Octobering So Good
Oh my gosh, I LOVE October! The leaves change color, and in Oregon they are absolutely beautiful. October is a month that the kid's schedules get smoothed out with school, sports and other activities. The weather changes and forces us to be indoors (rain!) spending more time cuddling and just being together as a family. In the Slavic community we celebrate "Harvest", so every church has almost a production on a special Sunday in October, that made it fun to visit other churches through out the month and celebrate when we were growing up and attending a Slavic church. Speaking of harvest, I cant's wait to go apple picking!
I've always felt a little more loved in October as well, because it's my birthday month and my mom celebrated us so good. My grandma's birthday is the day after mine, so I felt extra special that I was a gift to her in some way.
And so, we celebrate October! Every weekend we do some thing special ( we need to do that all year, but for now October gets all the love).
I'm going to post our adventures as we go... Pumpkin Patch month is upon us! We go to different farms every year to give them all a chance. I like to give things a chance. Any how, I'm starting fresh for this page, so here we go...
Fir Point Farm (Click title for their website) I ABSOLUTELY loved this farm. I feel like they had everything for all ages. They have a café, we ordered soup and sandwiches and had to have a dozen apple cider donuts to finish the day. Kids Zone, Pumpkin painting, Pumpkin walk, win a prize! Cow Train, Giant Slides, Paint ball gallery, Bounce Houses, Hay Rides, weekends only...
Nut House, Tire Swings, Nature Trail Path,
Pumpkin Patch, Petting Zoo, Fresh Apple Cider,
Apple Cider Donuts, Food Court, lots more... My favorite part was this self guided tour to these “stations” I’ll call them. Kids can paint their mini pumpkins at a station, then feed the farm animals (bring quarters), completely go nutty at “Hazel’s Nut House” (a cabin with the entire floor covered in hazelnuts. Then play on the play structures, with this cool Noah’s Ark structure with ta slide - that was fun. Circle around and do the corn maze. They have a “kids” corn maze as well, that I liked because I always get lost in them and this way I could see my way out. Last but not least, pick your pumpkin! Check their website for hours and activities they have on weekends only. We went on a Thursday and absolutely had a blast!
Olson Farms This place is so fun! There is no entrance fee, but there are tickets to be purchased for the wagon ride, apple launch, and hay ride. My boys just cared about the awesome play structure! That was so fun for them. We did the tractor pulled wagon ride, that was $3 each, the boys had a blast. This farm isn't crowded like some of the bigger ones are, but I like that. The experience was pretty chill and actually relaxing and enjoyable. The farm is located in Damascus, so it's surrounded by other farms. This made the backdrop to all my pictures, absolutely beautiful.
BiZi farm is one of my favorites, for sure. One thing that is important to me is that this farm does not emphasize holloween, but highlights the beauty of harvest. See, we don't celebrate fear and that is what holloween is to me - a celebration of fear. Fear is opposite of love and I want to live in love and light. I choose light.
There's so much to do with the kiddos! The entrance fee is $10, kids 2 and under are free. That includes:
One free pumpkin, any size you can carry from the Pumpkin Patch. We watched a girl struggle to carry and then roll a pumpkin about her size, she was determined.
Admission to the corn maze and farm animals
Kids activities; Bale Maze, Corn play area ( the boys had a blast!), Bale Pyramid
Two shots on the Pumpkin Launchers
Live music (Saturdays and Sundays)
One free hot drink per admission: coffee, spiced cider or hot chocolate
Wagon ride to and from the Pumpkin Patch to find your “Perfect Pumpkin”
Philip Foster Farm Last week I took the kids to this farm with a home school group. Admission is $5 per person and $20 per family. I love the real history in the place. The boys had a blast building a log cabin, using a saw that is bigger then, grind corn, swing on hay, climb wagons... Simon learned what the main chore of the eldest child of the house hold was, and he is thankful he doesn't live in those times. There were no bathrooms inside the homes in the 1800's. They had little lidded potty's in each bed room. So, in the morning the eldest child had to go around the house, collect all the potty's and dump them at the edge of the property. Oh goodness.
Portland Nursery off Stark, hosts an annual Apple tasting extravaganza!( If you hit that link above it will take you to their website, for more info.) We just stopped by there one Sunday afternoon on our way home, to find a plant we've been looking for. So there we were tasting hundreds of apples, eating apple strudel with ice-cream, eating popcorn as the kids paint pumpkins and play games around the grounds. We had a blast! The apples sell out fast at $1 a lb. for any sort of apple!!! We loaded up on Asian pears and other apples we can't find at the store. We're coming back next year. I still LOVE to go apple picking and we will be doing that soon. So, check the Facebook page for your local activities and get your family out to explore.
October-November are perfect months to pick apples. Some are late picking apples that one can pick from November -December even. We like to go apple picking all throughout the season. I am blessed to have a friend that invites us to her parent’s apple orchard, but there are other orchards we’ve visited throughout the years. I really recommend doing the Fruit Loop in Hood river if you live in the area. That's my favorite fall activity of all! Visit their website for a map and see what fruit are available now. They do have a pumpkin patch and the Alpaca Farm is really cool to stop by at. Click Hood River Fruit Loop for more info.
Happy Octobering!
