Speaking of fall fun for the kids, there's a great place near us in Centreville VA called Cox Farm - I wish there had been such a place when I was growing up - that holds a fall festival every year from late September until the weekend after Halloween.  They still do active farming there and they have a 3-seasonal farm stand on the property where they sell flowers, vegetables, fruits, garden supplies, etc.  However, about the middle of September each year the farm stand closes as they prepare to open "The Pumpkin Patch" for their Fall Festival. 

     The Pumpkin Patch is a wonderful outdoor play land for the kids that covers several acres of the farm.  There are corn stalk teepees and hay bale forts to hide in and lots of kid sized buildings to explore with stairs, slides and such.  They have  games and activities going on constantly for the youngsters as well as a  petting zoo with various animals, and all sorts of other kid-friendly activities. 

     One of the more popular stops is the face painting area.  This area has several sturdy picnic tables set up with wood-framed metal mirrors attached to the center.  On the table are several containers of water color paints, design templates, cups of water for clean-up, and, of course, the absolutely necessary rolls of paper towels.  The picture at right, taken in early October of 2004, shows the results of the grandchildren's face painting efforts.  You might be able to guess that they did mine on their own and I helped a bit when they did Hilary's.

     There's also a great hay ride for the kids (and parents too) that treks along a trail through the property past haunted houses, a group of space aliens and their space craft, through shallow streams, etc. on a 20 minute ride.  They also have the actual pumpkin patch where they sell some of the biggest pumpkins I've ever seen - one year I got one almost big enough for my granddaughter to crawl into - as well as all sorts of squashes and other gourds and a Fall decorating staple, colorful "Indian corn."  We always take the grandkids there at least once or twice (sometimes more often) in the weeks leading up to Halloween and they always have a great time, and so do we.  After our visit this year, I'll post a couple pictures here. 

The pictures at right and below were taken in early Oct 2008.  Left below is the stand where the vegetables, fresh apple cider, and pumpkins are sold.  At right is our granddaughter playing with one of the numerous cut-outs.

Left below is Hil with our grandson by the hayrides.  Right is Hil, Denise and the grandkids on the hayride wagon. 

Left below is our granddaughter at the face-painting station and at right is me with our grandson.

Below left; the grandkids by one of the corn stalk bundles.  At right coming down one of the bigger slides is; L-R, our grandson. me, our granddaughter.  As you can see, she won the race!  

Finally below is Hil, Denise and the grandkids in front of the prize-winning pumpkin from the 2008 Virginia State Fair - all 1007 pounds of it!  At right are some of the pumpkins for sale in the pumpkin patch.