dipped his own candle and heard all about soap making.

Stop 3:  Yankey Farms.   One thing I really like about the idea of this tour is just seeing some of the farms in a different season.  We've been to Yankey Farms before to pick strawberries (link), but this time they had their pumpkin patch and harvest festival activities going.  We viewed their antique tractor display (Theo liked the red one best) and learned about beekeeping.  The boys even watched two bees drag a now-useless drone from the hive to get rid of him.  Harsh life bees have.  They were fascinated by this.

We paid a couple bucks each to let the boys pick an activity-Theo played in the corn pit and hay bales, while Eli took a very long, far (for a two year old) ride on the cow train.  We didn't realize it would go so far, but he did well.  They had special seats for little guys, so he was strapped in.

Stop 4:  Blue top Farm.  We found where horse country is in our county, as there were many other horse farms around this particular boarding facility.  We stopped quickly to meet all the horses, as well as the chickens and goats.

Stop 5:  Clover Meadow Farms.  This may have been my favorite spot of the day.  We got to wonder around with the alpacas at this farm.  There is just something so enchanting in these large, but gentle animals.

This photo just cracked me up, because it perfectly illustrates our newly two year old.  He's craving independence ferociously right now.

Stop 6:  Winery at La Grange.  We made sure to finish up the tour here, since it is the only established winery in PWC.  We didn't do a tasting this day, but enjoyed touring the property and making plans for a future visit.

Stop 7:  TrueFarms.  We ran out of time for this one, but you could also tour a hydroponics lettuce farm in Haymarket.

Stop 8:  Ben Lomand Historic Site.  Again, out of time, but like our first site it provided a look at farm life in the early 18th and 19th centuries. 

We definitely enjoyed the day driving around and learning more about our little corner of the world we live in, and the boys were happy to get down and dirty with all the animals.  And next week, we get to go back to Cows 'n Corn with Theodore's class.  Click here to read about this adventure from last year.  You know I've already got their pumpkin hats and overalls all laid out.