Field Trip Extra Credit

After a fantastic day at Tanaka Farms, we decided to wash all of the vegetables my daughter was able to pick from the fields. With it raining off and on outside, this was a perfect inside activity for us. 

Here she is washing her first, and hopefully not her last, carrot.

She figured out quickly that washing wasn't all that fun.  But she was happy with the finished product.

She even shared one of her onions for our slow cooker pulled BBQ chicken dinner.  I am just wondering what it would take to get her to try a radish...or anything else on this plate!  She is much more of a green beans/broccoli kind of girl!

First Field Trip to Tanaka Farms

My nearly 5-year old daughter finally went on her first field trip!  (Having an older brother who has already gone on two field trips can make a girl feel anxious!)  And I was thrilled that I got to go with her, as did most of the moms from the class.  It was a perfect day to go to Tanaka Farms in Irvine.  With a real pumpkin patch (we're talking some pumpkins that are still on the vine!), corn maze, wagon ride, petting zoo, and vegetable picking, Tanaka Farms is an amazing place to visit with kids.

The day started with rock piling.

Then we moved on to her first tractor-pulled wagon ride which drove the children to...

...the petting zoo!

Goats, sheep and pigs were my daughter's favorite part of the field trip.

Then it was on to the beautiful fields of pumpkins and vegetables.

She picked carrots right from the ground.

Onions, too!

Even radishes!

All in all, she got to bring home 4 of each: carrots, onions, beans, and radishes.  Then it was on to the pumpkins.  As I mentioned earlier, coming to a place like Tanaka Farms for pumpkins is unlike anything I have ever seen. I am accustomed to pumpkin patches springing up from dirt lots like magic.  But at Tanaka Farms, you actually pick a pumpkin from where the pumpkins have grown.  As an adult, I thought it was really cool and the kids absolutely loved it!

After picking out her perfect little pumpkin, the class had lunch out in the fields.  Talk about a great first field trip!

And to think this slice of agricultural heaven is just 5 minutes away from a Nordstrom...it doesn't get much better than that!