Fun Pumpkin Patches in the Bay Area

It's this time of year again.  Small children love to go with their parents to pick a pumpkin, especially if there are other activities that can go along with getting a pumpkin: hay rides, train rides etc.

My favorite place to visit is Uesugi Farms (on Yelp).  They have lots of pumpkins to choose from and many activities to choose from.  This is where we went the last two years.

But this is not the only place.  Here are a few other places for pumpkins:

• Webb Ranch Farm in Portola Valley.
• Spina Farms Pumpkin Patch in San Jose.
  
• Art and Pumpkin Festival in Half Moon Bay.
• G&M Farms in Livermore.
• Joan's Farm in Livermore.

Here's a map of those places:

View Larger Map

You can see a really comprehensive list here.

Zingo

Recently I was looking for a game for my 2 1/2 year-old daughter. I was initially thinking of a board game but I had no idea what game is appropriate for that age. I went to Cheeky Monkey (our local toy store) and spent some time looking at games. All the games were coded for age. The youngest age I saw was 3 but none of those games looked very simple, so at some point I asked someone who worked in the store for a recommendation. That person recommended to me Zingo by ThinkFun. When I first looked at the box and noticed that it is labeled for ages 4-8, so I was skeptical but after I was told that it should work for a 2 year-old, I looked at the game more carefully and agreed that it looks very age-appropriate.

I bought it and we tried it out right away since we were hungry and went for lunch to the Japanese BBQ restaurant on the same street. The game was an instant hit with my daughter. We played it later at home and we all liked it. The game is inspired by Bingo and its idea is pretty simple: each player gets a card with 9 pictures and when a tile matching one of the pictures is drawn from the deck, you try to claim it before other player who may have the same tile.

Check the game out in your local store or buy it on amazon.


Do you know of any other good games for toddlers? If so, write a comment!