You know that disappointing feeling you get when you spend a lot
of time carefully curating the most perfect Christmas present for a child, only
to find that when they open it – they like the box more than the actual contents inside the box?
Yeah. That was our corn maze experience a few weeks ago.
I had planned the most perfect fall Saturday. I called my sister
& said I needed to kidnap her kids -- that Zac & I were taking them to
a corn maze (because it’s on my
fall bucket
list, after all). We will get lunch, we eat will ice cream, we will
have a super fun time navigating through the maze… and it will be perfect.
She didn’t tell her kids all week what we had planned on doing,
she just told them Auntie KK & Uncle Zac were taking them on an “adventure”.
For the record, they are 5 and 2½ years old -- they don’t really know what an adventure is, but they
were excited for it. And I was too.
They arrived at our house mid-morning; car seats were fastened in
my car, water bottles were filled, and walking shoes were on. We loaded
up the kids & hit the road.
“I hope we’re going to Bay Beach.” says Elena. “Actually, I
hope we’re going to feed the ducks.”
“We’re going to do something totally new – something you’ve never done
before!” I said.
“Where is it? Is it going to take long to get there?
Are there bathrooms there?” Elena asked.
“It’s in Door County & will take about 45 minutes” I explained...
“And yes, there are bathrooms there...” <-- this kid worries about the most
random things.
…10 minutes later…
“Are we there yet?”
We arrived at
Schopf’s Hill Top Dairy, which looks straight out of a child’s
story book. Pumpkins lined the adorable barn themed store-front, Adirondack chairs
were scattered about the play area, so that parents can watch as children climb
around the play sets, & there was even an area to feed some farm animals.
We didn't waste any time purchasing our tickets for the corn maze & began our "adventure" right away.
Roughly ten minutes in, Kane got sick of walking.
When we got done with the brown maze, I asked if the kids wanted to do the red maze next, and they all but started crying,
"Nooooo!! Don't make us do another one! I'm hot. I'm hungry. I wanna play!"
So we listened to the kids & found the exit. Elena was never more happy...
They had more fun playing on the tractors & play sets than navigating through the maze. Guess they are still a bit young to enjoy it. I had a blast, though :)
It was after 12:30 and we were all hungry, so we ordered a pizza & some rootbeer & had a picnic outside.
After lunch, we fed a few farm animals...
Kane would spend the rest of his life on a tractor, if you'd let him.
At the end of the afternoon, we decided that we couldn't leave without a sweet treat first....
And then we got to watch them milk the cows, which was neat.
So lesson learned... playground > corn maze. Now we know :)
I'm still so glad that we kidnapped them for the day. Life gets so busy, and I don't see them near as often as I wish I did. I love spending time with them; they make my heart so full!
