Fun with the Friedman’s

I called my daughter Kalissa on Saturday morning and wanted to know if she wanted to go shopping at the Amish settlement south of our town near Hazelton, Iowa. We periodically go and hit up their grocery stores and the bakery. We just love the bakery. We like to take the kids and exposed them to different lifestyles too. It’s a great way to help my grandkids visualize things when I tell stories about “old fashion” farming too.

Our first stop was the bakery. We wanted to hit there before they sold out. Our favorite thing to get there is the Pepperoni rolls. I like sweets but I love savory bread even more.

Here is Kalissa with her haul…

Years ago we went to a different bakery that we loved but it closed. We were so happy when another opened. At first, they weren’t our favorite but now, we love them.

We were extra excited that they are not going to be running the bakery out of their home anymore. They built a new building just away from the house and will be operating out of there as soon as it’s finished.

The boys each got a cup filled with doughnut pieces. They are only $1.25 per cup. It was a great treat for them. I got a loaf of onion bread…oh my. It’s the best. I also got a package of snickerdoodles. YUM. I’ve been enjoying it all this week.

Here is their info…

I know many of you aren’t local but I also know many of you travel through. If you’re going on a Friday or Saturday, stopping at the bakery is such a treat.

From there we hit up the grocery stores. They are bent and dent stores. They buy groceries that might be out of date or came from a box that was damaged then resell the groceries. I check everything over really well before I buy. They have some things that are a great deal and other things that really aren’t so as a shopper you need to know current prices and have time to shop to check labels.

I often buy granola bars, fruit snacks, and other things that are kid-friendly.

Anyway…the stores were really good this time around. It had gotten so we didn’t really love shopping as the prices went up and finding a deal wasn’t as easy but this day, we had great luck.

Before we left the community we stopped at the furniture/home goods store called Helmuth’s. I was in the market for a bowl scraper. I like the ones that are molded as all one piece and they always have them at reasonable prices. Before we even got into the store, Kalissa was sidetracked by all the outdoor furniture.

The boys loved the big oversized chair.

The store is really fun and is kid friendly. They have some things that the boys loved! Gannon was checking out this ball maze thing. It was really cute.

The entire store of people was laughing after I scared Carver with this mouse in a box. The lid gets slid open and at the same time, a plastic mouse comes out and lands on your hand. It was so funny. I wish I had a picture of the actual moment that I could share with you. I’m sure you all would be laughing too. It was hilarious.

The store is filled with other “pranks”. They have a piece of money on the floor. Then they varnished over the top of it. There is no way to pick it up but you don’t realize that until you go and try to pick it up.

There was a couple shopping in the store alongside us and the man said, “Hey little boy, I think you dropped your money.” Gannon flew over there and tried to pick it up. Of course, he couldn’t and ended up laughing and laughing. Then he got Carver to go try. It was so much fun. It’s the simple kind of fun that one can never repeat. Everyone was in the right mood and the day was just perfect.

On the way home we stopped at the Froyo store. We had seen on Facebook that they had a new flavor, toasted coconut. That sounded great.

It turns out that they had another new flavor too…Lime. I know initially that doesn’t sound the best but it was actually really good. Kalissa and I ended up having lime/toasted coconut twist.

We had a great day.

The weather was amazing and we had such a good time. The boys were so good. It really was the perfect day. It was a great kick-off to Spring when those of us in snow country take advantage of wonderful weather by getting outside and enjoying life.