keeping feet: Adventures in a Corn Maze

This fall and winter, we have a lot of gift-giving opportunities, but everyone we know has enough "stuff," so we're trying to think outside the box when it comes to gifts. Our nephew's 5th birthday was earlier this month, and for it, I wrapped a mini-pumpkin and decorative corn. He opened the package and was very confused- then I asked him, "Can we take you to a pumpkin patch and corn maze?" "Yeah!" The symbolism may have been lost, but the trip was appreciated.

After much deliberation, we ended up at Stuckey Farm, a pick-your-own farm that has a huge, Abraham-Lincoln-themed corn maze. We passed on picking apples and buying anything in the farm store, though both were tempting. The corn maze wore us out! Here's why:

Kaden decided to run the maze. The. Whole Time. Wait, that's not true. He paused periodically at the activity stations, to make a crayon rubbing on his booklet:

To give you an idea, here's the size of the maze, with our navigator examining the map:

No weight loss supplements necessary when you're chasing a kid around a maze that size! Exercise works!

We got out of the maze very quickly the first time through, but had only found 3 of the 9 activity stations, so we went back in, and ended up taking much longer to find our way out again. We were tired of walking, so we searched the (very picked over) pumpkin patch for a pumpkin with no luck then went back to the pile of pre-picked pumpkins, which were all orange and not rotting, unlike the ones left in the field. One of the highlights of the trip: The wagon ride to and from the corn maze & pumpkin patch.

Kaden picked out his very own pumpkin, and chose a pie pumpkin, because he liked the size.

Perfect for him to carry! That's going to be my rule for our kids- you can't pick out a pumpkin bigger than you can carry. Sounds fair to me.

See all the Corn Maze Adventure pictures here: