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!

Exploring and Letterboxing at the Botanic Garden

Today was the perfect day to spend at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden--a nice, cool day after several days in the high 90's (I think we even hit 100* once).  We enjoyed a picnic lunch by a pond with a healthy turtle population, and the boys shared quite a bit of bread from their sandwiches.

Red-eared slider

We also did some nature study, checking out different plants and collecting leaves and other plant specimens for our plant unit.

checking out honeysuckle (again)

Nature study!  He's drawing a swamp rose.

Brennan drawing the fountain

Aaron got some really good pictures:

 There are a bunch of letterboxes hidden in the garden, and after lunch, we had a great time tracking some of them down--I think we ended up finding seven.

Great family time--what a wonderful way to spend the afternoon!  Oh, and Aaron got a kick out of a bumper sticker we saw on a van parked not too far from us:

*grin*