Flowers and Mud!

Today the boys and I met some of our friends at the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm up in Woodburn, OR to enjoy a day at the tulip festival.  The day started unusually early because Baby Bug decided to wake his mommy and daddy up at 6:30 (instead of the usual 8am wake up) and instantly demanded breakfast.  Sometimes I am so proud of him for learning baby signs, other times I wish I had never taught him ;-)

Since I had an early start on the day, I decided to take advantage of it by baking the bread, running some laundry, making the essential morning coffee and then heading out to pick up some extra almond milk, special breakfast fixings and some wind break jackets for the Bugs to wear at the tulip field. While I was at the store I contemplated buying the Bugs some new rain boots.  I went back and forth - debating with myself - and finally decided to just head home.  I was pretty sure the boots they already had would still fit them, and I was fairly confident there would be a hand-me-down pair the right size for Baby-Bug somewhere in the house.  When I returned home I got to work grilling up some sausage links, making hashbrowns (From scratch Peggy! You inspired me to give it a try!) scrambling eggs and slicing up strawberries. After a fantastically yummy "special day" breakfast with the whole family, I went to the garage to check out the boot situation.  The biggest two pair we had were a size seven and a size nine.  Unfortunately - Big Bug is wearing an eleven and Middle-Bug is wearing a ten! No good!!  So, back I went to the store where I snagged two new pair of boots, then realized I forgot to check for a hand-me-down pair in Baby-Bug's size!  I quickly grabbed him a size six, paid and headed back home.  When I got back, Hubby had the kids dressed and I started putting their new boots on their feet....that's when I realized I had misread the tag on Baby-Bugs boots and they were actually a size NINE!  Oh boy!  No way was I running back to the store a third time! The mad hunt for hand-me-down boots was on and thankfully, we found a size six in the garage. Hubby cleaned them inside and out with baby wipes to make sure there weren't any creepy crawlies inhabiting the toes of the boots and we were back in business.

When we got to the festival today it was raining pretty steadily and it continued to rain for most of the day.  We all had such a good time looking at the beautiful flowers and the kids really enjoyed the big slide, hay-bale mountain, tire swings, playhouse, and rubber ducky races!  The blooming fields were a fair distance from the entrance, so we opted to ride the tram out to the fields (little legs and all that.)  Oh boy was that an adventurous ride!  Five adults and nine children all crammed on to three bench seats...I am still not quite sure how we did it.  When the tram took off with a jolt and immediately tipped to one side as it rounded the first corner - we felt pretty lucky that we didn't lose a few passengers!

When we were done looking at the tulips, we decided to try taking the walking "trail" back to the main area.  I am sure at one point this actually WAS a trail, but today it was just mud soup.  At times my feet were actually sticking to the ground when I would take a step. It's amazing to me that Baby-Bug was able to trudge on!  The farther along we went, the deeper and wider the puddles became.  Us moms were watching our poor cross trainers fill up with muddy field water while our boys were splashing and laughing and hooting it up as they jumped from puddle to puddle in their rubber boots.  Baby-Bug was so anxious to get in on the action that I had to literally hold him back from the larger puddles that would have hit him at knee level. (I did let him splash it up in the more shallow puddles though and he was in heaven!) All in all it was a fabulous time and the rain and resulting mud just added to the memorable experience.  Definitely a good day!