IRVINE

Top 4 Pumpkin Patches in Orange County!

Halloween is one of our most favorite time of year! It is a month long celebration for us. We love to visit pumpkin patches and themed attractions, coordinate costumes, attend parties, and last year we added painting pumpkins. I really can’t wait to do it all over again this year. Pumpkin Patches are the perfect backdrop to get some wonderful seasonal photos to share with family and friends. I love how the fall colors just pop in the background. We tell all new families to take their children to pumpkin patches for photos and take advantage of the natural lighting. They’re also a great place to find the perfect pumpkins. They are very popular and tend to get busy later in season so if you have small children, you might want to plan ahead like go early, avoid weekends if possible o go right when it opens, and pack a change of clothes because it’s still hot through the end of October. Here are six locations in Orange County! Please check their websites for the most information.

Happy Birthday, Pretend City! Special Events in August + Ticket Giveaway!

Pretend City Children’s Museum in Irvine turns 8! If you’re looking for ways to beat the heat, the last full month of the summer is jam-packed with fun educational activities and daily themed events at Pretend City. Hint: There are special discount days for some of them. Their annual “When I Grow Up” Day is the biggest event of the year. With the help of volunteers and a variety of generous professionals from all over the community, children can explore their future and dream big with the help of firefighters, police officers, librarians, and more! They are bringing in a real fire truck for the children to touch and explore, along with multiple professional cars in their free outside exhibit! Other special events to note – National Chocolate Chip Day, Bring a Friend on Friendship Day, Way to Play Day with Free Dental Screenings, Free Family Autism Day, and it’s also the final days of their summer exhibit, “Adventure Under the Sea!” Check the calendar below!

85C Bakery Cafe Opens 1000th Location!

85 °C Bakery Cafe, an Asian-Euro fusion bakery, has 15 locations in the Los Angeles and Orange County area with their newest local location in Koreatown, and their 1,000th global location in Houston! Their name comes from the perfect temperature to brew coffee 85C (185F). Originating from Taiwan in 2003, their first US store is located right here in OC – Irvine (2008). I remember a time when they had long lines out the door like you would see at popular nightclubs. It was astonishing, and it was like that all the time. They always have at least 60 baked bread items and 60 types of pastries available throughout the day TIP: Always ask if they have a fresh batch of your favorite bread, some times they don’t fill the shelves fast enough and they will always give it to you if they have it. All their breads is baked fresh in house every 4 hours all day. Their top selling items include brioche, marble taro, iced sea salt coffee, and mango crème brûlée. They have over 40 drink options and variations. You can also get any drink with boba. I, for one, just love their Sea Salt Coffee (Americano coffee, sea salt, and sweet cream), and I get it with “less sugar.” Hint: You can get 85 cents Iced Sea Salt Coffee on Coffee Mondays.

New TRADE Food Hall in Irvine near SNA and UCI

TRADE FOOD HALL is a new casual dining center which is conveniently located near the John Wayne Airport (SNA) and University of California Irvine. The food hall features a vertical garden and courtyard seating. Offering unique dishes to satisfy every tastebud, it’s not your typical food court. You’ll find vegan, vegetarian, fried chicken, a bar, Latin-Asian and Latin-Mexican dishes, mediterranean, poke bowls, seafood, pork sandwiches with candied bacon, burgers with fried eggs, waffle-pops, and more! Descriptions of the restaurants are below.

Pick Your Own Strawberries at Tanaka Farms’ Strawberry Tour

One of our favorite places to pick strawberries in Orange County is at Tanaka Farms in Irvine. Right now they have STRAWBERRY TOURS which is an hour guided wagon tour around their 30 acre farm. We learn about the different produce they grow, history of the farm, farming methods, sample a variety of farm fresh vegetables next to where they are grown, and then we stop to pick our own strawberries. Each paying customer receives a 1-pound container to fill to take home. I have been taking the children for years, and we still love it!

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