Ren Faire Highlights

This week-end is the annual Renaissance faire for our area. It is a pretty good one, and on Friday they have education day where the tickets are significantly cheaper. We have gone for several years running.

I tried send Sari off to work with her daddy, but no such luck. Turns out, having her anywhere but at the Ren Faire would have been great. She is such a wonderful child. Quiet, obedient, funny, easy going, etc., but when she is having an off day she is a BEAR, and today was the mother of all off days. She whined anytime I wasn't holding her, and holding a almost 30 pound child while walking a fair is not my idea of fun, so either I suffered physically by carrying her or mentally from the whining. ARGH! I think because it is so vastly off from her normal disposition, it is really hard to deal with her when she is like that.

In the end, the other kids all had a great time, but we did not actually "do" much of anything. We missed the jousting and the falconry. And for the first time, we did not complete the "quest" (which is an elimination-type mystery you solve by seeking clues from Ren Faire folks wearing little white roses). We did though see the funny pirates, a perennial favorite, whose show is rapidly becoming too PG-13 for my 10 year old son. Actually, the show never seems to change much, but the jokes that used to go way over his head I now fear he understands.

Mimi was on a quest of her own-to blow through some money she has earned for watering our neighbor's plants. She was seeking Renaissance garb, preferably some of those beautiful dresses they wear. Unfortunately, the simple sheath with puffy elastic sleeves was $59 (for her size!) so she settled for a hair stick (a metal rod with a glass ball at the end...you twist your hair up and then use the stick to secure it). It was $5 and really holds her hair well without it "hurting" like some things do.

I caved for the first time in history and let the boys get wooden "swords". We'll see how long they last, or if daddy even lets them have them (or let's me live for buying them), but the boys are excited. There will definitely be some ground rules!

Here are Scott and Mimi with my sister's friend's husband, who does re-enactments. We got the chance to watch him battle later on.

Sari and Mimi's favorites...pretty ladies on pretty horses.

The falconry show we tried to see got cancelled because the audio didn't work. Why do you need audio for a bird show? To explain what they are doing. We got to see it last year, and trust me, the audio is important :-). I don't think you can tell, but the falcon actually has a special little helmet on over his eyes to keep him from seeing until they are ready for the show (hence his bug-eyed appearance).

There's a bizarre-type job...what do you do for a living? I make blinders for falcons. Do you think that's what that person wanted to be "when they grew up?". I'm thinking that's definitely one of those "run in the family" sort of vocations.

So much more to blog, but I'm exhausted, so it's off to bed for now.

I'm thankful it was a beautiful day, thankful for the friends we got to see, if only for a few moments, and thankful that homeschooling means we get to take advantage of opportunities that present themselves all around us.

obm