Tulip Festival

Alden, Anders and I had a lot of fun going to the Tulip Festival north of us with my friend Sarah.  It was beautiful up there and fun to just walk around and see all the gorgeous flowers!  Alden had fun because he could just run around in the garden as long as he didn't step on any flowers.  It was nice that he could explore on his own and burn off some energy. Alden and I both had fun taking pictures (as you will see) because all the flowers were gorgeous and the colors were stunning.  It was also really nice spending the day with Sarah and chatting and catching up as we walked around! Here are some of the pictures of our day and the funny things that Alden did in the gardens to keep himself entertained.

This windmill was right in front of the gardens when we went it.  Alden was very interested by it and wanted to know what it was.

We had to make sure that Alden understood early on that he couldn't touch the flowers but he could smell them if he wanted.

I thought these flowers were gorgeous because I love the multi-layered petals.

Alden would run around and point out different flowers and tell me what color they were.

I had to keep telling Alden to put down his shirt when I wanted to take his picture.

Alden wanted to take a picture of me every time that I took a picture of him.

Beautiful flowers and my adorable little boy!

Not too bad a picture, considering that a three year old took it all by himself.

I loved these red flowers with the slightly frayed edges.  (I don't know how else to describe them.)

The gardens were beautiful with the color arrangement being totally stunning!

Me and my boys enjoying the tulips together!

Alden smelling and observing the flowers.

Alden found this little path and was really excited to go explore it.

He was very insistent that Sarah go with him to explore the new trail.

The red and white ones behind Alden here are gorgeous!

So I am not really sure where this came from but Alden suddenly decided that he needed to poke all the trees with sticks.  It was funny and entertaining to watch.  Here is a video of it.

It was just so beautiful there!

Alden found this frog and really wanted to ride it.  He was so excited!

Then he insisted that Sarah go ride it with him! I am glad I have great friends who like my kids and put up with their craziness!

More tulips!

There were just so many beautiful tulips and flowers there that I took a ton of pictures!  I had a great time seeing the gardens and spending time with my boys and Sarah.  The only thing I would do differently in the future is go earlier in the season.  The flowers bloomed early this year so by the time we got there lots of the flowers were already gone but it was still beautiful and I am glad that we went.

Oh, the other thing I forgot to mention is that we went and did this on Alden's actual birthday but I am not sure that he realized that because we had celebrated the week before.  The funny thing was that on the drive back Alden kept singing the Happy Birthday song but he kept singing it to Mommy.  This was the best video that I could get of it because obviously I couldn't actually video him while we were driving.