Pella Tulip Festival

Last Thursday, my sister, Laurie and her daughter Morgan, joined the kids and I on our annual trip to Pella. I usually plan to head down there the week before the festival, but unfortunately this year it didn't quite work out that way. We quickly realized that we got there on opening day, and there were loads of tour buses. It was crazy busy!!

After we found a place to park -- which was a feat in itself with my new tank of a car -- we walked up to a park in the center of town and took some pictures of the kids and the tulips...





Here is my sister and Morgan with Katherine.

And my little man... Isn't he adorable??? LOL!! Last weekend when we got together with Matt's family, Leo had on a spiffy new green shirt, and Caleb has had "green shirt envy" ever since. So, like any good mom, I ran out and bought him this number and he's in looooove! As soon as he put it on, he said, "thank you Mommy. I yyyyoooove (love) this new green shirt. I look so cute." How can you resist that??? I'm not sure what it is about the color green, but man, this kid is obsessed. If it's green, he's in love. Everything from clothes to houses. He reminds me no less than 10 times a day that it's his "fa-vit (favorite) color.

And my baby girl.... I just realized how "off" some of the color is in these pics...

After we walked around for a while and got the kiddos some yummy street vendor snacks, we made our way to the parade. Note to self -- NEVER go to this parade again. Such a waste of time. Such a joke really.

So Laurie and I scouted out what we thought was a great place to sit. We found this place right on the street and had it had a great view. The only "issue" was that it had a HUGE vat of water located right behind us. Laurie thought it was for the horses, and I thought it looked like it held drinks and all the ice melted. WRONG!! We quickly found out that it's Dutch custom to wash the streets before a parade. We were a soaking muddy mess!! It was ridiculous! I should have taken a picture, but I was so dumbfounded I couldn't move. Probably 100 people with buckets and brooms invaded the street and we were in the crossfire!! LOL!

So after the street washing chaos died down, Laurie grabbed the girls and took off. I had no idea where they went, but all three of them came back with huge smiles and "adorable" hats. Laurie was just cackling -- she could hardly contain herself. Poor Katherine honestly thought that these hats were from the "Lizard of Oz" and everyone in the entire town was a munchkin. Since I was soaking wet and muddy I almost didn't correct her! LOL.

So while the girls were off getting their hats, I took Caleb over to see the tractors, and this boy was in HEAVEN!! Here he is trying to climb in the wheels.

And the hats.... Aren't they something???

Once the parade started, I swore it'd never end. Literally. It went about two hours! I swear that pretty much everyone in town was in the thing. One entry had to be 200+ women dressed in costume and pushing baby buggies. Oh, and then there were the schools -- every elementary, middle, and high school in a 50 mile radius was there -- public and private. Everyone who held a city position (city council, mayor, librarian, etc...) was in the parade. Every business imaginable was in it... Oh, and candy??? In a two hour parade, I would expect some, but nope...not a single piece. Let's just say, that next year, we won't be doing the parade!!

Thankfully, Katherine had to go to the bathroom, so we made and early exit and stopped at a park. The kids ran around and blew off some steam before the car ride home. Inside the park (it was very secluded) there were some local people taking pictures in their Dutch costumes. Katherine immediately started yelling about the "Lizard of Oz" and all the "munchkins" that were right there. I begged her to keep quiet, promising to explain it all later, but in typical Katherine fashion, it didn't quite work out that way...

Here's some pictures from inside the park....


And not to be left out, the hats went back on!!





On the way back to the car, we had planned to stop at the local bakery and pick up some treats for the way home. When we got there, the line to get inside was a block long. NO THANKS!! So off we went to Casey's to pick up some doughnuts!! Thankfully the kids didn't know the difference! LOL.
My sister dubbed the outing "Take Your Sister To Work Day". Right now she's working full time and taking 16 hours of classes, so her "time off" is very limited. As luck would have it, this was her finals week and she took off Thursday and Friday from work for a much deserved break, so she was able to join us. Anyway, she got a taste of what it's like to be a stay at home mom!! So yea... she was "at work" with me all day. I must admit, it's a pretty good gig!! I wouldn't trade it for anything!!