29 | 29 Eliada Home Corn Maze

This Saturday we celebrated toddler friends Maggie, Davok, and Rowan's second birthdays at a party at Eliada Home Corn Maze. It really felt like the first day of fall. The air was cool-- Aidan had to don a sweater that I brought just in case... that fit him last year but was laughably small this year. He's grown so much! Eliada Home is set in the countryside just outside of Asheville proper, and the scenery is beautiful. Blue sky, green fields, pumpkins and hay dotting the landscape... autumn has arrived.

View from Eliada Home

It really is a great place to take young kiddos... There is the large corn maze, a mini hay bale maze for toddlers and young kids, a "spiders web" made out of rope to jump on, a "corn box" (a giant sand box filled with corn kernels instead of sand), corn hole, big tube slides down the biggest hill on the property, a hay ride behind a big tractor, and a "cow train" (a tractor pulling a train of carts painted like cows. We didn't go in the large corn maze (except when the hay ride took us through part of it), but we did all of the other activities which Aidan loved. He is at a perfect age for it, and it is just fun to watch him have so much fun. Joshua was working so I took the kids to the party by myself. It was an overwhelming prospect, but everyone else there was so helpful. Aidan was dying to ride the cow train, but I couldn't go with him. I strapped him into the seat and told him he was not allowed to stand up, but I was still really nervous, imagining him standing up and toppling out and getting run over by the rest of the train. I think Darren could see my unease and so he offered to walk beside the train the whole way. I was really relieved and took him up on the offer; he definitely got his exercise in for the day (he had to walk at a pretty fast clip and he was carrying Kaden in the Ergo!). Other moms and dads helped me keep track of Aidan and get him from point A to point B many times. It is lovely to have such a great group of friends.

Aidan and Davok figuring out the hay bale maze

After the party was over and the kids had wrung as much fun out of the place as possible, a group of us headed to Denny's for dinner. Joshua met us there after his shift at the hospital was over. It was seven adults and six children ages two and under... I'm sure we made quite a sight; with all of our high chairs and car seats we probably looked outnumbered! But kids eat free until 10p on Saturdays at Denny's, so you know we couldn't pass that up! Despite being plenty dirty and thoroughly tuckered out, the kids were really well-behaved and gobbled up as many chicken tenders as we could put on their plates.

A really fun day... we had the same birthday party there last year for the first birthdays of Maggie, Davok, and Rowan and it was fun to see how much the kids have grown and how many new babies have arrived since then! A new little brother or sister is in the picture now for Aidan (little sister Maddie), Davok (little brother Kaden), Rowan (little sister Ryleigh), and Maggie (baby Cates due in December!). Baby boom! Wonder what it will be like this time next year... :)