Center Grove Orchard 2011

Our day at Center Grove Orchard was easily one of the best family days we've had together.  Jeremy's schedule at work was all messed up so instead of his usual Friday off (when it was to be 65 degrees) he had Wednesday off (when it was to be 45 degrees, cloudy, and windy).  But we knew we wanted to go on a weekday rather than the weekend to avoid the crowds and boy did we!  Absolutely everything we did we had all to ourselves.  There were a few other people there, but so few that we didn't ever share an activity at the same time.  I bundled the kids up in snow pants and winter coats and hats so I would hear no complaints about how cold they were.  It was awesome to be able to play with no other bigger kids around and no crowds!

 My little Alice in Wonderland.  They had the Mad Hatter's Tea Party table too.

 There was also the 3 little pig's houses and goats, sheep, chickens, and horses to pet or see but I don't want to post too many pictures.  This picture is the old schoolhouse they have there.

 Maddox made corn angels in the corn pit.

 We didn't take Hadlee's shoes off in the corn pit and she came home with about a whole ear's worth in one shoe.  Whoops.  No wonder she didn't want to walk the rest of the day.

 We had the jumping pillow all to ourselves too!  Which was great because last year Maddox was pretty scared of the jumping pillow mainly because there were so many other kids on it and she kept getting bounced around.  So we all took turns bouncing so she could have control of her bounces.  She loved it!

 Hadlee tries to jump but that consists of bending her knees and just popping back up, her feet never leaving the ground.

 Maddox enjoyed trying to find her way out of the hay bale maze.

 We also went down the super slide.  It looks pretty steep from the top and Maddox was scared, but loved it once we did it.  After going down between my legs she would go down beside me as long as I held her hand and held onto her hood with my other hand.  Hadlee went down between our legs too and  liked it.

 Then we took the tractor ride out to the corn maze and pumpkin patch.  Pictures started ending here because my newfound allergies kicked in and I spent most of this walk sneezing, blowing my nose, and trying to see through my watery eyes.  I was happy to just finish the maze, get the pumpkins and get out of there at this point.  Hadlee fell asleep in Jeremy's arms while we did the maze for a short nap. 

After spending 4 hours at the orchard we got a snack and loaded up to head back home (stopping on the way to buy allergy medicine).  It was such a fun day and the girls loved it!  Who can beat spending the day outside playing with your kids with no crowd around to fight?  Next time I'll take allergy medicine before we go though!