Velvet Ice Cream and Legend Hills Orchards

This past weekend was Memorial Day and we chose to spend time as a family. I love taking the kids on adventures all over the city but this time we finally got Dad in the picture! Literally and figuratively =) On a sacred day honoring our fallen it just seemed fitting to remind ourselves how lucky we are to live in a free country protected by our finest citizens. 

Our first stop was Velvet Ice Cream for their annual Ice Cream Festival! We came last year and loved feeding ducks at the pond, playing on the play ground, and enjoying some yummy ice cream. The festival this year took it up another notch and the kids got to experience pony rides (their favorite part of the day), a magic show, car show, and they got to sit in a flight for life helicopter! Don't get me wrong, this festival gets insanely busy but we got there right after 10 a.m and had no problems. We left around 12:30 and drove past the VERY long line of cars waiting to enter so earlier is definitely better. Make sure to check their event schedule if you are trying to catch a certain event. There was COSI on wheels, the Columbus Zoo, ice cream eating contests, egg tosses, and more! 

Here is a combo of photos from last year and this year!

I am so happy for that long line of cars because GPS rerouted us to Reynolds road where we spontaneously decided to stop at Legend Hills Orchard for strawberry picking! This will be a memory we will keep forever. We drove right on to the patch after getting our boxes from inside the store and just went up and down picking (and eating) all the ripe berries we could find! When we headed in to pay we were so pleased to meet the friendly staff and pick out some yummy snacks for the ride home. My kids are obsessed with pickled snap peas and I am sad to say they are almost gone. Looks like we will have to make another trip for peach season and apple season!