History Coming to Life!

It's pretty awesome when you've been studying the middle ages and then realize the Renaissance Festival is in town.  All the lessons on castles, knights, Viking horn cups, jousts, coats of arms, and illuminated manuscripts got to be experienced in a real-life way today.  Sure, lots of it is more fun than history, but getting to go to a joust after learning about what one is!?  That's pretty cool.  Justin and I had been to the Ren Fest as kids, so it was fun to see our kids witness it for the first time.

 We got to see how wool is spun into beautiful yarn on wooden spinning wheels.

 My little knights and Lady.  Silas is holding his hand-made scepter: aragonite, masking tape, and a good stick... and taking his job as knight/king very seriously I might add.

 We let each of the kids have money for one activity, so naturally, Silas and Patrick did the first thing they saw, a spiral slide around "the castle tower."

Vera chose to ride a camel!  Now she and Silas (he got to hitch a ride with her) have done something neither Justin nor I can say we've done.

 It started pouring rain, along with frighteningly close lightning, so we took shelter in a reptile hut.  William, sporting his new chess shirt, enjoyed checking out the snakes.

 This tortoise's shell was amazing, the layers and depth so beautiful.  He kept trying to crawl out of his exhibit.

 Vera in the rain (and a Mommy calling her back under shelter with all that crack boom going on!).

 Once the storm passed, William chose the maze for his activity.

I'm the peasant with all the fancy knights, Lady, and little prince. :)

 Patrick was such a trooper walking all over the place and stopping to dump the gravel from his crocs.  He didn't want to leave, but he fell asleep as soon as he was buckled into the car.

 Tough stuff.

Vera used some of her own money to get a bird whistle, which makes lovely bird sounds (just add water!... for real).

The kids all loved watching the joust.  They were also intrigued watching a glass-blower at work and a funny juggler.  

Here ends my tale. Fare-thee-well.