"If ya ain't Dutch, ya ain't Much"

I have not been to Tulip Time since I was a little kid, but I married "one of those dutch guys from Pella/Osky" and I figured it was about time we went to see what it was all about.

We headed down Friday morning, picked up Shawn's mom, and started our day at the What Cheer fleamarket. (an Awesome flea market that they have twice a year. Lots of antiques for a fairly reasonable price!)

Then we swung back by the house to meet Shawn's Dad and pulled into Pella just in time to catch the 2:30 parade!

Kallen is in that wonderful phase where he insists on walking instead of riding as much as possible:

Apparently one of the best things about Tulip Time is the food
(although it all just seemed like fair food to me)

I am usually not a fan of funnel cake, but my m.i.l. introduced us to this funnel cake topped with fresh strawberries and whipped cream and I have to say it was pretty good!
Kallen has always had a special bond with his "Papa" and he was in heaven all day- having Papa's undivided attention. :)
Lincoln got lots of cuddle time with Grandma! :)

At one point during the parade Kallen looked back, spotted this man, pointed, and said "Uh Oh!"

You can't go to tulip time without getting a picture in front of the tulips!

I'm not sure why I thought this would be possible with a 2 year old and a 6 month old.
Most of our attempts ended up like this:

(Lincoln was mesmerized by the tulips and would not take his eyes off of them)

I guess in Pella there is a $100 fine for each tulip that you break.

In my attempt to get a decent picture, I asked Kallen to give Lincoln a hug.

He, ever so sweetly, hugged his little brother then quickly let go, knocking Lincoln off balance and sending him backwards into the flowers.

Oops! Please don't tell anyone!

After that we high tailed it out of there to go visit Shawn grandparents who live a few blocks away from all of the action.

It has been so cold lately, it was really nice to get out and go for a walk!

Kallen spent most of the time turned around, playing with his brother.

I just LOVE that Lincoln is getting old enough now to interact!

I'd say our first family Tulip Time was a success!

It was SO good to spend time with family, and see a part of Shawn's dutch heritage.

An overall review: it was very crowded, and the parade was close to 2 hours long, but Pella has such neat little shops and the tulips were all beautiful!!!

I'd say, if you are not a fan of big crowds, you could just head to Pella the week before or after and get pretty much the same experience! (plus you can go to Jaarsma without having to stand in a ridiculously long line. And no we did not even bother.)

Smoothie Anyone??

Kallen has become a typical toddler in that you just never know if he will choose to eat his food or not.

The other night we were having a very healthy (NOT!!), last-minute meal of brats, cottage cheese and applesauce. ( I know- lots of gourmet meals going on over here lately)

Kallen would not eat anything and our rule is that if he chooses not to eat what I made for supper, then he still has to sit at the table until we are all done.

I had given up on him eating anything when he reached over, grabbed Shawn's glass of water, and started spooning in his applesauce.

Instead of getting after him like we probably should have, we decided to just sit back and see what would happen.
After the applesauce, came the cottage cheese, and little chunks of brat, all held together with water. It was looking pretty nasty and I thought "surely he is not going to drink that".

Wrong!


He drank the entire thing! And then proceeded to fill up his cup again. Gross!

He ended up devouring his entire meal in liquid form. (I guess that's I one way to get him to eat)

Apparently we need to just start feeding him smoothies for every meal.


P.S. I have no idea why his hood is up in all of these pictures. He probably put it up and didn't want to take it off. :P

A GREAT post!!

I don't know this woman, but I have been reading her blog for a while now and this post was really powerful to me.

I would highly recommend taking the time to click over and read it!

You won't regret it!!!

http://itsalmostnaptime.blogspot.com/2011/04/better-me-than-you.html

"Pssshhhht"

So a while back I blogged that I was thinking about starting to potty train Kallen......

...yeah, that did not really happen.

I put underwear on him for a couple days, then he did not want to wear it anymore.

I did not want underwear and the pottychair to become a negative thing so I just kind of dropped it. (he seemed a little young anyways) I will occasionally ask him if he would like to "wear underwear today?" but his answer is always "Mo" (no).

I keep the potty chair in our main level bathroom just incase he ever decides he is ready to try it, and we have been reading our potty book quite often lately!

Today my sister and I were in the living room, and Kallen was messing around in the bathroom when we heard him saying "pssshhhht".

He loves to pretend to wash his hands so I told her that was probably what was going on, but when she went to go check on him she burst out laughing.

He was sitting on his potty chair (with diaper and pants still on) pretending to go potty.

"Pssshhhht" "Pssshhht"

He also did some other stinky business in his diaper while he was in there. (lucky me)

I am going to take all of this as a sign that maybe we are one step closer to Kallen being ready to potty train!!

And this is exciting to me because, frankly, only 1 child in diapers sounds A-mazing!!!

And just so this is not a post without pics- here is a random picture of Kallen sporting his new shades from "Aunt Cole" (nichole)

Smile!!

These are things that have made me smile this week:

* Lincoln's 5 month picture

*

When you ask Kallen how old he is, he will hold up 1 finger and say "three"

*

Kallen spends a majority of his day watching for puppies out the front window.

I guess he was feeling a little lazy this day:

*

Kallen's obsession with screwdrivers (and tools in general). If he hears you even mention that something may be broke or need batteries- he will run to get the screwdriver so he can "fix it"

*

A table full of toddlers- yay for friends!! *

The fact that when Kallen decides to hide from us, he runs to his hiding spot and yells "Kallen!"

*

These ornery little stinkers-

my boys have really been bonding lately and it has been so fun to watch!!

Animal Party!

Today my "baby boy" turned 2 years old! I still cannot believe it!!

This year we had an ANIMAL PARTY!!

I don't go out and buy a bunch of stuff for my kid's birthday parties....I just raid their toy box!

Lincoln dressed for the occasion! Kallen had been dying to eat a cupcake and was very excited to finally get his hands on one!

He LOVED opening presents! He just started in and went to town! :P

Got some cool new shades from Aunt "Cole".

And wrapped up the day playing outside!

It was a great day!

Just for fun- the top one is Kallen and the bottom one is Lincoln.

I don't think they look all that much alike but maybe that's just because I'm the mom. :)