Tip-toe through the Tulips

Or I guess you would trudge through the tulips if you're a three year old boy. Anyway, this ended up being somewhat of a spontaneous trip too. My neighbor and I were planning to take our boys to the park but she's new to the area and had heard about the Wooden Shoe Tulip festival and really wanted to go so she brought up that idea. At first I thought there would be no way I could go without Max but then I realized my boys have grown up a lot since last year (Miles was only 3 weeks old) and I take them on outings all the time by myself. I agreed that it would be a great idea despite the somewhat long drive. I am so glad we went. It was the perfect weather and the fields were so vibrant. 

We started in the kid play area with the ducks and slides. It also has a bunch of bounce houses and other things that I didn't let Charlie do because who goes to a tulip farm to jump in a huge spider man bounce house? Oh yeah, and I didn't want to pay the extra fee.

This slide was kind of ridiculous and Charlie couldn't get enough of it. He climbed up really high then when he sat on the slide he just got stuck. And he sat there for awhile all while the line got longer and longer.

 He had to scoot down slowly then he decided to go again and again

Charlie pulling his friend Reed.

After a bunch of playing we pulled our kids from the toys and made them go to the tulips with us. We had to use the "but there are tractors over there" excuse. Works every time!

 It was the last Friday of Spring Break so it was still pretty busy. 

Tractors and mud were probably the highlight for the little boys.

This was a pretty neat steam contraption that my boys were enthralled with.

It was a little more challenging to get all the pictures I wanted without Max there but we got one face in hole photo :)

Eventually I let Miles free from the stroller to play in the mud and flowers.

He liked the fiery tulips.

  

We had a little lunch break then got back to playing by going to check out the pink tractor.

Oh and this pink tractor brought so much joy to so many children.

 

 

Brotherly love

I'm glad he was happy to see all the flowers.

 

Of course we had to check out the windmill.

And here is a little comparison from last year and this year which is only really an 11 month difference.

 Just before leaving, Charlie checked out the sand boxes.

We were so glad we went even though it ended up being pretty busy and we all got a little sun burnt. Charlie already wants to go back!

Sand and Smiles

I've been craving a beach trip with my little family. Sometimes I forget that I'm a grownup and if I want to do something, I can find a way to make it happen. That being said, about 6 weeks ago. I let Max know we were going to the beach on March 28 and put it in our shared calendar which is similar (or so I thought) to setting it in stone. As the trip got closer, it turned out that that day was the only day that Max would be able to help his parents with a big move and my beach trip got pushed aside. We are excited for his parents and their big move but in the original plan we weren't sure when they would actually be moving. Anyway, we ended up having some plans fall through last weekend and discussed driving off to the beach all morning, Max and I decided that we would just do it. That's about as spontaneous as we get.

The drive took a little longer than normal due to a pretty bad accident ahead of us. but the boys were good and we we got there eventually.

My original plan was to take 1 year old photos of Miles on our beach trip, and I did take a lot of Miles photos, he just isn't quite 1 year old yet...

 

I love that he has a bonk on his head, and sand in his teeth but he is still so so happy.

Charlie loves the beach so much and we love that he has so much open space to run.  

He kept playing this frisbee game where he would throw the frisbee into the wind and then he would chase it for a long long time because the wind kept taking it.

And Miles kept eating sand which led to some great faces.

And sometimes he stands for awhile before sinking to his knees.

 It eventually got cold enough that we had to dress him like a marshmallow.

Airplanes.

 Swords

Charlie was running around writing the letter "C" in the sand and saying "C for Charlie! C for Charlie"

I was pretty impressed with this one.

I love how you can tell exactly what's happening in this photo.

and then little brother smashes the sand castle.

It was windy

And I checked to see if I could still do a cartwheel. Still got it and I'm feeling stronger than ever.

  

And here are some photos from Max's phone. He made this crab....


This kid is growing up really really fast. I'm so glad we took the time to have a family adventure together.


My heart is so full knowing that these gentlemen are my forever family.

After we were tired and cold, (and we didn't even think about touching the freezing ocean water) we decided to clean up and go out to dinner. We decided on Pig 'n Pancake, I wanted seafood but Max and Charlie wanted Pancakes. overruled...haha! 

Miles was full of great expressions. 

 

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Potty breaks before departing and I'm pretty sure this is my first bathroom mirror selfie. 

We enjoyed our meal and even got some extra pancakes for free! We then loaded up in the car and drove home.