A-maizing Fun and Prizes!

A couple of weekends back Kyra and I decided it was time to welcome fall. So at Miss K's insistence, the two of us made multiple trips up and down the attic stairs - bringing with us a few of our dearest friends...at least in the fall.

After an hour or so spent making over our garden pals, shoving stuffin here, attaching a nose there, tying up britches and pasting down hair, our little fall-en family was ready to take their places of honor in the front yard.

Please take note of that littlest pumpkin there in the middle...we kinda favor her most :)

The following Sunday we decided to check out a local corn maze our optometrist had recommended. As corn mazes go, it was supposed to be very kid friendly.

"Oh yah," the Doc said. "We love it! We take our little ones and let them wear themselves out running around in the maze" Dr. B went on to add how her kiddos, loved playing on the inflatables and perusing the petting zoo.

Dr. Braum insisted this place was home to a smaller maze the little ones could navigate themselves. If the kids get too tired or just impatient, the parents would go in and bring them out.

Unlike the local favorite monster maze frequented by many, our eye doc urged us to patronize this smaller gem the

Kernel Kob Corn Maze

So immediately after church and lunch we headed out to the country-over hill and dale, winding down the sweetest of little valley's to find this quaint family owned farm.

Once we arrived we purchased tickets for the works! Corn maze, petting zoo, pony rides and inflatables baby! Look out!

Before we began our fall festivities, we stopped for a quick snap shot or two at this corny vignette.

As you can see, Kyra was already having a painfully good time!

After several failed attempts to get a squintless photo we moved on to the main event, Kernel Kobs Corn Maze.

The maze consist of 3 miles of paths cut into a large corn field. The view from above lets you see how the maze resembles an eagle.

For the record, the lighter areas that outline the eagle, that is your path, the rest...is corn....lots and lots of corn!

Prior to entering this maze-o-corn, we were each given a map and instructions that as we made our way through the maize we should encounter 12 numbered stations. Each check-in along our way was equipped with a special hole punch. Each stations punch would be distinctive in shape and exclusive to that post.

Should you locate each station and punch each accordingly, you could enter into a drawing for prizes. There were to be different shaped punch outs for each particular spot. There would be no faking having found each site, either your punches would match, or they wouldn't.

Got it?

We were also warned that at anytime, if we grew weary or lost, there was no need to panic, just follow the ribbons found throughout and they would lead us out again.

With map and ticket in hand we were on our way!

In hindsight, it may have been wise to pay a bit more attention to the disclaimer at that greeted us as we set off.

We were fearless and certain this would be as elementary as Dr. Bram had described. Besides, we had a secret weapon and his name is Bruce!

Have I ever mentioned my husband was is a Boy Scout? An Eagle Scout to be exact.

Yep! A dandy!

He can best be described as a cross between

Indiana Jones and Marlin Perkins .

Imagine a fedora worn in this profile verse the ball cap above...see it?

The man knows a lot about so much and a little about everything. If he doesn't, we are off to the library to look it up. At times he drove his children crazy when they ask him. His standard response

"Well, let's look that up" instead of just giving them an answer.

Mr. B is the epitome of logic, patient, calm and cool. Rarely do you catch him off guard or reactive, unlike say...um....a certain sweetie of his? Personally, I think we balance each other, and this is a very good thing!

So, secret weapon by the hand, our trio barreled in.

We were not too far into our journey before realised this could be a lot like work. Thankfully I had the good sense to leave my luggage also called a handbag in the car, carrying instead the essentials - camera and phone. If I could do it over again, I would have brought a bottle of water or some other cold beverage.

We kicked up a lot of dust as we hurried along, and the sun was beating down on us pretty hard.

We immediately were turned around, finding ourselves going in circles. Places we thought we would find a punch and post, were dead ends. After 10 minutes of wandering along I admit to keeping an eye open for that ribbon we were told to follow should the need arise.

Yes, with each dirty step, that yellow ribbon was looking better and better.

It was just about then that we turned a corner to find this

Not the Holy Grail, but cause for celebration in our group...that day. It was post number 9. How and where we missed the other 8....I still have no clue.

We punched our card (a rectangle hole), Indy recalculated then moved quickly on, while Marlin calmly explained the nature of maps and navigation to Kyra with me doing my part to document it all.

Before long, we were on a roll, finding numbers 4, 3, 7 and 5, few in chronological order, but hey we were finding them and the sweet smell of success was getting strong.

As we wondered along in this field of dreams, we couldn't help but hear fellow sojourners crying out in the stalks. At times it got ugly and at least one group resorted to cutting through the rows to bust out the sides achieving freedom at last.

Almost an hour later, with 7 holes punched and a little gal anxious to get on with the rest of this day-o-fun, our Paw Paw man lead us out, grabbed all the punch cards, a Diet Pepsi, and headed back to finish the task.

While Mr B continued stalking the stalks, baby G and I headed round the circuit, beginning with the petting zoo.

Pot Bellied Pigs

the dog

the hen

the goat

(think that goat has had his picture taken before?)

the duck...AFLAC!!

After exhibiting much patience and self control, little Miss was invited to ride a trusty steed

Clyde

Clyde's barn mate was named

Bonnie of course!

The next leg on our tour a corn took us to the tower slide and

boy did we slide!

It had been about 45 minutes when we saw Mr B exciting the maize and taking all 3 punch cards to be checked and added to the drawing. Apparently they will be giving away a gift card of some kind.

We are excited about our chances!

As the sun was going down and our steam was waining, we picked out a nice assortment of the most beautiful carving pumpkins.

Mr. Jones then packed up his pumpkin's, his girls and we all headed home.

Awwwwe! I love fall!

How 'bout you?