Halloween Activities: Lost in a Maze

"Your heart knows the way. Run in that direction." ~ Rumi

In our case, it was less a matter of the heart and more a certain opinionated four year old who believed he knew the way. But hey, with a few shortcuts and just a tiny bit of cheating, we managed to find our way out of all three corn mazes we've gotten lost in this month. Yup. We've been busy. 

I know pumpkin patches get all kinds of love this month, and trust me, I've got plenty of pumpkin pictures coming at ya in the near future, but one of my absolute FAVORITE Halloween activities is getting lost in a giant corn maze. This is a tradition from my childhood that I was so excited to pass down to Ez and Declan and they love it just as much as I do. I can't tell you how happy that makes my holiday-loving heart. 

Ez is currently in a "I can do it myself" take the lead kind of phase, and he was so in his element directing us through the mazes. "I think we gotta go this way!" "Nope, back this way!" "Ok guys, which way?...This way!" He even snatched the map right out of my hands while we were in a huge maze, one that takes two hours to complete if you do it right, and he took on full navigation duties. In case you've never let a four year old navigate, it involves lots of winding, looping, backtracking, and, yes, some blazing your own trails. Some may call that cheating, but it was lunchtime and I was hungry, so we'll just call it survival. 

Decky didn't get the coveted leader role this time, but he was still in his element given free reign to run wild through the dirty, messy paths. If you ever want a sure-fire guarantee that your kids will sleep 10+ hours straight, take 'em to the corn maze. 

For anyone local, here are the three we've hit up (so far - there are still two weeks left!):

• Delfino Farms was our first corn maze, and though they have a bigger maze down the street we stuck with the small one for $5. It really is tiny and took maybe fifteen minutes of our time. We'll call it a good warm up maze to get the season started. The real highlight of Delfino Farms is their walking apple pie. Get the caramel sauce and ice cream on top, trust me:

• Next up was Cool Patch Pumpkins, near Dixon. This corn maze is no joke. We're talking complex maps with a grid system, three or four platform viewing spots, an average of two hours to complete the maze (if you don't cheat or get extremely lost), and probably hundreds of dead ends. I love this kind of maze, and I highly recommend going here, the only problem is that after a few very windy days (40 mph in some areas), a lot of the corn was flattened. That didn't diminish the difficulty at all though. Cost: $15
• Goblin Gardens Pumpkin Patch at Bastiao Farms was our most recent adventure. This one wins points for being nice and close (just north of Sacramento) and having lots of fun kid activities included in their admission fee ($8). Their corn maze is well-maintained and average-sized. We went through twice in about half an hour.

What's your favorite fall farm activity??