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...

Jude's 15 month check up.

This week has been chaotic because of many activities: painting, cleaning, starting school.  Because of this, I completely forgot about Jude's 15 month check-up that was on Monday.  Complete forgot in that it randomly occurred to me that we missed at that night while I was giving the boys their baths.

I apologetically called the office on Tuesday morning only to learn that they are so booked that it wouldn't be until November until we could get him in, which would be his 18month check up.  I then learned that he still needed several shots and that they would do that on the fly if we stopped into the office that morning.  So, I headed to work and Brian took the boys to the pediatrician's office.

Luckily, when they got there our doctor had a free moment and went ahead and gave Jude his check-up anyways :-)  Brian told me that the boys did really well and that Tam was very inquisitive about all the things the doctor was doing to little Jude.  (And in the end, Tam told him he loved him).  Jude was a happy camper for the entire trip...up until the shots.  The little mite got 3 needles and a nasal mist spurt.  I heard that Tam held Jude's hand to help him through this horrible experience.

 I came home later to see that Jude had recovered and was sporting a pair of bright orange band-aids on his thighs.

As to Jude's stats?  Is he growing?  Is he healthy?
Oh, yeah.  We are very blessed with a pretty healthy family and Jude is fine.  He has a bit of extra earwax in his ears but otherwise he is growing along at a good rate.

Height: 31.5 inches
Weight: 22 lbs and 8 ounces

This places Jude in the 50th percentile for both.  In case your wondering, and I was, Tamlin was a few ounces heavier and an inch taller at this age. 

He's a growing little boy ;-)

Sunday Pancakes

Sundays at our house are pretty cool. 
After getting our proper dose of worship, fellowship, and God from church, we head home to...


PANCAKES!

Brian and Tamlin make pancakes for everyone for a mid-morning brunch. 

Some weeks we get buckwheat pancakes...and other weeks we have wheat pancakes.


Sometimes the chefs add in apples or bacon or chocolate chips or even the favored...



Blueberries!

 Yummy and fun to eat :-)

Wordless Wednesday - Jude Walking!

Here's my boys!  Jude is 15 months old and Tamlin is nearly 4 years old.

Just before school starts...

I decided to paint the bedroom.

I think that totally deep clean the downstairs is a good idea.

Jude decides to really take off walking on his own... And try to master crawling over the baby gate. He succeeds.

My body reacts badly to something, giving me a horribly itchy rash for two days, which led to lack of sleep and general crankiness.

Tam thinks that having all of his cars out all the time is the best way to play with them. The rest of us do NOT.

Brian decides to put up crown molding in the bedroom since we are painting it anyway. (He hasn't done this before)

We finally get around to fixing the front screen door that has been broke since last fall.

Oh... And I tried to squeeze in sewing a fall dress coat for Tam... Which isn't done yet due to the bedroom furniture now in front of my machine until the bedroom is done.

Sigh. A bit ambitious for us...