Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Scarborough Renaissance Festival

The boys and I had the chance to go to the Scarborough Renaissance Festival with some friends on Saturday.  After talking with Mary last year about her trip, we decided that we needed to go together this year with all our boys.  Lots of swashbuckling sword fights (among our kiddos), costumes ranging from simple to incredible (as well as plenty of people in street clothes like me!), games, interesting shops and characters, absolutely perfect weather--we had a great time!

Checking out the hammered dulcimer

We had just read about the Sirens in The Wanderings of Odysseus, so he thought it was cool that he knew  the background behind the name of this ride!

Trying out the crossbow.  We were impressed with how reasonably priced the games were--much better than a fair or amusement park!

Brennan--small, but feisty!  Of course, it didn't help Cooper and Chase that Brennan's and Connor's swords were sturdier than theirs!

A little special treatment for the little guys!

Ready to do battle

One of the many raging swordfights

Sir Jacob, our champion in the joust.  Even Brennan got into cheering for him, which surprised me.  The bigger boys really got into it too!


Our horse lover

Brennan and Chase (I think!)
Connor and Cooper

At it again

And everyone's down!
Probably Brennan and Connor's favorite activity--real bows and arrows at the archery booth.

Brennan was a natural--he even hit the target several times!  It helped that he was able to rest the handle of his bow on the wall in front of him, but even beyond that, he really handled the bow and arrows well.

They had a dubbing ceremony for boys and girls to become knights and ladies of the realm.  We found out about it 30 minutes or so before the ceremony, so we hung around and got to be first in line.
Some of the costumes--waiting for the king to come for the dubbing ceremony

Prepping for the dubbing ceremony.  I think he was playing the part of Walsingham--he talked for a few minutes with the boys to find out a bit about them to present them to King Henry.

"George Boleyn" talking with Cooper and Chase



Connor and Brenna's dubbing ceremony with "King Henry the 8th" (and Anne Boleyn beside him!).


I was so impressed with how seriously the actors took this for the kids--they really made it something neat and special.

New knights of the realm Sir Connor and Sir Brennan

A jousting game.  They slid down on the wooden horse and tried to catch a ring on their lances.

Connor's turn

Fearless defenders of the realm!


We had so much fun!  It's definitely on our "gotta go again next year" list!

Just a test . . .

Blogger has been buggy lately--just testing to see if I can post something before I create and lose a whole post!

Thursday, May 12, 2011

I Love Texas

This was the view from our house this morning:


















The annual rodeo in the town west of us is this weekend, and they always have a trail ride from the town east of us over to the rodeo.  I don't know if it went by our house last year and we just missed it or if they don't always follow the same route, but I'm glad we caught it this morning!  One of the riders (a student at the school where I sub regularly) asked to use our restroom, so the boys got to watch her tie up her horse and then get back on and gallop off to rejoin the rest of the riders.

Now off to see if the budget will allow a trip to the rodeo . . .

Sunday, May 8, 2011

In the Garden 5/8/11

One of Brennan's zinnias

Lettuce

Connor's carrots

Marigolds

More marigolds

Lettuce
Tomatoes!



Green strawberries!
Cilantro (with petunias to the left and carrots above)
 
"My" garden
From top, L-R: cucumbers (no pics yet), carrots, cilantro
bibb lettuce, petunias
black seeded simpson lettuce, strawberries\
marigolds, strawberries

The boys' garden
Top row (right in front of Connor): carrots, lobelia, lettuce, zinnias
Bottom row: johnny jump-ups, marigolds, lettuce, zinnias