Homestead Animal Farm

We visited Homestead Animal Farm in Merton to get our pumpkins this year.  It is an awfully cute farm!

The petting zoo, kiddie play area, and hay ride were each $2.  The corn maze was $6 (woah!).  We didn't do that one.  They do offer a bundle price if you are planning to do it all.  It saves you a buck.

The petting zoo area was a lot of fun.  We could get as close to the animals as we wanted, and they were all pretty tolerant of lots of hands.  We even got to hold a baby chick!  The kids got a pretty big kick out of the chickens running loose around the farm.

The kiddie area was pretty small, but they did pack a lot in there.

 Not much for large motor, traditional playground activities, but there were lots of fine motor building and ball games.  They had a nice variety for little tyke experiments.  One of my pet peeves is when places make adults pay to supervise, and I definitely felt like this was not worth my entrance fee.  But the kids had a good time.

 

Our favorite was definitely the hay ride.  It was a small, cozy wagon, and the man running it was great.  We even had to stop for deer on our trail - twice!  It does not take you out to the pumpkin patch like we have been used to, but it was a nice length and a pleasant ride.

 

It seemed to me like the pumpkins were a bit pricey ($9 for a large one?), but these are the only pumpkins we've purchased this year so maybe I'm just out of touch with the going rate.

I was glad we went right away in the morning.  We spent about 2 hours there, and by the time we left it was starting to get pretty crowded.  It is a spacious farm, but the activity areas had a limited amount of participation.  I think it would have been frustrating with a lot more people.

There were port-a-potties available.

Homestead Farm
 W320 N9127 Hwy. 83 ~ Hartland, WI ~ (262) 966-3840

Lake View Acres Park

Lake View Acres Park is a small neighborhood park in Hartford.

There are a couple of swings and a few other small pieces of equipment.  There are no real climbers, but the kids had a blast on a standing spinner.

Bonus side note, it was pretty hysterical to watch them try to walk away after spinning!

The park technically has a shelter/shed structure.  My hope was that there may be some bathrooms, but everything was locked up when we were there.

Lake View Acres Park
95 S Teri Lane ~ Hartford, WI

Monkey Joe's

We visited Monkey Joe's inflatable play place for a fun way to burn off some energy on a below-zero winter's day.  I had looked into the Appleton location, so I was pretty excited to see how it was in person.

I remembered seeing they had a parent's lounge, which I did not really find at the Waukesha location. There were plenty of tables to claim for our stuff, and there are massage chairs stationed throughout, but you do have to pay to operate them.

The kids had a blast, of course!  The littlest one (3yo) got the best deal because he was little enough to go into the toddler inflatable (which they ALL wanted to do) and was big enough to make it through the big kid ones.  The favorites were definitely the slides.

There was also an arcade area.  The kids wandered over every so often and enjoyed looking at the games, but we didn't spend any money playing them.  We also avoided the snack bar.

The place seemed very clean, including the bathrooms.  I did notice there didn't seem to be any good spot for nursing mothers.

Monkey Joe's
2040 West Bluemound Road ~ Waukesha, WI ~ (262) 549-3866
Admission: $10-11/child over 2, $6/under 2, Adults Free

The Children's Play Gallery

We once visited the Children's Play Gallery when it was in its old location.  They have expanded!  There is so much to do there now!
 
The first thing you see when you walk in is a giant pirate ship.  So fun!

 

Behind the pirate ship, there are more play areas.   There is a market, a kitchen, a veterinarian shop (think Doc McStuffins), a playhouse, and a slide - to get to & from the vet office, of course!  They also have a quieter area with books and Legos hiding back there behind the umbrella.

 

For the littler set, there is a closed-in play area designed just for them.  There are lots of just-right toys to climb and age-appropriate toys to play with.  It's also a nice place to let them move at their own place without worrying about protecting them from the big kids.

  

Moving into the back are of the Play Gallery are more themed play areas, starting with the construction center.

 There is available any tool or material a child could need to construct a fake structure:)  Plus, don't forget to dress the part!

 

Near the building area is an art center.  Again, this is completely closed in, so wayward wanderers don't create a mess before you catch them.

There were lots and lots of art supplies, as well as project ideas.

 Here is the science area.  Our favorite was the dinosaur scene, which has trees, grass, ponds and LOT of dinosaurs to move around.  There are magnetic letters and pattern shapes for the white board.  They also have magnifying glasses to examine bugs encased in clear blocks (ew!).  There are light-up table with building sets as well.

Upstairs, the Children's Play Gallery has an Imagination Playground (with the big blue blocks to build your own play structures).  Also housed on the top level are a lunch area and party rooms.

We found the experience to be well worth the price we paid.  Especially since they are one of the few children's museum-type places I have found where the ADULTS ARE FREE!

The whole place was very tidy and quite clean.  The employees were constantly walking through putting things away.  It also helps that there are no shoes allowed, so BRING SOCKS!  If you forget, though, they do have some to borrow!

You can carry in your own food, but they ask you only eat in the designated area.

I found The Children's Play Gallery to be a phenomenally family-friendly place.  I would highly recommend it to anyone in the area.

The Children's Play Gallery
126 East Wisconsin Avenue ~ Oconomowoc, WI ~ 262-354-0819
Admission: $10/1-18 years old, Adults & Under 1 Free, membership available

YMCA at Pabst Farm

The YMCA at Pabst Farm houses an aquatic facility that is great for young swimmers.  There is a small climber, zero depth entry, and a water slide.

The toddler/preschool crowd enjoyed themselves.  I think kids much older might be less impressed.

This is a nice place, but the price seemed a bit steep for swimming.  In all fairness, we really didn't use any of the rest of the facilities, so maybe it could have been more worth it.  I felt like there were more economical options as far as swimming goes.

YMCA at Pabst Farms
1750 East Valley Rd ~ Oconomowoc, WI ~ (262)567-7251
Admission: $8-$21/day, depending on age

Imagination Station @ Roosevelt Park

Imagination Station is a "universally accessible" playground.  They have equipment for children with all degrees of abilities, which means they also have some items you may not normally come across in playgrounds.

There is an enormous climbing structure, as well as outlying pieces of equipment.

My toddler's favorite part was the area modeled after a train.  My preschooler had a blast running through the structure and zooming down the slides.

The kiddos loved this playground!  I think they easily could have stayed for hours, though we got rained out:)  There was so much to explore!

There were bathroom facilities.

Imagination Station
110 E Forest St ~ Oconomowoc, WI

Wirth Park

Brookfield's Wirth Park has so much to offer!

 

We spent most of our time in the Tot Place (playground)...

 ...but we did also meander down this interactive path to get to the bathrooms.  On the way, we encountered a little league baseball game as well.

From what I can gather, we only saw a small portion of this fantastic park.  There are various trails, volleyball & tennis courts, soccer fields, ball diamonds, an ice rink in the winter, and a pool in the summer.  Wow!  We sure enjoyed ourselves when we were there!

Wirth Park does have bathrooms.

Wirth Park 
2585 Pilgrim Road ~ Brookfield, WI

Country Springs Hotel & Water Park

We had so much fun at Country Springs!  It is on the smaller scale as far as indoor water parks go, but it had plenty to keep us occupied for the morning.  I think young children could make a full open-to-close day of Country Springs, but older kids would probably get bored after a few hours.

There is an "interactive" water play area: small water slides, water guns, dump bucket, and the like.

This picture is a little bit of a broader shot of the back end of the water park.  The blue tunnel carries tubes to the top of the staircase.  The large slides start & end inside, but the structures themselves are all outside the building.

There is also an activity pool with basketball and balancing lily pads, plus there's a hot tub.

One of my favorite things about Country Springs were that my kiddo could wear her own floatie!  Wouldn't have seemed like a big deal except that I discovered this summer our nearest community pool didn't allow them.

My other favorite part was that there was no height or age requirement for the tube slides!  This really surprised me, but we were thrilled because my kiddo LOVES water slides.  Daddy may or may not have accidentally taken her on an unsupervised one this summer for which (we later discovered) she was technically too little, thus spurring her love of them.  Whoops!  Anyhow, at Country Springs it was no problem; as long as she was with an adult, she was good to go!

Country Springs Water Park
2810 Golf Rd ~ Pewaukee, WI ~ 262-547-0201
Admission: $15/weekday pass, $25/weekend day pass, but check for specials, especially during certain days/hours; under 2 is free