A grand day at the Tulip Festival!

We spent a day at the Tulip Festival with my mom and sisters. It was my first time there and I really enjoyed it! It was so beautiful and the kids had a fun time playing in the children's discovery garden and looking at the waterfalls. Here are the cousins "striking a pose"

The discovery garden had lots of fun things for kids to "discover" like musical nature, secret pathways, a caterpillar slide, a lighthouse,  and my boys favorite was the bear cave! When their cute cousin Chloe came into the cave I was with her and she had a look of terror on her face when she spotted the "bear". I reassured her it was pretend and she bravely nodded her head a slowly walked forward....much different than the boys reaction! I think Sam and Ben were nervous for a second but then Sam "became" the bear and started growling ferociously! He loved crawling through the cave and hearing the bear growl. They also had a fun maze for the kids to play in and Noah's Ark...but, the water that is normally on for the summer wasn't turned on yet, so I guess that was a good thing for mom! (No wet clothes and crying kids because they got wet!) 

I do think though, that Sam's absolute favorite part of the day was being able to hold a bearded dragon! He loves reptiles and would give anything to become a proud owner of lizards, snakes, frogs, iguanas.....you get the idea! I have no doubt in my mind that one day he will have a room full of reptiles....we have already housed a snake for a few days before we sent the snake back home to "his mom". He has pure joy written on his face in this picture!

I think we will make the tulip festival a tradition. We really had a "grand" day! And I think Kaleb said it best when at the end of our grand day....we were all ready for a nap!