Taking a trip to the pumpkin patch during the Fall is such a fun activity for the kids and for us as a family.
Our Annual Visit to Fall Festivals at Pumpkin Patches
We couldn’t wait to take a trip to a Fall Festival at a Pumpkin Patch. It’s become sort of a tradition! Generally, we’d visit our old favorite a few times. Last year, I discovered a “sister” patch to the one we usually go to so we ended up alternating between both quite a few times. That sure was fun! Moving to a new area though, came with many changes.
Our First Trip to A Pumpkin Patch in the PA Area
Our Pumpkin Patch visit didn’t turn out quite as we expected (as we imagined). It was NO festival at all. Rather, just a few play things scattered throughout the fields for the kids to play. The set up was quite spread out, not much people were there and it didn’t seem like there was much to the patch. My husband joked that they must have spread everything out to make it seem like a lot but it really was not.
We were sort of disappointed with the outcome. But the one thing I can say is that they had an actual Pumpkin Patch for growing pumpkins where we picked our first set of pumpkins for the season. That was nice. And we still tried to have fun and got a little laugh out of the experience.
What We Expected
I think we were hoping to find more Fall inspired displays and activities for kids and parents along with more people (while not being too crowded). That was not the case and we still had to pay full price even though we got there about 2 hours before closing. There were about 2 other families with a couple kids over in the fields doing some activities. From the looks of it, it doesn’t seem like this patch gets a lot of people. Well, I don’t know. But all the pumpkin patches we’ve been too have been filled with people and activities for all to do, even into the evening. My husband said he was intending to go to a different patch but must have accidentally plugged in the MapQuest for this location while he was searching Google.
The kids made use of the slides, swings, corn box and other activities that were there, though. This walk activity here looks easy but it’s not that easy to get through. We had fun trying to walk across it; I failed miserably. Our 8 year old though, seemed to have got the technique down. She just walked right through a couple times.
We Had No Pre-Knowledge of What the Experience Was Like
Do you see how bare everything looks from these photos? Ha!! Where is everybody else? Well, we chased the kids, did the corn maze, picked pumpkins and tried to make ourselves happy. After all, we paid for it. NOTE: You can’t see what the area is like from the entrance. It’s why we didn’t realize what it was like until after paying. I guess we could have asked for our money back and turned around but we figured the kids would want to play. And as mentioned above, the one my husband had Googled looked more fun but we accidentally drove to this one. But now we have that experience and that’s OK because maybe it was the RIGHT one for us that time. And we truly tried to make the best of it!!
Playing in a corn box is usually one of the kids favorite things to do – this one was a bit small and not covered around so the corn could fall off the sides if the kids play rough. But they went in non-the-less.
Hay Ride to A Real Pumpkin Patch
Despite the fact that this location didn’t have much to offer in the way of activities, we got to pick pumpkins from an actual patch. Usually, what we call the Pumpkin Patch is more of a venue where lots of pumpkins are displayed that you could buy (and take photos with) and that puts on Fall festivals and activities for kids and families. These usually include rides, mazes, jump pads, animal display and feeding, haunted houses, etc.
This patch though didn’t have much of that but it has a pumpkin patch where the pumpkins actually grow that you could pick from. We took a hay ride that brought us around to the patch, then we got out to get some pumpkins. Some of them were already cut from the vines but the person who drove the truck cut others for us that we wanted.
$15 Dollar Pumpkins!
That part of it was really fun and a small experience that we all enjoyed. We only picked about 5 pumpkins (my daughter had another one in her hand from what’s shown here) to start off the season. The smaller pumpkins were about $3 or $4 I think so we had to watch our budget. Think the prices varied according to sizes. The person who took us around the field mentioned that the larger pumpkins would not cost more than $8. I thought I would get one of it. That large one you see here turned out to be $15 dollars at checkout. I gave it back to the woman checking us out. She eventually gave it to us for free when we were leaving. Thank you lady!! I heard pumpkins were scare and overpriced this season:(
The kids wanted to ride along in this little wagon with the pumpkins. They were so heavy to push around too. But we had to get a photo with each one of them in:)
We went to check our the animals. There were some goats. It didn’t look like you could feed them. We usually do at other festivals and the selection of animals is usually much larger.
Pictures With Pumpkins
We took these family photos right when we got to the patch. I figured it would be a little dark by the time we left plus the kids may get dirty from playing in the corn box. So I wanted to get some photos with the pumpkins first. Again, we didn’t get one with everyone in it together since there was no one close by to ask to take it for us:)
We spotted the most beautiful rainbow on the way home. It rained while we were driving home. Around this area seems to have lots of rainbows and lots of rain, too.
All in all, we sort of enjoyed the trip to some extent even though we didn’t think the experience was worth the money. We just made the best of it! Do you go to pumpkin patches. What has been your experience?
