I can't say today's venture to a local farm for some fall fun was a first for Garrison or Rosalia but to this particular farm was a first for all of us!
Marc and I have steered clear of Schnepf Farms for one main reason... it's way overpriced! They have an outrageous entrance fee then on top of that you have to pay for things like the train ride, horse rides, and a few other extras. The food is tasty but way overpriced as well! With a family our size, a money pit like this never makes the list for fun festivities!
The last couple years we have made the long trip to a couple farms that weren't so local and they were very disappointing. After gas, travel expenses, and cost at the farms we really should have just stayed local and gone to Schnepf!
Today the lesson was learned...
They had a special deal where I only had to pay for 1 admission to get all 3 of us in! (Myself, Garrison and Rosalia)
A friend convinced me to go. We had such a great time. The only bad part of the day was we could only stay a couple hours before heading to pick up the older kids from school and finish afternoon parent/teacher conferences.
2 hours was plenty for a 2 and 1 year old thankfully!! It's a really nice set up. Everything is spread out and there was actually a few decent size trees providing many opportunities to hang out in the shade (Its still hot this time of year remember!). They had such cute rides for the younger kids. Garrison LOVED the airplane ride. It's similiar to the Dumbo ride at Disneyland. You pull the handle to go up while you fly around in a circle. Garrison's "girlfriend" Lexi rode with him. It was so cute, while in the air he would turn back to her and check to make sure she was having fun!
Garrison also went on the bumblebee ride which is just like the airplane ride except its a big bumblebee! They wouldn't let all 3 of us ride together and since I didn't have anyone to hold Rosalia I decided to let him ride by himself. He did great!
We also went and checked out the petting area. They allowed people to go in and pet the baby goats. After getting Garrison into the area, he continued to be fearful of them while Rosalia played staring games with one of the goats! It was very funny to watch. She would approach the goat but then as soon as the goat came towards her she would step back and put her hands in front of her to establish her area was not for the goat to overstep into!
We also stopped by to see the deer and llama, or as Garrison called it a "mama"!
Oh and we got to ride on the "Merr" (What Garrison calls the Merry Go Round)!
We finished off the morning by the large haystack and attempted a group picture! Rosalia isn't all that cooperative these days (another reason I haven't done her official 1 year birthday pictures just yet)!
For the price it's not as bad as I thought. With the discount offered at the local grocery store we might just have to take the family there next year.
I would make a plan for this year but we have passes to another local farm we are going to visit.
Who would have thought there were this many farms in the desert!!
This year we decided to be a family of pirates! About a month ago, I began working on every one's costumes. I didn't have any idea how much work would go into making all the different pieces to each child's costume never mind pieces for Marc and myself! I pretty much spent the entire month sewing something every day! BUT it was all worth it. We looked so good with our coordinating costumes!
As soon as 6pm hit, we were walking our street in search of candy! Rosalia kept up with all her older siblings and had no shy moments when approaching strangers at their front doors! 
After just a few houses, Marc and Rosalia headed home to hand out candy. Marc gave Rosalia her bag wondering what she might do with the few pieces of candy... well she suckered Marc into giving her a lollipop then found a pixie stick (aka sugar stick). He poured a bit on her tongue and once she realized she liked the taste, she tried ripping the entire stick out of his hand! She was on a bit of a sugar high and had a late bedtime needless to say!
This was the new candy supply the children collected! Not bad for only 45 minutes around a couple blocks!
It's always fun spending time with the family, and these day
s it comes much harder than it should. With crazy work schedules, older kids doing sports, and just something always coming up in life... getting together doesn't happen near as much as any of us would like!
Birthdays give us that "excuse" to "fit" it in!
Back a few weeks ago 
The regular admission price was pretty reasonable at $5/per person so I warned Marc that this place is probably not all that big.
With the kids having a half day of school and Marc taking the day off, we loaded everyone up after lunch time and headed out to east Mesa where 
I can't say if Marc is convinced on taking the kids back next year, but it is a place we are going to look into for Liliana to take her horseback riding lessons. The family is so sweet and their prices are really reasonable! Regardless of price, all that mattered at the end of the day was that we had another 
