Nothing gets my family more excited about the fall than the anticipation of visiting pumpkin patches. We are fortunate that there are many great options not too far away.  Last year we decided to visit Sweet Berry Farm in Marble Falls, TX.

Sweet Berry Farm has everything from a hayride, to corn mazes, to flower picking and much more!  You can spend anywhere from one hour to half a day doing all of the activities. We went on a weekend morning, and got there very early so the crowds were low. Their website gives advice on best times to visit if you are looking for smaller crowds. There were two parking lots full of free parking available (free parking is always a major plus for us!). Something that I feel is important to note is that each activity has a separate cost so the price for the day can add up really quickly especially if you have a large family.  To make the day go a little smoother it is worth doing a little research in advance to determine what your family would be most interested in.  You can see all of the prices here https://sweetberryfarm.com/fall.html.  When we were picking what activities to do we picked one for each kid we knew they would enjoy and then my husband insisted we do a maze.  I have never seen a grown man so excited about a corn maze, and I have to admit I was pretty excited too because it was my first time trying one out.  The activities we ended up choosing were the hayride, the Barnyard Maze, and flower picking.

To start our experience we had a leisurely walk to the far side of the farm.  It was a fun walk because they had those large photo stand-in boards you can put your head in.  We took picture after picture of our faces in the different stand-in boards.  There is also a tunnel that takes you right under the road.  Sometimes simple things like a tunnel can make an activity so much more special and it definitely did for our 2 year old. He loved going back and forth through that tunnel. The hayride was a big hit for both of my boys and lasted about 15 minutes which was nice to sit and relax for a few minutes. They had a whole setup of scare crows all dressed up with different themes. Then we went into the Barnyard Maze which was the perfect difficulty for our older son.  It was fun to run through and find the missing Barnyard animals. Even though the maze is meant for kids it was still a pretty good challenge.  Next we checked out the goats that were in a large pen close by.  Our 8 year old always has a love/fear relationship with animals.  He loves looking at them, but also seems to fear they will jump the fence and chase after him so he always stays a few steps back. However, our 2 year old thought feeding the goats was hilarious. He just laughed the entire time and since each small cup of goat food was only 25 cents it was worth buying multiple cups to see those smiles.

After our laughs feeding the goats we went to pick flowers in a field similar to a strawberry patch. The kids (or grown ups for that matter) can pick a small bag full of Zinnia flowers.  We only purchased one ticket for flower picking.  Since it was $6 per bag and my 8 year old was the only one really excited about it we let him do the picking.  Overall, he enjoyed it, but with all of the other activities I am not sure it is the one he would run back to in the future.   One of the other main activities on this side of the farm was the Texas Maze (and yes it’s actually shaped like the state of Texas!) which is more for the older kids and adults and will be on our list for our visit this year. 

After doing all of our activities and rides we walked back through the tunnel to the other side of the farm.  There are multiple activities on this side of the farm like art projects and a large inflatable bounce pad called The Berry Bounce which kids were having a blast on. We also checked out the pumpkins.  We decided to sit down at this point and have a snack before we headed home.  As we all know when out and about with kids food is an important part of planning.  There is a small grill that is open from 10 to 4 on October Weekends Only.  The grill serves hot dogs, PB and J sandwiches, chips, pickles and drinks.  We decided to save our money on the food and we brought snacks of our own which worked out well for us.  We also brought a lot of extra water because you never know how hot it will get.  Another question we all ask ourselves is are there bathrooms close by for the little ones.  They do not have any permanent restroom facilities, however they do have port-a-potties to use if needed. We saw multiple port-a-potties on both sides of the farm.  Make sure to bring wipes or hand sanitizer because after running around you may need them before the kids enjoy their snacks. Overall, Sweet Berry Farm was a big hit and we loved it because it had activities for all ages.  We have already planned our trip again for this year!  Happy Fall Everyone!