XFC Extreme Flight Championships

Today we went out to the Academy of Model Aeronautics, near Muncie, for the XFC Extreme Flight Championships. This is an international competition that attracts radio control pilots from all over the world.  The competition was very impressive.  We saw the 17 best airplane pilots and the 12 best helicopter pilots fly their routines in an "unknown" round of the competition.

Each competitor flies their aircraft, while doing amazing stunts, all choreographed to music.  I liked the airplane category the best and took a bunch of photos of them and didn't take any of the helicopters.  Oops!  Anyway, we had a great time!

The competition continues tonight with a night competition and fireworks and then finals tomorrow with the top 7 competitors in each category.

Brown Bag Lunch Fridays in Downtown Muncie

The weather today was perfect for the first of a summer-long weekly line-up of Friday brown bag lunches at Canan Commons in Downtown Muncie.  So, I packed up some picnic lunches for the boys and myself and headed down there.  I had been wanting to check out this music/entertainment series last year, but the weather proved to be stifling hot pretty much every week.  

The event is advertised as lasting from 11:00-1:00 each week, but other than the bounce house there wasn't much going on before noon on this first day.  My kids had a blast with the whole bounce house all to themselves though!  The organizers of the series plan to have a bounce house and/or other activities for kids every week this year, so hopefully more parents or caretakers will take advantage of this great free activity.

I really enjoyed the music provided by Barry Banks.  He was pretty humorous with his between-song commentary too.  My favorite song was one of his originals about how much he loves green beans fresh from the garden!  I can't wait to attend this event again soon on another Friday, and if Andrew gets his wish we'll be dining on hot dogs from the Big Ed's Dogs cart instead of bringing our own food.

Bounce House provided by HD Superent

Barry Banks singing one of his great songs in the Canon Commons ampitheater

Food vendors this week were Big Ed's Dogs and Slop on Top

Picking Strawberries

Quality testing.....yum!

Picking strawberries is something we do every year. Robby and Andrew absolutely love going picking fruit of any kind, and strawberries seem to be one of the few u-pick opportunities in this area.  Both my husband and I come from families with generations of farmers, and I think farming is just in our kids' blood!

Landess Farm is just 20 minutes south of the Ball State area and is the strawberry farm we usually visit.  Last year we also visited Pastor's Produce in Anderson, which is further from our house but has really nice strawberry beds that made for easy picking.  Both farms are closed on Saturdays and operate on a cash basis, so keep that in mind if you decide to go.

Landess Farm will be having a strawberry festival at their farm on Sunday, June 9th.  See their Facebook page for details. Also, if you get on their e-mail list, they will send you updates and maybe a coupon.

This morning, we went and picked two buckets of the early ripening variety of strawberries at Landess Farm.  Two of their white buckets completely full is about 10 pounds of strawberries and their usual rate for u-pick berries is $1.85/lb.  We plan to go back soon to pick more.  The boys have big plans for us to make freezer jam, a pie, and our favorite strawberry cake with strawberry frosting.

Here's some photos of Robby and Andrew picking strawberries through the years. 

Strawberry Picking 2013

2012 - we picked 24 1/2 pounds!

2011

2010

2009

2008

Zoopolis 500 - The Greatest Spectacle in Tortoise Racing

Today, Andrew and I decided to take advantage of the Indianapolis Zoo membership we bought this year to attend their annual Zoopolis 500.  This event is always held the Wednesday before the Indy 500 and this year was the 33rd running of the Zoopolis 500.  We were a little worried about the weather when we were driving through pouring rain on I-69 to get there.   At one point, I even completely lost sight of the road.  But luckily the storm passed and we had perfect weather the whole morning at the zoo.  We had a great time and enjoyed a special day together!

Winners drink milk 

Posing with the 500 Festival princesses

Buttercup, the American Dairy Association mascot 

Kiburi, one of the Indianapolis Zoo mascots 

Indianapolis Motor Speedway chief announcer Mike King talks to race car driver Tony Kanaan about Sunday's race

The pricesses and mascots parade in before the big race

At last, here come the 5 radiated tortoises that will race

The tortoises in their parade wagon

Loading the tortoises into the starting gate

And they're off!

Go go go!

Will it be Marco or Scott for the win?

Its a tie!  Cheers from the audience pick Marco as the winner

Tortoises don't drink milk, so the pit crew takes on that task for Marco.  (Meanwhile, multiple TV cameras are filming every second of this guy drinking milk.)

The reward for the tortoises is lots of fresh fruit

Science Day at the Fairgrounds

The annual Science Day will take place on Saturday, April 20th at the Delaware County Fairgrounds.