Little People, Big World Pumpkin Farm

This Halloween season, my husband and I decided to take a tour of a relatively famous pumpkin farm in our own backyard. We drove to Helvetia, Oregon that is right outside of Hillsboro, Oregon, and Hillsboro is near Portland.  OK, now you get the idea on the location.  Helvetia happens to be the home of the Roloff Farm.  If the name sounds familiar, it's because the family is featured on TLC's "Little People, Big Word" reality series.  For those of you who don't watch the show, it's about a family that is made up of a mix of little, and normal sized people, and how every day life brings them challenges.  The program also shows us that they are just like everyone else when it comes to raising a family.

When we arrived, we immediately saw the Roloff home, and nearby was the pumpkin farm, gift store, wagon tours, and the "pumpkin family" house.  Shortly after we parked the car, much to our surprise, Amy Roloff was walking down from the house toward the gift shop.  One of the tourists that came from Georgia was so excited he could hardly contain himself!!  He told us he came specifically to see the pumpkin farm with hopes of seeing one of the family members!  (Oh yeh... and he also came to visit his mom, but I think she was in second place on this trip!)  Mrs. Roloff was so gracious, and posed for pictures with anyone who wanted one as a souvenir of their trip to the farm.  Naturally, we had to have our photo taken!  The picture above is of my husband and Amy.

Surprisingly, it's free to walk around the farm.  The only cost was for the pumpkin purchase, gift shop items, or the tours.  They offered two tours, and if I recall, together they were under $20.00.  The day we were there, they only had one of the tours operating, and we decided to take it.  We learned about how the Roloff family came to Oregon from California, that the house was originally only 600 square feet when they moved onto the acreage, and toured some of the projects Matt Roloff turned into reality.  One of those projects was the "Western Town" that he built for his sons to play in.  This ‘town' is amazing!  Any kid would love to play in a place like this!  Now, it's set up with props for the tours, but to think Matt Roloff not only dreamed and created the town, he made it come to life.  Not to leave is only daughter out, he built her a castle!  A castle!  Again, it's truly amazing the creativity this man has!  There are too many other details that can't be squeezed into one review.  We also learned that Matt Roloff is a bit of a procrastinator when it comes to other projects on the farm.  Lots of projects have been started, but many haven't been completed.

The "Pumpkin Family House" featured each room with a pumpkin family depicting a family activity.  For example, the kitchen had a family eating, and the bathroom showed a pumpkin sitting in the tub with a shower cap on its "head".  It was very cute, and not at all scary for the kids.  One of the farm employees designed and staged the little house.

The gift shop didn't have as many items in it as I thought it would, but we were there on a weekday, and maybe that was why.  Also, the farm is only open seasonally.  It opens a couple weeks before Halloween and stays open through Oct 31^st.  It's best to check the Roloff website for the dates. "Roloff Farm":http://mattroloff.com/2008/10/   Other than that, the farm was super interesting, and you don't need to be a kid to enjoy it.