Our fall activities are typically repetitive. Each year we go apple picking, we travel to Hollin Farm to pick our pumpkins and we typically spend an afternoon at the Cox Farm Fall Festival. These our all fantastic outings that I highly recommend for everyone, but I've also written about them previously...many, many times. Imagine my delight when we finally decided to do something completely new.
A little background: This Friday was an early dismissal day at school and we always find an adventure for the afternoons of early dismissal days. That being said, this week has been tough. At the end of last week, Anne came down with a virus that included a high fever. By Sunday, I had the high fever and Meg, who avoided the fever, was also feeling unwell. On Monday, I still had a high fever but was doing my best to get my kids to school. Around mid-day, I received a call from the girls' school that Clare had collided with another child and fallen on the blacktop. She was not responding to the teachers when they spoke to her. Yes, the poor child had a mild concussion. Just as we were prepared to send her back to school a few days later (with some restrictions imposed by the doctor), she came down with the high fever that had plagued everyone else. Friday morning was her first day back at school. I knew she'd be tired, but she insisted that we needed to do an adventure so her sisters would not be disappointed.
After a lot of research, we decided to go to the Corn Maze in The Plains. For you grammarians out there, "the" is supposed to be capitalized in that name because the maze is located in The Plains, Virginia. We have previously been in small corn mazes. When I was eight months pregnant with Anne, I took Meg and Clare through the small corn maze at Hollin Farm and I was convinced I was going to give birth in that maze before we managed to get out. This corn maze, however, is much more substantial than anything we have experienced before. It is a five acre corn maze.
Prior to beginning the maze, each group picks up a flag. If it becomes necessary for you to be rescued from the maze, you are to wave your flag so that the watcher on a high wooden bridge can see you and send help. Wow. That by itself let's you know that you are entering one serious corn maze.
A little background: This Friday was an early dismissal day at school and we always find an adventure for the afternoons of early dismissal days. That being said, this week has been tough. At the end of last week, Anne came down with a virus that included a high fever. By Sunday, I had the high fever and Meg, who avoided the fever, was also feeling unwell. On Monday, I still had a high fever but was doing my best to get my kids to school. Around mid-day, I received a call from the girls' school that Clare had collided with another child and fallen on the blacktop. She was not responding to the teachers when they spoke to her. Yes, the poor child had a mild concussion. Just as we were prepared to send her back to school a few days later (with some restrictions imposed by the doctor), she came down with the high fever that had plagued everyone else. Friday morning was her first day back at school. I knew she'd be tired, but she insisted that we needed to do an adventure so her sisters would not be disappointed.
After a lot of research, we decided to go to the Corn Maze in The Plains. For you grammarians out there, "the" is supposed to be capitalized in that name because the maze is located in The Plains, Virginia. We have previously been in small corn mazes. When I was eight months pregnant with Anne, I took Meg and Clare through the small corn maze at Hollin Farm and I was convinced I was going to give birth in that maze before we managed to get out. This corn maze, however, is much more substantial than anything we have experienced before. It is a five acre corn maze.
Prior to beginning the maze, each group picks up a flag. If it becomes necessary for you to be rescued from the maze, you are to wave your flag so that the watcher on a high wooden bridge can see you and send help. Wow. That by itself let's you know that you are entering one serious corn maze.
Anne holding our flag.
Once you enter the corn maze, you are looking for six wooden stands spread throughout the corn maze. Each stand has a portion of the maze map which can be transferred onto a piece of paper through crayon rubbing. Each stand also has a corn trivia question. Each possible answer includes a direction you should travel. Choose the correct answer and you will be given the correct direction.
I'm happy to say I had corn experts with me. We missed the first wooden stand, but once we found the second stand, we answered each subsequent question correctly and found our way out of the maze in a very reasonable time. Clare, however, was not satisfied by simply getting out of the maze. She had been handling transferring the map onto our paper by crayon and it frustrated her terribly that we had missed the first stand. As we were leaving the maze, she spotted the first stand, but could not easily get to it. We had to return to the maze and make our way to the stand so she could complete her map.
I'm happy to say I had corn experts with me. We missed the first wooden stand, but once we found the second stand, we answered each subsequent question correctly and found our way out of the maze in a very reasonable time. Clare, however, was not satisfied by simply getting out of the maze. She had been handling transferring the map onto our paper by crayon and it frustrated her terribly that we had missed the first stand. As we were leaving the maze, she spotted the first stand, but could not easily get to it. We had to return to the maze and make our way to the stand so she could complete her map.
After our maze excursion, the girls enjoyed some good old farm play at the play area. The play area has many things including a hay maze, slides, and an obstacle course. Perhaps the girls' favorite activity was pushing each other in this barrel type thing. .
For those of you with older kids, the Corn Maze in The Plains offers a night maze opportunity. Oh yes, you could explore a five acre corn maze at night. That sounds like great fun to me, but my kids are no where near ready for that. I will simply have to look forward to that opportunity.
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