Tulip Festival: Rides

After a hot afternoon parade, Ryan enjoyed a Hawaiian Ice and then we headed off to the rides. We bought a book of tickets, enough for him to go on 5 rides which we split between Friday and Saturday. First up was his "safe" favorite, the carousel. It's hard to go wrong here, and he enjoyed riding a horse and quietly saying "Yee-Haw!" and waving to his friend outside the fence.

Next up was another one of last year's favorites, the cars. This is another tame ride that simply goes round and round, but he loves using the steering wheel and take his driving pretty seriously!

Ryan had been talking about the ferris wheel ever since spotting it rising above the midway. He was eager to go on it with Adam and loved it! He thought it was really cool being high up and seeing everything from their purple car.

On Saturday night, Juliana and I took Ryan to choose his last two rides. He had been talking about the dragon roller coaster for the past 2 days, so he quickly hopped on the rollercoaster right before it was about to take off. It was my mistake to not have him watch the ride once and prep him a little about what to expect, so I got a sinking feeling when I saw his face after the first time around. He was NOT enjoying himself! The other kids were screaming in a fun way, but Ryan was screaming "Mommy! I want to stop!" He didn't break out in actual tears and as soon as it stopped, he just got out and said "I didn't like that". I think if it would have gone around one more time, we would have reached full tearful meltdown. But, I was glad he tried it and I got a better idea of what he could handle before Disney. Although, I think with a little prep and a companion, I think he'd do fine.

The face says it all.

I was glad the Dragon didn't scare him away from trying any other rides and he quickly regrouped and chose his last ride, a motorcycle called "Hog Wild". He chose to drive the Spiderman hog and we found it to be the only one that actually wnet up and down in addition to following the track in a circle. He loved this one and even had another kid join him for the ride.

Ryan did a good job leaving the rides on Saturday night and we are learning that he does much better when we remember to prep him and don't change our minds so he knows what to expect. He knew he only had enough tickets for 2 rides on Saturday night and he also knew that we weren't buying any treats on Saturday night but could have ice cream when we got home. This made for a much smoother transition (and saved from overspending).

Maybe next year we'll check out "ride night" where you can get a wristband for unlimited rides, but at this age, a few rides per day were enough and it was nice to go when there were no lines. It was a good "warm up" for Disney and I can't wait to see his face when he sees those rides!

Tulip Festival: Parades

Ryan strikes a pose in the wooden shoe.

This week was Ryan's 2nd Tulip Festival as an Orange City resident. Since we don't have costumes or participate as volunteers, we don't feel "all in" yet. We're still learning the ins and outs of just attending.  This year Adam took the boys to the Thursday afternoon parade, I took them to the Saturday night parade, and we all went to both Friday parades. All in all, 4 parades was more than enough and Ryan seemed to lose interest by Friday night, but it was still something to do and we had fun visiting with different people at each parade.

Friday afternoon was Ryan's favorite as he spotted his friend and a big tub of water. He was soaked from head to toe before the street scrubbers came by. One important lesson for afternoon parades: wear sandals and bring a change of clothes!

Making a "Splash" with his friend.

Cohen spent most of the time being held or snoozing in his stroller in the shade but Ryan spent most of this parade waving to the floats and telling me to take pictures of the horses.

Friday afternoon parade

Other favorite parts of the parades were the marching bands. Ryan spotted my cousin Carter in his 6th grade band (he's the tallest one).


He also loved the Tiger mascot from OCCS and the Pride of the Dutchmen band. It just wouldn't be a parade without "Championship"



I have a feeling these two may be future POD members:

Spring Flowers

Every year, I used my birthday money to buy some flowers for the front of the house. I'm no gardener, but do like how a little color spruces up the front  of our somewhat-boring house, especially since we haven't done anything to the landscape since we moved in 2 years ago and probably won't be tackling it anytime soon. On Saturday morning, we took a family trip over to Mama's Greenhouse in the Fareway parking lot and Ryan helped pick out some "beautiful" flowers.

Here's our final barrel and pot:

Best Bros

Ryan and Cohen are the best of bros. Ryan loves making him laugh and Cohen always has a smile for his big brother. Here is a video of them playing Pat-a-Cake:

Mother's Day

My boys and me (Mr. Grumps and Mr. Cheesehead)

They are what makes this day special!

Me and the new guy

Grandma with her grandsons

Tickling Cohen

Loves his grandma!

Cohen: 5 Months Old

Cohen turned 5 months old on Mother's Day! He has been generous with the smiles and giggles and is very ticklish. He especially likes when Ryan claps his hands together for him or laughs in front of him.  He also likes being held high up in the air and then "whooshing" down.

We've tried reading books with Cohen but he gets super-hyper banging on the pages and trying to get them in his mouth. His favorite toys are the things on his Exersaucer and some crinkly fabric stacking blocks that he tries to eat. He also loves seeing himself in the mirror.

Cohen can roll from back to front but doesn't really like ending up on his tummy. He still sleeps on his back and many nights ends up sleeping in the bouncy seat because he's congested. He's had a cold for a good 2 weeks and can't seem to kick it (or it might be allergies). He can't sit up by himself yet and even propped on the sides, he generally goes nose-to-toes or topples over immediately.

His napping routine at daycare is very consistent: 7:30-9:00ish, 30minute nap around 11 and long nap 1:30-4:30. On the weekends, it's more like two 30-minute naps total.  I guess he gets all off-kilter if his usual routine isn't followed to a T. He's in bed by 7:30 or 8:00 most nights and generally wakes up 2x during the night. Mommy has learned to live with less sleep in general but would probably drink a lot less coffee if Cohen would sleep more consistently!

Cohen loves to talk back to people and is pretty noisy in general. This is why he rarely makes it through a church service. He usually falls asleep during stroller rides and in the car, although he's never driven farther than Hull, so our 5-hour trip planned later this month might give us a better idea of how he travels.

He is still spitting up...a lot. Like almost every time he eats, he spits up what looks like the majority of what he consumed. This weekend we went through every single burp cloth we own...in two days. He seems to be gaining weight fine and I hope the spitting up will start subsiding in the next few months.

His hair seems to be lightening up a bit and the peach fuzz is getting longer. He's wearing 6 month and 9 month clothes and we're hoping we can switch to a more Spring wardrobe any day now. I mean, it's been at least a week now since we had snow!

Cohen is generally a pretty happy baby and we all love him to pieces!

Cinco de Cousins

Lincoln, Ryan, Cohen, Emily, Saylor

Great Grandma with Cohen

Lincoln and Ryan "the 2 Shmoes"

Ryan and Saylor sharing

Trying to convince Emily to pull out her loose tooth (you can see the permanent tooth growing in behind it)

"Cheese"

Saylor loves Cohen