Another World Record... But Not Ours

In 2015, my husband along with Thanksgiving Point, broke a world record for "largest modeling balloon sculpture by an individual."

Jeremy did all the balloon twisting and things required for breaking the record. Thanksgiving Point provided the space and paid for an adjudicator to come out. Both Jeremy and Thanksgiving Point did more than just what I mentioned and both names were on the certificate. It was a neat experience.

Because of that, a picture of our whole family (sans Jet), is in the 2017 Guinness Book of World Records, the actual book, with the giant balloon dog in the background.

This is what Thanksgiving Point said about it recently:

 

Last week, Thanksgiving Point went for a new world record, "most flower bulbs planted in an hour." They asked Jeremy to provide some decorations so Wednesday and Thursday, Jeremy twisted, and Thursday night I helped him deliver and place the finishing touches on eight 5-feet something inches balloon tulips.

Friday morning Thanksgiving Point attempted to break the record... and they did it!

Yay, Thanksgiving Point! We love you!  

 

P.S. After the event, they put the balloon tulips around the visitor's center at the gardens. They were somewhat sad looking by the time we got to them Wednesday of this week to take them down.

We're still cute, though.

More Balloons

More balloons at the Tulip Festival.  Jeremy had a request to recreate his windmill with the Dutch boy and girl kissing that he did back in 2014.

It turned out great again.  I helped twist the boy and girl and Lucky and I helped deliver them today.  Jeremy had already built the windmill at the visitor's center yesterday.

Lucky just loves helping out with the balloons.  It's so fun to have him want to help.

Garlic Heron

April 19 was Garlic Day.  My parents gave us garlic from their garden and we used some in spaghetti sauce.  Then of course I forgot to take a picture.  Oh, well.

We do have pictures of the new balloon sculpture at Ashton Gardens for the Tulip Festival.  Combining our love of birds with our business, we made a great blue heron standing in water with a group of cattails (or as Jeremy likes to call them KAT-tails since I made those).

Tulip Festival Opening Weekend

Opening weekend for the Tulip Festival at the Gardens at Thanksgiving Point.  I took the kids.  I survived.  They did, too.  Here are some pictures of how it felt.
Sometimes it was great.

Sometimes it wasn't as easy.

It was very busy- opening weekend- and we went at a busy time of day.  It's a lot easier to get in with a membership, though.  Shorter lines.
Overall I think we had fun.  We saw flowers and waterfalls.  The kids got to feed the koi.  Lucky enjoyed watching them while Jr. Jr. was throwing fish food in.

It was good spending time with the kids on this final thing for Spring Break.

May Day

May 1st, May Day.  When I think of May Day, I think of flowers.  When I was little, my brothers and I used to pick flowers on the way home from school on May Day to give to our mom.
This year, Jeremy had another sculpture to take to the Gardens at Thanksgiving Point, so he, Jr. Jr., Lucky and I took a little stroll among the tulips again.  This is the last weekend of the Tulip Festival.  Jeremy built a tulip princess since there is going to be a Tulip Princess Promenade on Saturday.

Later in the day, while the older kids were working on homework, I told Jr. Jr. he could draw a flower picture for his mom for May Day.  He did and even added stickers.  He's so cute.

So this May Day had flowers.  Some year I'd like to do a May Pole with the kids.  I think that would be fun.  We just ran out of time to get materials for it this year.
But I got a picture drawn by my sweet little boy.

Dutch Days

Yesterday and today- Dutch Days during the Tulip Festival.  When we went last night, it was windy and a little rainy.  Today it's very rainy.
But we still had fun family time last night.  We got to see the windmill and Dutch boy and girl that Jeremy built (like the balloon tulips from last weekend). 

A lot of people were getting pictures being kissed on the cheek by the boy and girl.  Jeremy posed them that way for just that purpose.

The kids got to make little Dutch hats to wear.  Just like the balloon sculptures wear.

 We just had a great time as a family again.

 

Before and After

Before

After
What a difference two weeks can make.  Amazing.

Tulip Pictures

I realized when I was writing my blog post yesterday that I don't have any recent nice posed pictures of me.  I don't mean posed tiptoeing through the tulips pictures.  I mean nice, looking at the camera, looking nice pictures.  Like in that blog post.  Special pictures.
Jeremy had to check on his balloon tulips today anyway, so he, Jr. Jr., Lucky, and I enjoyed some more of the Gardens at Thanksgiving Point.  And while we were at it, we got some cute pictures with me in them.

And of course cute pictures with Jr. Jr. in them, since the only picture from yesterday's post with him in it was of him almost completely under a blanket.

We even got a picture with Jeremy and me both in it.  We haven't had a picture like that in a while.  There were some nice people who offered to take a picture with the four of us in it.  They tried to get Lucky's attention.  He wasn't interested.  He was more interested in looking at the tulips.  They also tried to get Jr. Jr.'s attention.  He wasn't interested in smiling at first until Daddy told him, "The sooner you smile, the sooner we can be done."  He immediately put on a happy face and we got the picture.

 Remember to click on the pictures to see them larger.

I love it.  I'm really enjoying the Tulip Festival.  And it wasn't as crowded today as it was Saturday.  Though we did have to park farther away than Saturday.  Odd.  Oh well.
Happy Tulips!

Tulip Festival

April 18-May 3 at Thanksgiving Point is their annual Tulip Festival.  We went together as a family today.  Of course we chose to go on opening weekend.  It was packed.  I've never seen so many people at the Gardens.  There's a reason we went today, though.  Yesterday, Jeremy spent the day at Thanksgiving Point building a balloon sculpture for people to see as they headed into the Gardens.

We wanted to go see it in person as a family.  And decided to stay for the tulips.  Tee Hee.

They were gorgeous.  We went to the Gardens a couple weeks ago when the tulips were green and not blooming yet, but it was amazing to see the change with all the colors.  

Gorgeous.  I'm so glad we went.  We've been looking forward to the Tulip Festival for a while.

 "Tiptoe through the tulips."

Anyway, we continued to make a day of it after we left Thanksgiving Point.  We stopped home for a bit to eat and headed out to do some family photos.  Not your typical family photos, though.  Family photos with... balloons.

Jeremy needed some pictures for work so we got to help him out.
On our way home, we stopped at a friend's house and gave their family these balloons.  We thought the kids might have fun acting out some stories with balloons.  These are good friends, our kids visit them sometimes, so when they opened the door our kids immediately ran in and started playing, even though Jeremy had told them repeatedly we were not staying.  Sigh.  Apparently some of our children did not hear Daddy.
After chasing them back to the van, he told them they needed to act like vampires.  They may not go in unless they are invited in.  We thought that was pretty funny since today, April 19, is Garlic Day.  Also goes along with vampires.
When we got home, we had a late dinner (including garlic bread), and everybody was tired.
The End.
P.S.  It was a good family day.