It's that wonderful time of year again...warm weather, flowers, sundresses, etc. The only problem is spring seems to be imitating fall this year leaving our noses nipped, the flowers frosted, and our light weight wardrobes waiting in the closet. Yesterday was a particularly cold and windy May day.
For our family outing this month, I wanted to take everyone to the local drive-in again like we did last year. With the cool weather and a squirmy little girl who doesn't like to sit still for more than a few minutes, I decided that probably wasn't going to work out like I hoped. Since there was nothing kid friendly playing anyway, I began searching for other family activities in the area. My mom and a friend from church named Dawn both suggested the annual Strawberry Festival held in Delaplane. Emmanuel Episcopal Church puts on the festival and uses the proceeds for outreach ministries. It was $25 per car load to get in, but there were a lot of free activities for the kids including balloon animals, face painting, hayrides, sack races, tug of war, a hay maze, Cornhole, water balloon tosses, and other games. This sounded like something everyone would enjoy and a good outdoor Spring day, so we decided to check it out.
I mentioned the idea of the festival to Stacey too, wondering if her family had ever been. She thought it sounded interesting but hadn't tried it out before either. Originally they were planning to make a beach trip this weekend and wouldn't be able to join us, but when the cold weather hit, they decided the beach wasn't such a good idea and opted to meet up with us for some strawberry fun.
We were later getting to the festival than we planned, but it worked out well because the morning was cold and windy. Stacey, who arrived before we did, warned us to pack good coats and gloves. We brought a few reinforcements for her family too, who had no idea how chilly it was going to be. Since I am super sensitive to the cold, I broke back out my winter coat and bundled my babies up as well. We were probably the only people there with winter coats mind you, but honestly I didn't care because we were warm. Later in the day we the kids switched to the lighter weight jackets I packed and everyone seemed comfortable.
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| Hadley with her best friends - NaNa and Anabella |
Our kids were too small for a lot of the group games so we improvised. While the others in our group waited in line for the hayride, we killed some time by grabbing a few potato sacks the older kids were finished with and letting these three-year-olds give it a shot. You can tell by their expressions they got a kick out of it. Caleb declared himself "not very good at it" after a bit, but I thought they all did well for their ages.
Next, was the hayride were we enjoyed some beautiful scenery. The tour guide gave us some information on trails and camping opportunities that pricked up Dave's ears and got him thinking about some other family activities to try soon. Caleb, on the other hand, who was feeling under the weather and a little edgy, was disappointed with the hayride because we didn't get to ride behind the tractor he liked.
The hay maze perked him right up though. Hadley and Caleb both went through it more times than I can remember. While Caleb sped through from beginning to end, Dave kept starting Hadley off at the final stretch. She loved just hanging out in the tunnel and we often had to coax her to keep moving or go in after her.
No strawberry festival would be worth visiting though without tasting some of that delicious red fruit. We bought some berry topped desserts to enjoy while we there and then picked up a basket to take home.
If the weather is sunny next year, we might have to check out this festival again with three little ones in tote!
Weren't those the prettiest strawberries?! We had fun! Thanks for helping keep us warm.
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