The Tulip Festival

We headed to my home town last weekend for the annual Tulip Festival. The kids were so excited to see papa, grammy and all their cousins. They were anticipating all the fun that was in front of them.

 

On Friday we got to town in time to watch the parade. I wish I would have gotten a picture of Max on my dad's lap during the parade. Max isn't afraid of too many things. One thing he isn't a fan of is bugs and we quickly found out bands are not a favorite of his either. When the bands would come by he would hang on to papa's neck for dear life.

  

  The kids could hardly wait to hit the rides with their cousins. It was a bit of chaos for all the adults to keep tabs on everyone as kids were wanting to head in different directions. Good thing there were 8 adults with 16 eyes to keep tabs on everyone. The excitement was running pretty high!
 

Max was beyond excited as he jumped in the puppy with his brother. I am pretty sure you can see just how Shane feels about life by the expression on his face!
 

The big girls are growing up ... insert sign .... they no longer love the little cars and slides. They have moved on to bigger and better things. I couldn't keep up with them and most of the rides they chose moved so fast or were so high I couldn't even get a picture of them. You can see the top of Darby's head in the bottom of the octopus. This is about as good as it gets.
 

The three middles also thought they would move on to a bigger and better rides. They decided to hop on the Ferris Wheel. There was a bit of screaming coming from the bucket #11 when it reached the top. I wonder who was in there?



 Shane wanted another shot at the Dragon Roller coaster. We reminded him that just 2 years ago he was in tears when he rode it because he was so scared. Well this time around his expression was a little different.
 

The Tulip Festival is not complete with out all the yummy treats. Papa treated the kids to some mini doughnuts and lemonade. Max was happily sharing his doughnut with papa. This will give you an idea of the eating rules at Tulip Festival ... for lunch on Saturday papa had purchased some funnel cakes for the kids to munch on while their parents were getting them some real food. No wonder we are chopped liver when papa and grammy are around.
 

On Saturday we put on the Dutch Costumes and headed to main street to get the streets ready for the queen and her court. Max was the cutest little Chinese Dutch boy around.
 

I can't believe how fast these little Dutch girls are growing up! We had such a nice spring that we actually had a stem fest, there wasn't a tulip in sight.  We had to find some other flowers to take pictures by.
 

Shane wanted to take his pictures by the windmill!
 

A few other pictures before the street scrubbing began.
 

The boys headed out and filled their buckets with water to pour on the road so the girls could come behind with their brooms to scrub the streets. I love Shane in action getting the water out to those ladies. Max was pretty excited about throwing the water out too!
 

The girls were ready. We pretty much fill up the road here and Alexa and Darby are even a few steps ahead!

Max was loving life!
 

The girls had a great time too. Look at Mataya, the cute little Dutch girl I am holding. I can't wait until next year, hopefully our little Asian princess will be home for the festivities.



  The boys reached the end of the route! What a fun weekend with a lot of fun memories.

Tip Toe Through The Tulips

The kids look forward to Tulip Time every year.  The Tulip Festival is an annual celebration in my home town.  The kids love going back for the parade, scrubbing streets, fun food, time with cousins, staying at papa and grammy's house and of course the carnival rides. 

On Saturday we woke up to a picture perfect day for scrubbing streets.  Our morning consisted of doughnuts at the downtown bakery, riding bikes and playing outside at papa's and grammy's and lunch at in town.  Then it was time to get our costumes on and get ready to scrub the streets.  It was quite the process to get everyone ready.

We headed downtown to the park to take pictures and meet up with our cousins.



I love seeing all four of my little ones together.  Last year I remember anticipating having our Chinese little Dutch boy home.  What a special addition God has blessed us with.  One of my friends asked me often how I get my kids to look at the camera and get them all smiling well I think those days may be over.  It does get a little more challenging as our family grows.  Max was all about taking his hat off and Shane was into watching his brother's every move.  Alexa is my little squinter at the slightest amount of sun light.

My beautiful brown eyed girl is growing up right before my very eyes.  Where is the time going?

My darling little blue eyed Dutch girl fits the part perfectly.  She too is growing up way too fast for this mommy!

Then there is my Shane. Doesn't he just look like he loves life and that he keeps me on my toes? Oh how he has spiced up our life.

And how cute is my baby? Love those big brown eyes!

Max was obsessed with taking his hat off the minute I got it on.  Shane was entertained watching his brother.

Eric continues to claim he is not Dutch so will not be sportin' the Dutch Costume so he gets to be the photographer.  The rest of us were ready to go!

My parents had new costumes made this year for themselves.  Aren't the looking pretty classy?

The tulips were beautiful this year.  You never know if they will be almost finished blooming, just starting or picture perfect.  It all depends on the spring.  This year all the beds were picture perfect. We had to capture a couple pictures of the kids smelling them.

Bailey and Max were so cute by the tulips together.

I love Max's little folded ear.  He was all about going after those tulips.  The only problem is there is no picking tulips.  There is a heft fine for picking them.  So we had to keep our eyes on Max's little hands.

Shane was so excited to have his brother by his side this year.  He couldn't wait to show him the ropes for scrubbing those streets.

I love this picture of my dad and my boys.  A proud papa and a proud big brother.  We weren't sure if papa was going to have his work cut out for him?  The boys did great.

The street scrubbing is to prepare the streets for the queen and her court.  Every year a group of local high school girls try out for the Tulip Festival court and one girl is crowned the queen.  The streets are scrubbed before every parade for the queen and her court.  The mayor inspects the streets to make sure they are ready.  Shane had fun doing his part in getting water out on the streets.  Max took it all in.

This picture of my parents and some of the kids show what  picture perfect day it was.  The kids were having so much fun.

The girls came behind and worked hard scrubbing the streets to get them in tip top shape. It has to be the cleanest city in Iowa.

After street scrubbing we got everyone changed and cooled down with a smoothie.  It was then time for the much anticipated rides.

Who do you think is having more fun on the Tilter Whirl, papa or Shane?  The girls had fun twirling around together.

The kids had fun going on all kinds of rides with their cousins.  They all finished the day with a ride on the Carousel.

It was Max's first Carousel ride. He had the same "nervous but I like this look" that he had on the swing the first time!

We had a fun day at the Tulip Festival but on the way home Eric and I decided we were tired out! The kids crashed on the way home sleeping with mouths open and drooling.  That just means it was a good, fun-filled day! We all hit our pillows for an early bedtime.

Tip Toe Through The Tulips

I love the park at my hometown. I love the background with the windmill, little stream, bridge and of course all the tulips!

On Saturday we headed to the park for some pictures before scrubbing the streets. The kids love getting their costumes on, getting brooms and buckets ready and meeting up with their cousins. They don't get so excited about all the pictures their mom wants to take. I think either it is getting harder with more kids, they are getting older and probably just getting sick of taking pictures by tulips every year!

The whole gang!

I just can't wait to see our new little addition in a Dutch costume next year!

Emma looks like such a little Dutch girl with her blond hair and blue eyes.

Next up the brown eyed, brown haired little dutch girl.

And finally our cute little Dutch boy!

I had to post these just so you could see how painful it was to get a picture of a cute little smiling Dutch boy! He is still pretty cute faces and all!

The kids and I smelling the tulips.

It is now time to head to the street to get ready to scrub them so they are clean and ready for the Tulip Queen and her court.

This is definitely what Shane was waiting for. Filling that bucket of water and throwing it on the street for the girls to scrub hoping to get wet in the process.

Emma concentrating and taking her job serious!

Shane was so cute. He would fill his bucket and then take it to the girls and pour the water out right by their brooms. He was at their service!

Checking where the girls were at. Notice I don't have any pictures of the big girls. We had told them they could go ahead if they stayed together. They thought it was so great they didn't need to stay by all the little ones that they took off and were way ahead of us!

Papa treated everyone to fruit smoothie after all their hard work.

Scrubbing Those Streets

The kids love scrubbing the streets at Tulip Festival.  Before each parade they need to get the streets ready for the queen and her court.  The men and boys fill buckets of water and pour them on the road and the girls come behind and sweep them clean.  I do think we get stuck with the tougher job.

Shane and Papa are off to fill their buckets with water.

Here we come busily sweeping the streets.  My mom, my sister-in-law Alissa, my sister-in-law Ang, myself,  Alexa, Emma, Darby Tyra and Mia are all in the above picture.  Baby Bailey took a stroll in the stroller but I'm sure will be eager to toddle the streets with us next year.  We sure had a clan of girls.

Shane was a little entertainer my dad said.  He was waving, giving people high fives and posing for pictures.  I may be a little biased but I do think he is a pretty cute little Dutch boy!

Alexa and Darby have such a neat relationship.  I don't think that I have ever seen them fight and they just can't get enough of each other.  They actually held hands while they scrubbed the streets for the majority of  the parade route.  That was some tough work one handed. 

Of course the boys love dumping their buckets in the tank and getting a little wet while they are at it!

How full can I fill it?

Emma and Mia are hard at work!