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.