Cornbelly's fun and a "sleep"-over

I've never made it out to Cornbelly's with the kids before and I thought it would be fun this year.  Then I saw the price.  $9 per person (over age of 2) on M-Th and $11 per person on Fri-Sat.  That seemed like a whole lot for a corn maze.  I did get $2 discounts and we decided to go on Thursday of UEA since neither kid had school, although I knew that may mean super crowded.  We didn't head out until after lunch, about 1:00.

So I was really amazed at just how much stuff they had for kids at Cornbelly's.  I decided not to go through the really cool looking from the sky NASA themed corn maze.  I read that it should take about an hour to get through.  Um, not for me with 3 little kids.  Even not going through the main attraction we spent 4 hours there and the kids would have enjoyed another couple hours if I had brought or purchased food for them.  And their food was actually reasonable for an event--a hot dog was $3.50.  But eating at home was cheaper and Brodie wasn't with us.  Next year I think I'll bring a lunch and go a couple hours earlier.

The first thing we did was the Pumpkin Princess Playland.  They have tons of dress-ups and a stage for the little ones.  There was also a cute little carriage and pretend horse the kids took turns getting on.

And there was this wooden castle that had a ladder to go up to the next level and a slide down.  It also had a swing on either side of it.  These types of structures were ALL over the area.  From this castle to a boat, tractor, car, truck, etc.  The kids had fun playing in these all over the place.  Also in this princess area was a pony racing coral.  With inflatable ponies.  They had some different sizes for the big kids and the smaller ones.  The kids had fun on these.

We also watched some little pigs race, played on a large hay tower with tunnels running under it, took a ride on a "Grain Train", played on the really fun playground called Cornbelly Mountain, raced toy ducks by pumping water, and went through a couple small hay mazes.  We attempted to go in the "creature" which was a large blow up monster thing that you went in his mouth and a few steps in it was pitch dark and Tessa started bawling so we turned around and left and never really figured out what it was all about. 
There was a pumpkin blaster and corn cannon, rock wall, and speleo cave that all cost extra so we didn't do any of those.

The corn box was one of their favorite things.  Think a large sandbox in a building--but it was corn rather than sand.  The kids played around, picking it up and dropping it, making "corn-angels", and tucking their shirts in and filling them with corn.  All three of them had a blast here!  And there wasn't any sand to dust off later.  Although I was sure I'd find corn in Clara's diaper and not be sure which method it found its way there by...

Their other favorite thing was the inflatables.  They had a bounce house, one with a slide, one that was just a double slide, and a couple obstacle course types.  While there were a few employees around, they weren't timing kids and making them wait in a line.  They just let them go.  Most of these inflatables were the type you had to wait for the person in front of you anyhow.  One time I saw the girl tell some kids to wait for the bounce house until some came out because it was pretty full.  It was definitely too crowded for me to allow Clara in, which she was unhappy about, but the older kids played for about an hour until they were so sweaty and worn out.  Of course after a drink they ran right over to the play structures.

And we did the much advertised "Jumping Pillow".  But for this they limited the number in so we had to wait in line for about 20-30 minutes.  They had 3 different pillows.  One for little ones under 40 inches and their parents.  One for kids under 48 inches.  And one for any over 48 inches.  These were basically like fun looking trampolines.  While the kids did have fun on these, I think they had more fun on the inflatables where we didn't wait in line or have our time limited.

After this I thought since Cornbelly's was based on a corn maze we should at least hit the kiddie corn maze so we did.  The kids thought it was fun and it only took us 10 minutes.  This ground was hard, but I still made Clara walk as I was tired of trying to push the stroller over loose gravel.  They had wagons you could rent for $2 that had tractor tires on them that were probably easier over the gravel.

The only thing we didn't do was the "cow train" that was a tractor pulling little cars painted like cows.  It was next to the kiddie maze but there was a good sized line and it was already 5:15 so we just left at that point.  It did take a good chunk of money, but it was well spent. 

On the way home I could see the kids were exhausted, I felt such and didn't run around the inflatables and play areas like they did.  So I told them they could have a sleepover if they wanted.  I loved sleepovers as a kid/teen.  But Brodie and I have decided not to allow our kids to have an actual sleepover with friends.  We feel it's too risky these days.  But there are a couple exceptions.  One being babysitting.  Whether it be one of my sisters babysitting my kids overnight or me babysitting their kids overnight.  The other exception is with each other.  And because I don't want my kids to miss the experience of a sleepover I try to allow them sibling sleepovers every now and then.  And I try to really make it fun.  Sometimes they sleep over in Tessa's room, or Spencer's room, or the toy room.  One time when Brodie was out of town I let them sleepover in my bed.  That was a lesson learned and hasn't been repeated.  Another time when Brodie was out of town I let them sleepover in the TV room.  We've also slept in a tent in the backyard (and the mountains but that's technically camping) or on the trampoline.  And I usually let them have candy and stay up for a while talking and laughing.  Then eventually we start telling them they need to be quiet and sleep.  This goes on for a long time and they usually fall asleep around 10 or 11.  And wake up early.  And are tired and ornery the next day. 

So I had a feeling they would actually sleep this night.  I let them get all their stuff together in Spencer's room.  Foam couches, sleeping bags, pillow pets, water bottles, tissue boxes (Spencer will never sleep anywhere without a box right next to him due to his propensity to bloody noses at night), and leftover candy from Tessa's birthday pinata.  After reading stories and singing I left Spencer's room at 7:45 telling the kids they could talk until 8:30 and then they needed to be quiet.  Of course not a single sound came from them until 6:55 the next morning.