Happy Birthday Pappy

We headed off to the Kersey Valley Maize Adventure . I found it on the internet and although it's only 30 minutes from our house, I don't know anyone that's been there. We got a little nervous because the final couple of miles to the "farm" is not the most attractive. Then all of a sudden there is this little mini theme park oasis. It was fantastic. It was all set up like an old west mining town. We had a great day!! Hope you had a nice birthday Pappy!

There was a big bear and this huge jack-o-lantern carved from tree stumps.

Not sure who had more fun on the Jumping Pillow, the kids or Daddy!! I'd never heard of these before. It's like a giant balloon buried in a sandbox. So cool.

Cameron didn't want to jump, he was content playing in the sand.

The little kids went through the small maize maze and collected their ABC's along the way. The big maze was 4 miles long and can take several hours to get through, so we skipped that one.

After digging for dinosaur fossils, we cooled off in the water and panned for gems. This was Abbie's favorite part.

A beautiful day at the Amazing Maize Maze!!

The Big 3-6

Happy Birthday to me. Tim was in class and Abbie was at Girl Scout camp but I still had a fun day with Grandy, Aunt Cathy and my boys. We drove an hour or so to the Brushy Mountain Apple Festival. We had a great time and other than a 20 minute scenic route detour when we missed the sign for the shuttle parking, things went very smoothly. "We" enjoyed the obligatory festival indulgences of funnel cakes and cotton candy, a couple of apple treats of the caramel and candy coated variety, and the tad unusual roasted corn on the cob :)

The crafts were the best part. The pottery was beautiful, some photography and prints came home with me but my most favorite was some recycled art...glass bottle wind chimes from Bottle Benders. They either use flattened (how do they do that?) vintage bottles attached to driftwood (what I got) or they use newer discarded bottles and color them in all kinds of ways. Seeing a whole tent of them displayed in the sun and chiming in the breeze was so beautiful. So creative.

The boys enjoyed visiting with each and every single one of the hundreds of dogs welcomed there.

BUT, Cooper trampling through a pile of doggy discards was easily the lowpoint of the day :( It was quite obvious that the pile did not belong to the teeny doggie in the picture. It was much more likely to have come from some ginormous mutant dog/horse hybrid.

All in all it was a great day. And tomorrow wil be too. Off to a pumpkin patch adventure for Pappy's birthday. I predict more photos.