Middleton’s Fall Festival, worth the hype?

This past weekend, we took a little trip out to the Middleton’s Fall Festival. We’ve been to just about every pumpkin patch within an hour of our house and this one was so much different than all the others. I’m 100% that mom who is super pumped for a family fun day and then wants to leave 45 minutes after we get there. Every. Single. Time. I don’t love big crowds, I’m not super into carnival-type stuff and I hate feeling claustrophobic. I expected this event to make me feel the same way as all the others. But that wan’t the case. We were there for FIVE hours and I was actually bummed when we had to leave because they were shutting down for the night. I wanted to stay and do more, which is so unlike me. I’ll share most of our day here and a few quick tips at the end!

First thing we did when we got inside the gate was head for the corn maze. As we approached, a bunch of people tried to steer us away because they had gotten lost and were frustrated. (lol) But we went ahead anyway. There’s a picture of the maze at the front so you can take a photo and use it as a map. We did that and had no problem getting back out within 5 minutes of starting. No problem. So definitely take the picture if you decide to try out the corn maze!

We decided to just go ahead and eat right away because none of us are fun to be around when we’re hungry. There were so many options to choose from, most of them local food vendors. Tamales, Pizza, Corn dogs, Tuscan food, a taco truck & more. The girls had cheese pizza ( big surprise, I know), I had fresh pork tamales & Marty got his favorite, taco truck tacos. We were all pleasantly surprised by the large portions and delicious food. I might even have to hunt down Molly’s Tamales so I can get more. No shame.

The girls were more excited about the horse rides than anything else, so that’s where we went next. $5 a ride or you can choose to pay with Midd Bucks. Paisley rode a horse all by herself and Hallie & I rode doubles on a horse. It was so worth it and my girls loved it more than anything they’ve gotten to do at any other fall fest. The horses took us out into a freshly-mowed field, down a hill & looped around. Such an awesome memory to have with my horse-loving, city-living babes.

Right next to the horse rides, there are two kiddie trains that the girls wanted to check out. One made of old barrels turned sideways, the other with wooden carts to ride in, both pulled by tractor. They chose the barrel train so they could pick which “color” they got to ride in. Kids. Lol. They rode it twice, once together and once separately. Both trains are free with admission and you can come back as many times as you’d like.

There were all kinds of other kid-friendly fun activities that were also free, that our girls loved. A giant slide down the hillside with silk pillows to ride down on, a hamster-wheel type game, a ball toss, a haystack to climb, pillow trampolines, a kid’s maze and a corn pit for digging. We rotated back and forth between them all for several hours and our kids didn’t fuss ONCE. No one got hurt, we didn’t have to fuss with tickets or tokens or long lines. Just good, easy fun that we all enjoyed.

Toward the end of the evening, we checked out our private fire pit where we roasted some marshmallows and had a chance to rest and regroup before we headed back out to jump on the jump pillows one more time.

The Middleton’s have truly made a fun place to hangout with family this season. All the good fun, none of the stress or craziness. A couple tips I can share – 1. Don’t wear shoes that are difficult to get on/off or require tying. You have to remove your shoes for a lot of the activities and by the end of the evening I was pretty sick of putting P’s converse back on. 2. Dress cool. No matter how chilly it is outside, you will get warm running around with your kids. 3. GO EARLY. You will want to be there for several hours. 5 hours wasn’t even enough for us. 4. Eat the tamales. Always.