Our second day of festival

The second night at our campground went equally smoothly since the kids were pretty wiped out.  I, however, woke up early this time.  The nearly full moon was out shining brightly and our pillow was just outside the shade of the trees.  Bright moon = really pretty = poor sleeping.  However, the kiddos slept in to a bit past the crack of dawn :-)  We packed up all of our dust-covered things.  Brian wrangled the tent down into submission, but it took both of us to shove it into the tent bag.  The boys sat at the picnic table eating Cheerios and bread while we worked on this.  Our neighbors also thought that our antics were great morning entertainment and pretty much stared at us the entire time. (I really felt like sticking my tongue out at them for their ability to completely ignore Tam's overtures at being nice to them).

We got to the festival early again, but this time we had the schedule and a vague plan to see certain shows during the day.  Since Tam's outfit was filthy, he wore his robin-hood outfit from last year.  With the help of safety-pins, Jude fit into another hand-me-down gown I had made. 

We had a plan for the day...mermaids, queen, maybe joust, sit-down lunch, and  maybe the mud show.

First stop was the mermaids, who were stationed at the very back of the festival area.  We sauntered on back that way ahead of the crowds.  Tam was intrigued to see mermaids and I couldn't wait to see little Jude's face.  It was a bit like a side-show from a circus...enter the tent, gawk at the oddly enhanced humans with flippers...then exit.  BUT, Tam loved it, especially getting splashed.


 We then spent some time checking out the shops, though I just couldn't find anything that caught my eye as unique enough to purchase...even the jewelry seemed a bit main-stream for me.  Or maybe I've just upped my standards a bit in recent years.

We did have fun talking to vendors since we were early enough to beat the early-afternoon crowds.  I certainly noticed what was lacking...a simple fruits / breads / cheese booth with light snacky foods that are healthier.

 Jude, of course, found dirt to attempt to eat...

Tamlin found the bungee-jumping ride.  I have no idea how jumping on trampolines while tied to bungee cords is related to the Renaissance!  Tam so so so so much wanted to try this, especially once we found out that he was just above the minimum weight.  How could we say no to his grinning Peter-Pan-like face?

He got strapped in and then hoisted up a bit, which meant his toes didn't quite touch the trampoline.  No problem...the worker just grabbed an ankle, pulled down, released, and Tamlin was flung up into the air.

He LOVED it.

He also babbled to the worker the entire time about how he loved jumping and loved doing tricks (flinging his head back) and loved the fair and loved the worker (made him grin).

Jude and I sat nearby while Tam was bouncing.  Jude was getting fussy while waiting, so I handed him an apple to munch on.  Who knew that the wee tyke with only 2 teeth could chow down on an apple.  He thought it was an awesome snack.

Shortly after eating the healthy apple, the boys were given a couple of cupcakes topped with tons of frosting.  These were from a wedding vow renewal that had just occurred nearby.  Again, not very period, by thoroughly enjoyed by us.

We then waited to meet the queen, while vendors gathered for the noon parade.  Tamlin passed the time while talking to the girls with wax hands.  He was intrigued with the monster hands.  The girls were super nice while answering his questions and even let him place his hand inside the wax hand to see how it looked.

The queen and her court did arrive for visits from us commoners. 

 Tamlin went right on up and bowed before her majesty.  Jude crawled right up on stage and toddled right over to her.  The queen and the court were delighted and their little antics.  Tam even got a little gold ring from her.

After our brush with royalty, we decided to get lunch at one of the sit-down restaurants.  The food was good and fast because many others were out the joust.  I opted to not sit in the noonday sun to see the event, and knew the kids wouldn't sit through it either...food was more important.

Here's the find the Jude photo.




We did attempt to catch the mud show, but never seemed to be at the right stage at the right time.  Instead, we let Tam choose one last ride to go on.  He decided to attempt his own jousting.

At first he was a bit leery of getting on the wooden horse that is high up in the air.  However, he tried his best to get his lance through the ring as he sailed by.

But a miss! 

The wonderful game crew, pulled him back up to try again...


A success!

And he hit the pirate too!
What a look of concentration...

 

 And then such a grin!

Brian hoisted him up on his shoulder to announce his knighthood...

 Tam was so proud of himself! 
This jousting game was the same game that I ran back when working the Renaissance Fair circuit.  I was the cute chick wrangling the kids to come on over for a chance to slay a dragon to be knighted.  Who knew that my own son would ride the game ten years later!


The day was on tap to get a bit hotter, and it sure did.  In the end, I was sweating buckets, Jude was exhausted, and Brian bought a kilt!  Too bad that by the time he donned it, I was done and ready to leave.  I did manage to get this sweet little shot of Daddy and son before we left.

We pulled off garb, wiggled into street-clothes, piled into the car, and headed homeward.

We brought back lots of memories, a kilt, a dragon, and tons of dirt :-)

Our end-of-the-summer adventure

We closed the summer with a trip across the state to the Renaissance Festival.   To save some money, we had booked a campsite instead of a hotel room.  Our campsite was a bit of a dirt-pit, but it was private with brush/ woods on three sides compared to some of the more lawn-sites with no privacy.  There were flush toilets and really hot water showers a short walk way, which was a plus.   We did get to use our new tent...and it worked wonderfully.  It is big enough to fit Jude in the pack-n-play and Tam on a camp mat in one end.  Then, Brian and I on an air mattress under the opposite end, plus all of our gear around edges. 

The first night the boys went down reasonable well.  However, I had just got them wind-up flash lights at Ikea, so there was quite a bit of flash light play before they finally fell asleep.  Our other snaffu was that the air-compressor for filling the mattress was accidentally left at home, so I blew that sucker up on my own.  The night was reasonably warm and we all slept until the crack of dawn. (Brian had to answer nature's call and the zipper pull woke Jude, which woke Tam).  This did mean that we had plenty of time to try to find a breakfast joint (we failed) and get to the festival down the road to get a good parking spot (we succeeded). 

We all got garbed up and wondered into the site just in time to see the opening set with the Queen coming in on horse-back.   For our first day, I dressed Tamlin in the outfit I sewed for him.  Jude wore Tam's older outfit and I made the little bodkin hat for him.  Jude's booties were just brown corduroy tied around his usual  shoes.  Brian dressed for the warm weather in his vest instead of his full length black tunic.  I wore my blue-grey higher-class garb, but left off the sleeves to try to stay cool.  We were quite the Renaissance family and got many compliments from others (both patrons and actors).  Our kids got their photos taken by strangers numerous times...cause they are so darn cute.

Tam was in awe of seeing the Queen and watching the horses.  He kept hearing everyone say "God save the Queen"  and he wondered what we were saving her from :-)  Tam then decided the Queen needed saving from dragons, so he spent most of the rest of the day looking for these scaly beasts.


We didn't bring the stroller because we just didn't have room for it in the trunk of the car.  This meant that little Jude had to toddle around on his own or be carried during the day.  He loved trying his newly found walking skills, though it did mean that we traveled a bit slower through the festival.  Others asked about Jude's outfit or wondered if he was a girl or boy because it is so unisex.   The gown and bodkin were fairly accurate for toddlers because it made for easy diaper changes...we added the bells so we couldn't lose him.

So what did we do once inside the festival?

We did tons of things and really enjoyed seeing the sights and hearing the sounds.  I think both boys thought the realm was an awesome place.

We did catch a few shows that we thought the entire family would enjoy.  Sometimes, the entertainer did not quite grab our kiddos' attentions!  Here Brian and I enjoyed watching a magic act, but Tam was more fascinated with rocks and Juddo wondered around the benches.   The guy with the fire was very exciting to watch...even Tam was enthralled for most of the show.

 

Here is Tam and Brian snuggling up to a wondering Green Man. 

We heard quite a bit of music.   Jude loved the bagpipes and drums of Tartanic!  We would sit in the back in the shade to listen and Jude would dance around in his cute little toddler fashion.  Sometimes, Tam would dance too, which mostly consisted of spinning around as fast as possible.  We didn't hear many madrigals, mostly bawdy tunes, but still decently done.

Very early in the day, we discovered the children's area which had a huge playground, crafts, and legos to play with.  Of course, Tamlin loved climbing over the playground and going down the the slide.  Jude liked toddling around and exploring the little houses... I think the photo below is so cute with Jude the Gnome in a little house :-)  We stopped here later in the day to participate in the children's costume contest.  This let the kids wander around on stage and all win "pearl" necklace prizes.

 

 We took a break around lunch time to head back to the car to eat and rest.  We had the hopes that the kiddos would chill out and maybe even nap.  Hah!  The did rest a bit, but no sleeping went on.  It was a nice time to relax from walking around.  When we got back into the festival, we found the ice cream shop for root-beer floats and honey yogurt.  

We also renewed our quest to find dragons to save the queen from...Tamlin kept his eyes peeled.   He did find a pose-able dragon that we bought for him.  He promptly called him "Dragon" and then called him "Tam" and then renamed him "Tamlin the flying dragon", but settled on just calling him "Dragon."  Dragon stayed with Tam throughout the weekend; he loved having him fly along with him everywhere and letting him play in the dirt. 

While wondering around, we found another man with a dragon pet.  Tamlin had to say hello to both :-)  We learned that this gentleman sculpted this dragon out of the foam from a chair cushion.  He placed a hinge in the head so the mouth open and closed with a hand-held trigger.  The eyes also lit up.  Tamlin had his dragon communicate with him by roaring.

Another dragon we found was the wooden dragon on the man-powered swings.  This was the ride Tamlin chose to go on for the day.  He saw it early in the morning and kept asking to ride...repeatedly asking to ride until we finally said yes.  He loved it and loved when the guys spun him around in circles.  Jude was a bit too small, so he just watched brother going around and around.

The irony of this is that this was the ride that our good friend Scott helped to run back when we all were working in Florida.  Who would have thought that a decade later, our offspring would be riding the same styled ride! 

The Best dragon we found was pointed out to us by one of the workers.  This was a dragon that the kids could climb up on.  This let us get a few really cute shots of the family all dressed up.

Jude almost made it the entire day...  

We were walking along, Jude in Brian's arms and Tamlin holding my hand ahead of them.  We were headed over to a stage to listen to more bagpipes.  When I got there, I turned around and Jude was asleep in Brian's arms.  Completely Zonked Out.  Not even the keen of the bagpipes woke him up.  He slept contently in his daddy's arm for over an hour.  Poor little tyke tried so hard to stay awake to see everything.   After Jude woke up, we stayed only a bit longer and made our way out the front gate.   Before leaving for the car and eventually our tent, we stop to let Tamlin try his hand at pulling the sword from the stone.   Man, he tried his hardest to wrestle that sword up.  And then he looked seriously at Brian and asked if Daddy would pull it out for him!

We left the grounds with the purchase of some fresh baked raisin-nut bread that was going to be breakfast for us.  Here you can see little Jude awake and hungry!

Overall, a great day...no one got sunburned ... but everyone got filthy! 
 

Wordless Wednesday... Back To School

The obligatory back to school shots...

Tamlin started preschool this week and is SO EXCITED!

He heads to class 3 days a week for 2.5hours at a time.

(Daddy is excited to have a bit of quiet time with Jude too)

And here's the teaser for our soon-to-be-posted Renaissance Festival photos...