So its fall in Maine beautiful time of the year, my favorite time of the year I might add. We are currently living close to another great money trap for us parents, Pumpkin Land. When viewing the website they let you believe that you will have a whole day of fun with just paying to get it. of course they offer other thing to do there..You know..
cool things, but of course you need to spend extra money on tickets for those. Now I have an almost 4 year old I'm reading the website and its stating that there are several bounce houses, a kid maze, and a hayride to go get a pumpkin, along with a petting zoo and other things. So for some reason I forgot who my child was and had convinced myself and my husband that for 20 bucks we could have a nice fun time at pumpkin land and leave with a pumpkin. We head out to Mechanic falls in search of the mystical land of pumpkins.
as we pull in the place is packed there are attendants to help you park in this field. Right at the entrance is a row of port-a-potty's, like any good parent would do after a long car ride, or before going into a amusement park of some sort you would ask or have your child try and go to the bathroom. My daughter makes me laugh every day and pull my hair out for that matter. Of course we go into the port-a potty and she can see well...human waste floating in blue airplane goo. She freaks out in her outside voice there's poop in there. after what seemed like 10mins of convincing we compromised with me plugging her nose while having my back turned to her so I wasn't watching. We were already off to a good start as you can tell. we buy our tickets and head through the giant pumpkin entrance. What do they have right in the middle of your view before you even walk 2 feet, is the giant bounce pillow. The Giant bounce pillow is a bounce house with no walls or ceiling like a pillow. Kids are drawn to it like a moth to a flame my child was no different she blackout and just ran to it. before I was even there she had her shoes off and was waiting in line...OH WAIT!! You need tickets for this...of course you do. So we buy 10 tickets 2 bucks a piece for her to bounce on this pillow, that she actually was afraid to do once she got on it and needed one of the workers to bounce with her...I wouldn't let her get off..if you want to bounce on the giant pillow oooh you bet ya bottom your bouncing on that pillow. We used the rest of the tickets on the haunted day ride which was cool for young kids even made me jump a few times. We took our hayride out to the pumpkin patch and picked a good size pumpkin that the husband had to carry around for about 45mins.. Must things to do at pumpkin land
- Haunted Day ride: they tell you a story as you enter the haunted forest all the while there are spooky and random animated characters ready to jump out at you.
Frankenstein's Giant slide: Super steep slide
NOTE: if you child is in leggings or tights they are going to fly down the
slide.
3D circus: I Think was the best thing they had there. An old barn painted with circus imagines in 3D paint, they give you glasses at the door and you can walk through as much as you want. the Alien landing part is really weird its a spinning tube with a straight plank down the middle for you to walk through mean while all with 3D stars spinning around you. After my third time through I was feeling dizzy.
Corn Maze, and/or Munchkin Maze: we did the munchkin maze cause it came with the ticket and I didn't think liv would make it through the 10 acre intricate labyrinth of the Big maze.
If you have a small child under 2 or nearly 3 you could probably get away with not having to buy extra tickets. there are several bounce houses that were packed with toddlers just happy to be alive.
Toms shoes we have all seem them I mean how can you not they are everywhere you look. When I first saw the toms I thought they were the ugliest things I have ever seen. the toes were square and they just looked so unsupportive. One reason was that I thought my feet would be to fat for them and they would look weird and because of that thought they weren't cool.I did really love what they stood for and how you buy a pair and they send a pair to a someone in need that part was really cool. At the preschool I work at 8 out of 12 kids have a pair. They look super cute on kids I'm not gonna lie. However my dislike for them grew even more when having to deal with them falling off kids feet every 2mins, It was so annoying I couldn't even stand it. One day we lost only one of a child's tom somewhere in the room, it took us most of the day looking for it, it was later found stuffed inside the dramatic play kitchen. 
Now I know what your thinking ok Debbie downer the blog is called I have a friend in tom so what changed.. I was given a gift card to a local store that one of the parents owns as a birthday gift. First off I have never had a job where you get gifts at work for your birthday so that was pretty sweet. On a random day after work Me and my co-teacher decided to check out the store, and cash in our very generous gift cards. The store is called Bliss and is located in the heart of Maine's old Port. Super cute shop with very hip clothes and accessories. Well wouldn't ya know they sold Toms there. I decided to try a pair on, and was instantly in love. they are the most comfortable thing I have had on my feet since my LL Bean Slippers. I had the poor employee running back and forth from the back room with different colors and sizes to see just how the different styles and colors looked, I'm pretty sure behind her smile she wanted to cut me. I ended up buying a pair of the classic black canvas and got a corduroy pair for liv, she wears them everyday. I'm working on finding the perfect pair for the husband now. The moral of this blog is never judge a shoe by its box put it on your foot and give it a stroll. Buying toms is not only helping others its actually a really comfortable flat shoe.
