Tulip Festival 2025- Dutch costumes, dancing, and street scrubbing.

Our small town celebrates Tulip Festival every May to honor our Dutch heritage. People wear Dutch costumes, kids get to learn Dutch dances and participate in the parades, and people scrub the streets before the parade to "clean" them before the queen and her court come through during the parade. It's a fun celebration! There are lots of food stands and rides too. Here are our three adorable Dutch girls!

You certainly don't have to actually be Dutch to participate, but it's fun that our family is 100% Dutch!

Dutch photos by the windmills with our street scrubbing brushes!

All three got to participate in Dutch dancing this year- they did a great job! You have to be in second grade to start, so this was Lucy and Ellory's first year.

Lucy's group.

Ellory's group.

Norah's group.

Street scrubbing! Men dump the water and women scrub.

Happy Tulip Festival- thankful for another great year!

Tulip Festial 2025- Rides and parade fun.

We enjoyed the Tulip Festival parades and rides! We didn't have the best weather this year (chilly, windy, rainy), but we were still able to have lots of fun! It was really warm and nice for about two weeks before Tulip Festival, so it was funny that the weather changed so much, but Tulip Festival is always the third weekend of May no matter the weather!

The girls enjoyed some rides! It's so fun to watch their faces on them. This flying one is a favorite!

Watching a parade with cousins Will and Gerrit.

Our friends, the Ragsdales, got to stay overnight with us for a night and do some Tulip Festival activities together! They live 2.5 hours away now, but used to live here, so it was nice they could come back for it! Our kids play so nice together and it's special that our entire families can be friends!

Thursday night candy parade.

Some of our favorite floats.

This was a new float this year, so cool!

The Tulip Festival Queen and her court.

Pride of the Dutchmen marching band- a highlight every year! Band was not popular at my high school, but it's a different atmosphere here and lots do it!

My sister, Kayla, got to stay with us for the weekend and join in the festivities too, as well as my cousin Victoria and her husband Sam and daughter Flora for a night too. The girls loved playing with Flora!

Kley marching in the alumni band- he loves doing that every year!

The other favorite spinning ride!

Uncle Brett got to join for a ride too!

Tulip Festival 2025- Ride Night.

Tulip Festival is here! What a fun time for our little town- we love it! I don't have photos of this, but we kicked it off this year by going to the Night Show on Tuesday. Every year for Tulip Festival, there is a different play, and this was the first time we had gone in 10 years. I think Kley and I went once when Norah was a baby, so this is our first time in awhile. It was The Wizard of Oz this year and was so good! I'm amazed at the time and effort that went into this and what a phenomenal cast they had. My personal favorite was the cowardly lion- he did such a great job!

We also kicked off Tulip Festival with Ride Night! The rides are here the whole time, but Wednesday night is the only night where they sell wristbands for unlimited rides for the night. This night is definitely busier than others for that reason, but is so fun to be downtown for it and see all the people and enjoy the night. This year was was disappointing because many of the rides were broken down/not functioning while we were there, including the girls' two favorite rides that they were most hoping for. But, oh well and it was still fun to go and the girls did get to ride a few things! 

We also got our first treats! Norah actually got fried oreos, but they were eaten by the time I was by her with my camera again, but she also enjoyed sampling my chocolate malt! Kley chose cheese curds. 

The giant slide- a classic!

Lucy and Ellory chose snow cones! It's so funny and cute that Ellory LOVES snow cones and looks forward to it every year and it's definitely her favorite Tulip Festival treat. She was talking about it and looking forward to it for the last weeks for sure, bringing it up numerous times. So cute!

Lucy chose cherry and blue raspberry. Ellory told me she "thought deep" about her flavors and ended up with pink lemonade and watermelon. :)

Ferris wheel.

Norah didn't want to do the motorcycles, but Lucy and Ellory did and I'm treasuring them still being little enough to enjoy it!

Happy Tulip Festival- love it!

Mother's Day 2025.

Happy Mother's Day! Very thankful for my mom, mother-in-law, grandmas, sisters, and friends as examples and my people to walk through motherhood with. The title of mom is a great gift to me and mothering Norah, Lucy, and Ellory is a deep honor. I love you girls!

Tulips 2025.

Our downtown park plants a bunch of tulips each spring for Tulip Festival and it's always one of my favorite spring photos! Beautiful flowers and our beautiful girls!