~ the pollard's ~: Rader Family Farms

We were super excited to find this family farm that has a pumpkin patch and tons of other fun things to do so close to home. With the weather being so nice & Kale loving pumpkins I thought it would be a good time so after church we headed to Bloomington to check out Rader Family Farms. Turns out tons of other people had the same idea and the place was packed! We ate lunch with chickens & turkeys roaming around the yard with the picnic tables before heading to check out the other barnyard animals.

Jason & Kale at the entrance to the Farm

Our next stop was to go on a hayrack ride in the pumpkin field, but the line was looong and there were tons of prepicked pumpkins at the store so we jumped out of line and headed to the cattle chute. Kale loved running up the chute and jumping into the straw pile. Jason actually caught him and then let him drop into the straw.

running up the chute

jumping to dad

landing in the straw

He thought he was pretty big stuff

We skipped the giant dirt "mountain" with a huge pipe slide...it was a super long slide and we weren't sure if Kale would like it. I was feeling bad until a little later we heard a kid screaming because he was halfway through the slide and scared. I'm not sure how they got him out, but I don't think I could have went in after Kale if he freaked out in the middle! So our next stop was the big tub of corn. There were 2 huge tubs of corn filled with kids just playing. Luckily we got in the "rowdy boys" tub where all the kids were getting a little crazy. The other stock tank was filled with girls playing nice :) Kale wouldn't have fit in {he is definitely getting better at holding his own- thanks Coop:) }

playing in the corn

Kale got to ride a bouncy horse during our playdate with Bennett a while back and now loves to bounce and see horses so he was excited to see the "horses" at the farm to ride. They were set up in a circle around "steer heads" for older kids to try and rope so Jason tried roping while Kale rode the horse.

loving the horse ride

I think Jason gave up on roping

Thank goodness there was a kiddie corn maze for us to try out. The real maze was 5 acres! Anyway, we wandered around the kiddie maze for a while, but we all were getting tired and knew there were caramel apples and kettle corn waiting for us so we didn't last long before turning around and going back out the entrance!

running through the corn maze...in the beginning

We headed back to the store for our snacks and to pick out our pumpkins before heading home. There was so much more to do and I think we could have spent all day there. I think it will be even more fun when Kale gets bigger! After so much fun it was naptime when we got home, but later we carved our pumpkin from Totten's and got our new pumpkins set out for decorations. We are all ready for Halloween now!