A beautiful fall day in Austin.
I love October for all of the seasonal rituals. I gleefully await pumpkin patches, corn mazes, my birthday, Halloween, and the Fall Festival at my daughter’s school, where I will be volunteering at the cupcake booth (of course). I am that mom that thinks about a costume months ahead of time. And if you read carefully, you saw a hint just there about the fam’s costumes be this year. EB is pumped.
EB and Ans. Ans had second thoughts about bouncing.
I’ve actually never been to a corn maze before. This is one of the unforeseen benefits of having children – you have an excuse to do all of the fun activities and not feel like a tool for being too old to be at a corn maze. We were invited to one 25 minutes east of Austin called Barton Hills Farms in Bastrop, Texas. The owner is a friend of one of our employees, Shawn, who built large hanging swings for the Farm from leftover materials from our projects. He invited us to meet him and his kids there this past weekend with our girls, and it was an absolute blast.
Swinging along the Colorado River.
First of all, the property is gorgeous. You just have to get a pass for the kiddos to bounce on the giant jumping pillow and cow train, because it’s worth the unlimited trips back to the beginning of the line. Bring your own snacks, or eat beforehand, because we’re talking amusement park prices for hot dogs and beer. And if you have a wagon, bring it. Kids get tired of walking and I get tired of holding all of the THINGS. Once you’ve swung against the Colorado River backdrop, gotten your wiggles out on the jumping pillow, pet some goats and played a few rounds of ring toss, and taken pictures of your kiddos in the pumpkin patch, head on over to the Willie Nelson-themed corn maze.
Barton Hills Farms Corn Maze and Fall Festival
This was so much fun. I had no idea! Hubs and I power-housed it through that maze. He memorized phase one, and I used my brains and instinct to lead our group through phase two. I’m pretty sure it was record time, except for the kids who literally ran through it with their phones on a timer, who clocked in at 4:16. I’d call it record time for parents dragging a wagon and toting a baby in a ring sling.
When the park was closing at 5pm, the rest of the patrons made their way out of the exit. Since we had the inside scoop with the owner, we got to stick around while the workers finished up for the day. That means we had the jumping pillow all to ourselves. I’ve never seen adult men so happy jumping on this thing! We had jumping races, Hubs double-bounced everyone (including our toddler), and I felt like I had to pee the whole time. I blame two pregnancies. It was the most glorious day, a perfect first ritual in our fall schedule.
Pano of the jumping pillow. NEED.
There are two more weekends it will be open – you should go! November 10th is the last day. Adults are $10 and kids 3 and up are $7, unless you get the unlimited pass. I also saw on the website that there are discounts if you buy online. Saturdays they’re open from 10am – 10pm, and Sundays are 10am – 5pm. You can even pick up a pumpkin to carve in time for Halloween.
Obligatory pumpkin patch pics.
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