Kids Guide to the Hello Kitty Tanaka Farms Pumpkin Patch

We’ve been visiting Tanaka Farms in Irvine, CA since before we had children!  We usually go for their strawberry tours in the summer (if you haven’t eaten strawberries fresh of the plant, it will change your life!), but some of our favorite family tradition photos are taken at the Pumpkin Patch in the fall.  Every year, I take the same photo in the wheelbarrow and its crazy how much the girls grow from year to year!

A couple of years ago, Tanka Farms started a collaboration with Sanrio to make the entire farm Hello Kitty themed!  This year, Hello Kitty was only scheduled to meet guests on opening day for a couple of hours.  Also new this year is the weekend parking passes–if you are going to visit on a weekend you need to reserve your $5 parking pass online before you arrive.  The night before, my friend Alodie asked me what the girls were wearing to meet Hello Kitty, which lead to me going to the fabric store at 10 at night to make matching pumpkin dresses for them.  The no sleep was worth it just to get this photo!

 

Even though Hello Kitty won’t physically be there, there are plenty of Hello Kitty photo ops around the farm!  Everyone gets a Sanrio crown upon entry and  there are wooden signs with the characters speckled throughout the farm.  The gift shop has the cutest kawaii selection of Sanrio Tanaka Farms themed merchandise and they even have a clearance section with items 40% off!  I snagged some eco friendly reusable bags for under $4 (so naturally, I bought 6!).  You don’t need to pay for admission if you’re just shopping at the gift shop, and parking is free on the weekdays!  You can also purchase select Sanrio merchandise in their online shop.

What makes Tanaka Farms different from other pumpkin patches is that you can see the pumpkins literally growing out of the ground.  There were several pumpkin flowers that were sprouting up around the pumpkins and it was so neat to see the different stages of pumpkins.  You are free to roam about the farm at your leisure so some of my favorite photos are of the girls exploring among the pumpkins.

When we visited, they had a beautiful sunflower field in bloom.  These were the largest sunflowers I’ve ever seen and the girls loved getting up close with them.  This was another one of my favorite photo spots.  I heard that sunflowers only last a couple of weeks so if sunflowers are your thing, I suggest going soon! There was an entire other half of the farm that we didn’t get a chance to see when we visited!  There is also a petting zoo, corn maze, and pumpkin cannon (LittleGray saw the photo thought it was a circus!).  We will be visiting again on a fieldtrip with LittleSage’s school so I am excited to experience these things with her.

A couple notes about when to visit.  Our parking time slot was the first of the day from 8:30-12:00.  As a reminder, you do need to prepay and reserve your parking for $5 on the website if you are visiting on the weekend.  The farm itself doesn’t open until 9, so we were hanging out for a half hour.  Parking was easy and ample so early in the morning, but if you arrive later in the day, you may have a harder time finding a spot.  This is a working farm, so the majority of the grounds and walkways are dirt and sometimes muddy.  I was fine wearing flip flops, but you might want to wear close toed shoes that you don’t mind getting dirty.  I would also recommend bringing a change of shoes for when you get into the car so you don’t have muddy shoes.  When we were there from around 9-10:30, the entire farm was in direct sun.  I was still able to get some awesome photos, but if you’d rather experience the farm in shade, I would recommend going in the evening.  They are open from 9-6pm daily so I would recommend getting there around 4 and staying until closing.  You only need a parking pass on the weekend so this would be a great after school experience.

 

 

Admission was only $4 and kids 2 and under are free.  There are different activities that you can choose to do, or you can get the entry package for $12 which includes admission, unlimited wagon rides, and petting zoo.  The corn maze, sunflower fields, and pile of pumpkins are included with admission.  U-pick pumpkins are $1 a pound so it can be pricey if you pick a large pumpkin.  We usually get our photos in the pumpkin fields and pass on buying a big pumpkin.  They do have smaller more affordable pumpkins in the gift shop (which are also a lot easier to carry back to your car!).  When you check in, you can pick up the cutest Hello Kitty themed pumpkin sheet that helps you identify the different types of pumpkins. The girls both like the Cinderella pumpkins the most!

Tanaka Farms is open daily from 9-6pm through October 31.  To see more of our adventures at Tanaka Farms, you can view our highlight reel here.  For more information about visiting and prices, you can visit their website here.