Cloudy, rainy, and muddy. There’s no better weather to take a trip to the pumpkin patch—if you’re a preschooler. Though the weather was less than ideal, a troop of preschoolers from the YMCA didn’t seem to mind as they stomped and splashed their way around Avila Valley Barn on their annual trip to the pumpkin patch.
My own son attends school there, so I tagged along, because honestly there’s not much cuter than little kids and giant pumpkins and friendly farm animals vying for attention and maybe a piece of lettuce.
Avila Valley Barn attracts people from all over the Central Coast—and even farther—with its fresh produce, farm animals, hayride, and general ambience. Because of the weather on our visit, there was no tractor hayride for us. It’s a fun trek down to the pumpkin patch where groups are given time to explore and find just the right pumpkin before hopping on the tractor and heading back.
In lieu of the hayride, the kids got to test their rain boots by stomping straight down to and through the muddy patch on their own, each one trying to find the biggest pumpkin, laying claim to it, and then straining to pick it up. In a kids’ mind, bigger is always better.
Avila Valley Barn also features several pens with animals clamoring to see their pint-sized visitors. The kids each took bits of food, approached the pens to feed the animals, thought better of it, and then threw the food over the top of the gate. I guess bigger is only better when it comes to pumpkins. Big pigs, large llamas, and gigantic goats are a bit intimidating when you’re only 4.
Eventually, most of the kids got the hang of it, and with help from teachers, some of them were brave enough to hold out a piece of celery while nervously waiting for the lips of some wooly creature to grab it.
Perhaps the biggest highlight for the kids, however, was the hay bale maze. There’s a half-sized open-top maze for kids to run through, but when they tired of that, it was off to a bigger, enclosed version. Once two teachers, two parents, and a string of hand-holding kids entered the maze too far to turn back, we discovered there was absolutely no light. Luckily cell phones these days have a flashlight app, which came in handy as some of the children began to decide they didn’t quite like hay bale mazes after all. Scooting along in a huddle, with several little hands in mine and a few little arms wrapped around my thigh, we followed the light of a couple of cell phones through the twisting paths.
On the outside once again, the kids climbed hay bales and stomped in more mud before collecting their pumpkins to head back for a dry lunch back in class. There are plenty of tables and benches at which to eat on drier days and enjoy some fresh bakery items or homemade ice cream or candy with a cup of coffee or fresh pressed apple cider. Open year-round, the Avila Valley Barn offers u-pick produce like apples and berries and during the Christmas season visitors can get fresh-cut Oregon nobles and Douglas firs.
However, for a class of preschoolers on a rainy day—all muddy and tired—the next best thing was lunch and a nap.
Arts Editor Shelly Cone loves a long nap on a rainy day. She can be contacted at scone@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Oct 18-25, 2012.
