Annual Corn maze time

 For the last three years we have headed to Bowles Farm with our homeschooling group to participate in the annual corn maze. Bowles really does an amazing job creating their mazes and it takes quite awhile to get through...even with the map.

Usually we first take the 'train' ride around the outside of the maze and listen to the farmer tell us about what they grow such as soybeans and corn.

The maze has three parts, one is for little tiny kiddos and then there is an easier side and a much longer one. They have you take a flag just in case you get lost and then they can guide you through the maze by the speaker system. We are quite triumphant this year, only got turned around one time. Maliea is always the victor in getting through by herself.

The tender voices of sheep and oinking of pigs always brings a smile. Coarse hay bales await jumping in and huge piles of corn to dig and scoop are some of the other delights of the afternoon.

The thing that creates the quickest smiles though is the giant tube slides. The littles could slide all day long!

We can not forget one of the best parts....picking our very own pumpkin to take home. This year the kiddos surprised me by choosing smaller ones, maybe because they have to carry them to the van themselves.

 It was an afternoon of delightful fun and one of our last with our sweet Chaiya, as she is moving into full adulthood and getting married in a few weeks and leaving for Arizona. Autumn time is always one of shifting as the days get a little shorter and the leaves change into their brilliant colors. This year brings so much more as we shift as a family. Our littles are not really little anymore. The mailbox is starting to fill with catalogs that have the most adorable things...things that we are becoming less interested in as school studies are increasing and free play with dolls and blocks are not quite as intriguing. There is still a few hours in the week where all is quiet and when I look in I find them on the floor building or dressing their dolls. I know though that time goes on. They will not be littles too much longer.