Mazen & The Amazing Maize Maze

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I’ve waited seven years to write that title!!! When Mazen was born I couldn’t wait to take him to a corn maze. He was made for it! On Saturday we went to Liberty Mills Farm about 30 minutes outside of Charlottesville. We had ideal weather and such a great time. See all that corn behind him below? That’s where we wandered! The mazes cover 33 acres, and there are 3 different ones in 3 difficulty levels. Check out the video I made here!!

Heading Into The Corn Maze

I put Birch on my back, which worked out perfectly, and we tackled the red path (the medium level), which covered about 1/3 of the total maze area. The red maze was supposed to take about an hour, but we were much faster and finished in about 30 minutes. We did use the map though, which helped a lot. It didn’t outline the direct path, but you could choose your turns based on the map and that helped to give a sense of direction.

There were also some check points you could peek into to see if you were where you thought you were. These were great for Mazen to compare to the map.

Mazen’s shirt is from Mini Boden!

We went through the smallest maze at the end (yellow), and we enjoyed walking through the giant letters of “Liberty Mills Farm.”

Kids Activities

Afterwards the boys enjoyed playing in the hay bales, and we picked out pumpkins!

Maze in maze; Birch in birch!

Family Dinner at Kardinal Hall

We had had a lighter lunch earlier in the day, and despite skipping his afternoon nap, Birch was still in a good mood, so we headed to Kardinal Hall for dinner – at 4:00pm!! Why not?!

I had my first Pumking of the season, and we played the game of LIFE with Mazey. For dinner I had a delicious kale salad and french fries – the best combo!

Fall Decorations

Back at home we decorated the house for Halloween with our new pumpkins and spider webs for the bushes.

This bush is now filled with 100 plastic spiders!!

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

We were so glad to get in a lot of quality family time on Saturday because on Sunday I was up well before sunrise to fly to California! I’m writing this post on the way to the Ojai Valley Inn with Beautycounter for 3 days! I can’t wait to share all the details from this trip. 

This is my first time away from Birch (in his LIFE – sob!), and it’s quite bittersweet! I’m very much looking forward to sleeping in and relaxing by the pool, but I felt so guilty putting him in his crib Saturday night knowing he might miss me in the morning. Mazen was sad for me to leave too, but he is old enough to understand that I’ll be gone for a few days and then come back. I hope all goes well while I’m gone with bottles and lots of daddy + grandma time! Thomas has help from Nona and our babysitter (so he can work 2/3 days) and Mazen will be at school and with Matt, so they are all in great hands.

Halfway Weaning

This trip is a big turning point marking the end of the first year. Birch is just a week shy of turning one, so while I do have my pump with me in case I need it (I’ll probably use it once a day) I won’t be saving any milk. Up to now Birch has been nursing morning and night, and he’ll be getting bottles of the last of the milk in the freezer while I’m gone. (I think there are 10 bags of milk, but he might only get morning bottles.) I do hope to continue breastfeeding when I return (maybe just in the mornings?) but we’ll have to see what happens.