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Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Corn Mazes and Pumpkin Cannons!

Many of you will recognise the following scene: A mother attempts to get her children ready to go on an exciting outing, planned especially for them. This is no mere trip to the grocery store, but an event that has been carefully orchestrated around naps and meals, taking in the social needs of each child. After laying out clothes for each of her children, and speaking in a cheerful voice about how "we need to get dressed so we can go see our friends!", things start to unravel.

45-minutes later, the mother starts uttering empty threats like "GET YOUR SHOES ON NOW OR I'M LEAVING YOU HERE!!" and "IF YOU DON'T PUT YOUR SHOES ON NOW I'M NEVER TAKING YOU ANYWHERE EVER AGAIN!!" Tears are shed by all, and any hope she had of arriving on time has dissipated like her patience.

Somehow, though, outings are still worth the pains of getting there, especially if they involve the outdoors, other kids, and other moms with whom to visit.

We visited Hugli's Blueberry Ranch with a bunch of local homeschooling families who graciously included us in their invitation. The tour was educational, well-organised and age-appropriate; it included a very bumpy wagon ride to various destinations: pumpkin patches, a small barnyard complete with sheep, a goat, a llama, an alpaca, a pig, and a miniature horse, a "pirate ship" play structure, and hay bale playgrounds.



 The highlight for me was our travels through the 1-acre corn maze, guided by alphabetised clues.


Hugli's autumn activities include pick-your-own pumpkins, scary Halloween events (I'm dreaming of wandering that corn maze at night!), and pumpkins being fired from a cannon into the lake below (a highlight for Jude!). If you live locally, visit their website for more details...it was certainly worth the trip!

7 comments:

  1. Sounds like a great day - shoes and crying aside ;)

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  2. Lovely day, it was! But what impresses me is that you've already got the blog post up! I'm still trying to get my kids to bed (obviously not very successfully as I'm online right now). Great seeing you! And that corn maze was awesome...and I've got a mama photo in there too!

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  3. Corn mazes are one of my favorite things to do each fall! I've never taken my kids (except wearing them or being pregnant), but we take our youth group every year. We love to go in the dark and get totally lost! I can't wait until my little ones are old enough to enjoy!

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  4. Sounds like a fun outing...It is a hassle sometimes though getting everyone out the door, isn't it? We're going on a homeschool group outing next week to a pumpkin patch and I'm already starting to feel a bit nervous...I hope we can arrive on time, in unsoiled clothes and with clean faces, and that everyone behaves decently. :)

    Laura @ Getting There
    http://gettingthere.typepad.com

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  5. This sounds like such an amazing outing!

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  6. That maze looks way more involved than the one we went to a few weeks back! Fun.

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  7. Corn mazes are THE BEST! The first time I went in one was in NZ. My little SpiritofFire LOVED it and so did I. A haunted one would be very exciting indeed! I must visit this place sometime soon. SOunds lovely and fun!

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