GreatFoodFunPlaces.com

I was looking for something different to do (and inexpensive) for my daughter Toria’s birthday party.

I checked out the internet — there’s chef classes, make-your-own-pottery, digging for dinosaur bones, things like Boondocks, or the water parks — all fun, but kinda pricey.

Then, after looking at the latest on Great Food Fun Places blog, and seeing the berry-picking again, I was inspired to see what “pick-your-own” places were around the my area. I live in the Denver, Colorado, metropolitan area and remembered driving to Greeley to visit my niece and her husband, and seeing signs for raspberry picking.

So, after a little more internet searching, I found Berry Patch Farms in Brighton, Colorado; and they have birthday parties!

They reserve a picnic table for you, have refrigeration space if needed, drive you out to the berry field on a hay wagon and each kid gets to pick a pint of berries to take home. They have chickens and turkeys and cats and dogs and a pot-bellied pig.

We brought sandwiches and chips and pickles and carrot sticks and cupcakes for our picnic, and some balloons to decorate. It turned out to be a really fun time.

The kids were all really into picking the strawberries (we were a week too early for raspberries) – they ate as much as they picked, and a couple of them ate their berries during lunch – they didn’t even make it home!

The birthday girl, Toria, seemed to have a good time and it helped to have two big teenage brothers along to chase and tease and give piggy-back rides, etc.!