Bringing in the Harvest

Junior fire fighters

Our Saturday mornings have been occupied with soccer and hockey.  While we normally welcome activities for the kids, having every Saturday committed to soccer as we roll into fall has been a bit of a bummer when the weather is still so nice and there is so much to do.  This particular weekend, we got an email that soccer was cancelled and a tip on a great harvest festival from Kirkwood and Susanne.

This guy was not holding up his end
of the conversation

The Ardenwood Harvest Festival was a crowded, but fantastic day out for the kids. It is a working farm you can visit at any time, but for that harvest weekend, they pull out all the stops and have tons for the kids to do.


The kids had a great time making mini quilts, churning ice cream, seeing the wood burning stoves in action making fresh cookies and hanging with the animals.  Malachy particularly loved pulling the wool and making yarn.  He would have stayed there all day.

Field of dreams

One of the highlights of the festival is that you can go into the corn fields and it is all you can pick Indian corn and popcorn.  In hind sight, it is kind of a odd activity to do with a kid who is allergic to corn, but Malachy had a blast running through the corn fields looking for the perfect ears of Indian Corn and pulling the popcorn off the stalks.

Sadly, the combination of overly tired kids, heat, and the crowds resulted in us not being able to ride the train or take the hay ride, but we do know we will be back next year arriving right when it opens with a much better plan to make sure the kiddos aren't screaming about the train ride all the way back to the car.

So wrong...but he loved it