Fall Festival at Robb’s Farm

With only a few more weekends left to get our fill of hayrides, pumpkins and fall festivals, we headed over to South Glastonbury on Sunday to get the inside “scoop” on Robb’s Farm and ice cream shop.

How did we hear about another cool CT farm, you ask?  Well, fellow blogger, friend, and reader, Amy, suggested we go.  (We can’t let our readers down, right?).

We headed over on a Sunday afternoon.

The weather was beautiful, there was a little chill in the air {finally!}, and we were ready for a Connecticut Fall Festival!

Robb’s Farm is well- known for their ice cream and in the fall, they partner with Riverview Farms to bring a Fall Festival to the area.  The festival includes hayrides, a FREE petting zoo, a pumpkin bounce house, corn maze, pumpkins, mums and lots of goodies to eat.  We were able to check out almost everything on our trip.

Sidenote – We originally planned to visit the farm on Friday.  The rain forced us to change our plans, and good thing we did.  Amy warned me, and she is correct, that they don’t do all of the Fall Festival activities on Fridays.  They hayrides, corn maze and bounce house are not in operation (only for private parties).  You can still go and pick up some ice cream and check out the animals on that day, but you don’t get the full Fall Festival experience (thanks for the heads up Amy!).

So, we arrived.  Parking was not an issue.  The lot was very large and there were tons of spaces.  (This picture doesn’t make it seem as though there are any open spaces for parking, but, promise me, there were.)

We unloaded the crew and  checked out the scene.

First order of business fun, we had to figure out the baby transport logistics.

I decided to use the baby carriers to tote around Bruiser and Sparkles.  Hubby was with me for this trip, so it was a man-on-man defense kinda outing.

You could definitely use a stroller (and we saw people with strollers), but given that I knew we wanted to go on the hayride, I didn’t want to have to mess with another contraption.

I used my new {well new to me} Baby Hawk Mei Tai carrier and my husband used the Baby Bjorn.  I picked up the Mei Tai at our local baby consignment shop, Max and Lilly’s Closet.  Score!

Then, we checked out the pricing options for the activities.  I’ll provide a full pricing report below, but basically: you could pay separately for each activity, there were family passes available, children under 7 are FREE for the corn maze and hayride, and the petting zoo is FREE.

So many choices, oh what will we choose?

Here were the things we were able to check out:

• Hayride
• Petting Zoo
• Pumpkin Bounce (we didn’t participate, but we have some pics)
• Corn Maze (we didn’t participate, but we got some details)
• Apple Fritters
• Ice Cream and
• Picture Taking Opportunities

The hayride was the only activity that we needed to buy tickets for, so I went inside to find out the situation.

When I got to the counter to purchase our tickets, I found out that the next available hayride was at 3:00pm (it was 1:30pm at the time).  The hayrides technically leave every hour on the hour, and last about 20 minutes.

There was not a lot of structure to the process, we received 2 vouchers for our large group (we were there with friends, 7 adults and 6 kids) and there was no designation on the voucher for which hayride we would be taking.

The good news is that children under 7 are free (all of the kids we were with were under 7) and we only needed to pay $5 for each of the adults.  This price also includes picking out and keeping a small pumpkin.

We purchased our tickets and then went to check out the other activities while we waited for our hayride.

Next on the agenda, apple fritters.

Here is the stand.  It is open Saturday and Sunday from 9am – 6pm.

The fritters were $3.75 for a half-dozen and $7.00 for a dozen.  They also sell cider at $2.00 a cup.

Now, Shawna and I are starting to become apple fritter connoisseurs.  I tried them out at Lyman Orchards and Shawna tried them out at the Old Cider Mill.  So, with this plethora of knowledge behind us, we tasted the Robb’s Farm apple fritters.

The verdict . . . ummmm, in the words of Teresa from RHONJ, Fabulicious!

These things were good, really good.

Ok, off to add some more sugar and calories to our outing . . . ice cream time.

Robb’s Farm sells homemade ice cream along with some other food options including hot dogs and soups.  Spiced pumpkin bisque and chilli were on the menu the day we visited.

Note that it is only cash or checks for your purchases in the ice cream shop.

Lots and lots of flavors to choose from.  Both Shawna and I decided to try the one called “Dirty Barn Shoes”.  I mean, did we have a choice?  You have to try the ice cream with a fun name, right?

Dirty Barn Shoes being debuted below.  It was mmm mmm good.

We enjoyed our ice cream outside in the covered eating area.

Oh, you can also purchase fresh eggs here.

Now, with 6 kids loaded up on sugar, we went to check out the petting zoo.

I think I mentioned a few times now that the petting zoo is FREE.  You know how we love free kids activities.

Bruiser even found an animal {well actually a caterpillar} before we made it to the petting zoo.

What we learned (after a bit of trial and error), is that there are two petting zoo areas: (1) where the animals are all behind fencing and will come up to the fence to feed, (2) where you go inside the fencing and some of the animals wandered around freely (we only saw a pig and a few, very gentle, goats on the loose).

The only cost for the petting zoo is if you decide to purchase some feed for the animals.  The cost is 75 cents, but most people just left a dollar in the money bucket.  The food comes in an ice cream cone and the animals can eat that as well (we thought it was a cute idea).

We checked out both petting zoo areas.

We also checked out the kiddie swings.

At a little before 3, we decided to get over to the hayride area for our trip.

When we got there, though, they told us that a birthday party would be taking the 3pm hayride and that our group was pushed back until 3:30.  A little uneasiness started to set in for the moms who had bambinos who needed to nap around 3.  You might not think so, but 30 minutes can make the difference between a baby happy to take a nap and a baby melting down.  We decided to make the best of it and try to enjoy some of the other activities in the area.

The older kids checked out the pumpkin bounce.

The little ones went to take advantage of cute photo opportunities.

And those that needed to, made a pit stop at the restroom (yes, port-a-potties again).

A little after 3, though, we saw the hayride tractor heading back to the main area.  Looks like our trip was going to be a little after 3 instead of 3:30.  Good news for the naptime babies, but bad news for the parents.  We now needed to run around, gather up the kids and high-tail it over to the loading area.

We made it, phew.  Well, most of us made it.  One of our friends was in the apple fritter line and couldn’t bare to give up her spot 🙂  I don’t blame her.  Those fritters were gooooood.

Anyways, we loaded the crew up on the hayride.  This one had true bales of hay for you to sit on.  I’m sure that wasn’t bad for those that sat along the railing, but I ended up sitting on the hay bales in the middle while holding a baby.  It wasn’t that comfortable, but it was an authentic hayride.

The ride takes you down the hill to an area where pumpkins are waiting to be picked (well, more like picked up, they had already been picked).

The views on the ride were very beautiful.

We got to the pumpkin area, hopped out, and waited for them to open the gate (maybe locking up pumpkins has something to do with the shortage going on).  The pumpkin selection was a bit sparse . . .  

Everyone quickly grabbed their pumpkins and then loaded back on the trailer for the ride home.  For someone traveling with two babies, it was a bit of a marathon . . .

Get babies unwrapped from carriers, let them crawl around, get cute pictures, get the pumpkins, wrap them back up, get back on the trailer.  Whhhew.  I’m tired just writing about it.

This was definitely an adventure that I could not do solo with Bruiser and Sparkles.  Thank goodness my hubby was with me.

After about 20 minutes, we all arrived back safe and sound.  The kids were tired and we knew it was time to go.  Shawna made a quick pass through the little store.  She got a pumpkin (a little pricey at 69 cents a lb.) and also saw fun gourds and a scratch and dent section 🙂

Overall, we had a fun time at Robb’s Farm.  My type A personality would have preferred a little more order with the hayride process, but I guess that is life on a farm.  I just need to relax a little.  We enjoyed delicious treats, and a fun, reasonably priced experience.

The one activity that we did not get a chance to check out was the corn maze.  We did speak to someone on the hayride who tried it and they said it was fun, but relatively easy.  It isn’t a big time, you could probably really get lost, kinda corn maze like we did on our Lymans outing, but fun none the less.

So, if you and your family are looking for a fall festival to check out this weekend, the Out and About Moms would definitely recommend this one {save us some fritters, please!}

What fun fall activities do you have planned for this week?

THE MOMSENSE:

Robb’s Farm

91 Wassuc Road, South Glastonbury, CT 06073

(860) 657-8235

http://www.robbsfarm.com/

Get directions here:

Enter your starting address:

 

HOURS:

Ice Cream Shop:  Tues-Thurs:  6:00pm – 9:00pm; Fri-Sun: 12:00pm – 9:00pm

Fall Festival:  Saturdays and Sundays through October 31st 10:00am – 7:00pm

Hayrides:  Every hour on the hour (10, 11, etc.)  Get these tickets first, they fill up quickly.

Apple Fritters:  Saturday and Sunday 9:00am – 6:00pm

RESTROOM FACILITIES:  Port-a-potties near the entrance

CHANGING STATION: None that we saw

PRICING:

• Corn Maze (under 7 free): $5 each or family for $20
• Hayride (under 7 free): $5 each or family for $20
• Pumpkin Bounce:  $3/turn or 5 turns for $10
• Petting Zoo:  * The petting zoo was free, but a reader of ours reported that as of fall 2013, the charge was $5 per family.
• Petting Zoo Food:  75 cents
• Day Pass:  $40  This is for a family of 4.  Additional kids $5  (Includes:  hayride, corn maze, pumpkin bounce, and petting zoo food)

DO BRING:

• Comfortable shoes and clothes that you don’t mind getting dirty (it’s a farm, people).  If you have a pair of cute wellies that you want to break out, now is the time. (also, if you have a pair of Target Missoni wellies in a size 9, I want them!)
• Snacks for the wee ones (I didn’t see a lot of kid friendly snack options available)
• Kid transport options:  Either bring a stroller or a baby carrier for the non-walkers. Early walkers have plenty of room to run and probably don’t need anything.  You won’t be able to bring a stroller on the hayride.
• Cash for snacks, ice cream, petting zoo food and the bounce house.  You can use a credit card for your hayride tickets or other store purchases.

WHY WE LIKE IT:

• Reasonably priced activities
• Lots of options for the whole family
• Beautiful scenery
• Great fall photo opportunities

ACTIVITIES/ITEMS AVAILABLE:

• Bounce House
• Corn Maze
• Hayride
• Petting Zoo
• Apple Fritters
• Ice Cream
• Pumpkins
• Mums

WE WOULD LOVE TO SEE IMPROVEMENT:

In the hayride process

COMING UP:

On Thursday, Shawna is posting about our trip back to Rose’s Berry Farm to check out their fall festivities. Trust us, you won’t even recognize the place!

ALSO:

Don’t miss out on the Living Social deal for 50% off a West Hartford Children’s Museum annual membership.  http://livingsocial.com/deals/123977?ref=personalized-link-box-32203815&rpi=32203815.  Check out Shawna’s post all about her trip there here.