MOMday: Calgary Corn Maze

Hubby and I have been realizing lately that we haven't been enriching our daughters lives much since I went back to work...we're just too exhausted at the end of the week to want to go out and do anything that would be good for them developmentally.   Finally, this week I said "We MUST do this.  Our girlies NEED this!"   So the search was on to find something close to us that was suitable for toddlers.   That's when we decided that the Calgary Corn Maze might be just the thing!

So, as soon as I got back from my half marathon and got myself showered, we were back on the road to the maze - about 15 mins away from our house - just off hwy 22x.  The girlies were tired because they'd decided a nap wasn't in the cards that day, but they were excited to be going somewhere fun.  On Saturday, I had showed them photos of the maze and the other activities to get them excited and familiar with it, so when we pulled into the lot, they immediately started pointing out things.  They were so excited that it made it hard to pay to get in because they wanted to run and explore right away!

Admission is a little steep.  It was $12 each for hubby and I.  The girlies were free because they were under 3 years old.   If this was a place you were going to go to regularly, it would definitely make more sense to buy a seasons pass for $25 each.   It would pay for itself after 2 visits.

Once we were in the park, it was almost overwhelming to figure out what to see first.  We finally settled on the petting zoo.  The girls had been to that birthday party with a petting zoo earlier in the summer so we knew they would love that.   This time, we were greeted by much larger sheep and goats than had been at the birthday...but it was all good.  Buggie went around, hugging the sheep and the girls both enjoyed feeding the animals the pellets we bought from the little machine outside the pen.  Soon, the girls forgot all about their tiredness and were happily running around hugging the animals and splashing mud on themselves as they raced after them.   (In Buggie's words "Is yucky, mommy!" but she got over it when she was trying to pick up a chicken to hug it)

Then, it was on to the next enclosure where there were 3 kittens playing - the girls were so disappointed that they couldn't hold them but they still enjoyed watching them and playing with them through the wire.   The bunny enclosure was so cute - it was a huge netted area with several hutches built to look like a town.  Too cute.  The rabbits were a bit anti-social, though I admit we were there pretty late in the day on a Sunday and they had likely endured bunny hell with kids poking at them for two full days.

With the animals behind us, we took the girls over to the hay bale mountain where they could climb the bales to get to the top of the slides.  They hated that.  The hay was too "messy" and there were too many separations in the bales that their feet would get stuck in.   They really liked the tall tube slide, though.   Great fun.

We thought maybe it would be a good time to take the girls into the smaller maze.  It was actually perfect timing.  They were tired enough to stay close to us, but excited enough to race through the maze - twisting and turning as the paths divided and merged again.  There were activities hidden throughout the maze, but the girls didn't really have any interest in them - they were perhaps a bit young and just liked running around the corn.  It was hubby and my first time in a corn maze as well and I must say we were enjoying it as much as the twins did.   I did have a moment where I wondered if maybe my identical little blondies were making the adults have Children of the Corn flashbacks...but no one acted too alarmed when they came careening around the corners so I let the thought go pretty quick LOL.

We passed the entrance to the maze several times and gave the girls the option to stay or go each time and, when they were done with the maze, they chose to go and we carried on to find a new adventure in the park.  There was a little tractor "train" that gave rides every hour on the hour and we thought it might be fun to go on that..but we were 10 mins late and had missed out on that. 

The girls were super excited about the giant jumping pillows they had there, but they were overcrowded with big kids and there was no way we were going to risk the girls getting hurt by an exuberant 10 year old...perhaps those would be fun on a quiet weekday.   Missing out on the pillows meant we needed a distraction AND FAST!  Luckily, a cluster of tetherball poles did the trick and the girls soon forgot the pillows as they were winging the tetherballs around the poles.

Finally, the lack of a nap was really starting to become an issue so we made one more quick stop back at the petting zoo and then quickly headed on our way after Buggie splashed mud up her leg again and started freaking out about being "Messy, mommy. Is MESSY!"

All in all - there is a little something for all ages at the Calgary Corn Maze.   I'm actually glad that we took the girls when they were tired because if they'd been well rested, they would have been impossible to guide.   I think they had a good time, but I think they'll definitely enjoy it more if we go back next year when they are that much older and can comprehend more of it.  I also think it would have been better to go earlier in the day because by 3pm, there was alot more mud from people washing their hands etc.  Morning would be drier and some of the other stations would be easier to start playing in.