Photo by Graham Cullen Children prepare to descend a slide at the Maryland Pumpkin Festival Sunday.

Children picked out pumpkins, some nearly bigger than they were, and bounced on a Pumpkin Bounce at the Maryland Pumpkin Festival at the Summers Farm on Butterfly Lane just outside of Frederick .

On Sunday, the Hay Slide was a popular activity as children and their parents lined up to slide down plastic sheets bordered by hay bales.

Jaime Kennedy of Fairfield, Pa., suggested to her son Logan, 2, that he try sliding on his rump, not his belly, but he kept flipping over and going down head first.

Finally, she sat Logan on her lap and they went down together. They were followed by her husband, Dustin, and their 1-year-old son Landen.

Kellen Gardner, 7, chose a pumpkin that weighed him down as his parents, Kathy and Steve, of Frederick , looked on. Sunday was their first visit to the Summers Farm.

"We didn't know it was this big," Kathy said. "It's awesome. It's a perfect fall day." They planned to use Kellen's pumpkin as the centerpiece for their fall decorating.

Ronnete Santos brought her children, Paula, 13, Fabiola, 8 and Juan, 4, along with her mother, Carmen Sepulveda. They were looking around, trying to decide what to do first.

Activities included the apple cannon, rubber ducky races, a rope maze, tractor-drawn hayrides, the Pedal-Cart Preakness and tunnels.

Farm animals could be viewed, including a donkey, goats, pigs, ducks, chickens, rabbits and miniature horses.

Bluegrass music played for visitors as they munched on caramel apples, apple cider doughnuts and apple dumplings.

Teresa Summers and Jeff Greenwood put on the fall festival, which is open weekends through Nov. 1. Summers converts about 30 acres of hayfield for the fall festivals. This is the 13th year for fall festivals at the farm.

The rest of the year, she and Greenwood raise grain on the farm's 100 acres.