The toddler and I headed over to a (sort of) local farm this morning to check out the pumpkins and events. Last weekend was cold and rainy, so we didn't make it then. We had a lot of fun checking out Merrymead Farm, which is a dairy farm. We checked out the animals first and saw cows, goats, sheep, llamas, a huge hog and some peacocks. There were a bunch of schools/daycare kids there on trips, so it was a bit crowded.
Then we headed to the "pumpkin patch," which is really a market area with pre-picked pumpkins. Toddler boy was very interested in the Indian corn on display and wanted to fill his stroller with it. I managed to put all but one bunch back. He then later snuck a mini bunch into the stroller, so we bought that one too. (He wanted to put it in his bed to sleep with it for his nap, but thankfully I was able to convince him it wasn't a good idea to sleep with a bunch of dried corn.)
He had fun putting pumpkins in wagons and even sitting on a few, until I noticed a stern sign saying not to climb on pumpkins.
Then we went over to the corn tunnel maze, a farmer created tunnel made of corn stalks. I thought it was just a simple tunnel, but it really was a maze inside and we had to decide what path to take to get out. It actually was a bit long for me and was starting to creep me out, but the monkey did not mind at all. He found a half of a dried out ear of corn inside and picked it up for a souvenir. There was a classroom of students in there too and one young boy was crying because he was scared. His friend was trying to help him find the exit, which was sweet. After we left the tunnel and played in the yard with some fall themed wood cut outs, we went to the little market store there for cider donuts. Toddler-boy loved them! He even finished off the bag of them when I wasn't looking.
Not surprisingly, the toddler fell asleep on the way home. When I got him out of the car he started to cry and asked "where is the pumpkin patch?" I told him that we would go again, this time with his daddy so we could get a bigger pumpkin.
Merrymead Farm was a definite hit. We didn't go through the larger corn maze or on a hayride, simply because they don't do them as often during the week and there were all of the school groups going on pre-arranged ones. I understand the weekends bring even more activities. We might try to visit Linvilla Orchards this weekend, but it is really a long ride and will interfere with napping, so I'm not sure. I am hoping that the weather on Sunday will be nice.
