Our First Renaissance Day

When my friends found out that our family had never been to the renaissance festival after living here for almost a decade, they were shocked. How could we have never gone? Well, I had never heard of it until a few years ago and then Alec always had football every weekend in the fall. But this was our year. Alec isn't playing football, so yesterday we spent the day having our first renaissance experience.

At first it didn't go so well. We walked in and the kids, although they loved all the people dressed up, asked where the rides were. We explained there were no rides and they said, "It's just shows?" They were not impressed. That is until we started seeing some very entertaining acts and eating all the yummy food.

The sword swallower was freaky! He not only swallowed huge swords, but a balloon, a cigarette, and hammered a nail in his nose. This man was talented in the most unusual ways.
Our favorite act was Fight School. These men were so funny. The kids laughed through the whole show and yelled out with the audience at all the right times. We all want to go back just to see these men again.
We also loved the knights jousting tournament. Even though the men were all sweaty in their outfits, they still looked very handsome with their fancy hats and swords. They were so nice and willing to pose for pictures. We inhaled, cheesecake on a stick, bread bowls with clam chowder, chocolate covered & peanut butter covered bananas, turkey legs, onion rings, curly fries, steak sandwiches, chicken Alfredo, chocolate chip cookies, and ice cream in waffle cones. But I'm sure we walked off all those calories we ate -- right?They were so well behaved once they were strapped in. I checked, they didn't sell these timeout apparatuses.

Aside from packing in thousands of calories, the kids also got quite an education on the anatomy of women. I swear some of these ladies had to have bruises under their chins, because their chests were shoved up so high out of their corsets. It didn't go unnoticed either. Sophia kept commenting, "Mom, that lady is pulling her chest out of her dress." "Mom, that lady's boobs are sticking out and she has tattoos on them." Apparently no one had given these ladies the modesty talk, but Sophia was ready to give it to them.

After spending all day in that environment, I totally wanted to buy one of the pretty dresses -- of course with a little more coverage in the cleavage area. But when I walked into the store and saw this stunning red dress that was absolutely gorgeous, my dream of owning one was quickly taken away when I saw the price tag of over $500. I guess I'll have to wait and ask Santa for one.

Robin Hood and Maid Marian were so friendly and the kids can't wait to go back. I can't believe it took us so long to go back in time to the renaissance festival, because we loved the whole experience!