Renaissance Fair

Abe in Chain Mail

Our friends told us about a Renaissance Fair happening nearby, which just happened to fall right during our Shakespeare Unit! How lucky for us. It was a gorgeous (HOT!) day and we had such a fun time wandering around and enjoying Renaissance-y things (although, I must say, much of the stuff we saw there seemed more Medieval than Renaissance-themed–maybe the lines between the two are more blurred than I thought?). Also, I refuse to call it a "Renaissance Faire."

A couple weeks before we went to the Renaissance Fair, we watched some maypole dances on YouTube. Daisy was really fascinated with them, especially this video of little girls dancing the maypole in their school uniforms. After watching that video, she could not WAIT to go see the maypole dance, and she vowed to wear her tan jumper so she could be just like the little girls in the video! She thought about it all through the ensuing weeks, and when she woke up the morning of the Renaissance Fair she reminded me immediately: "Remember, I'm wearing my brown jumper today!" She was SO happy when we got there and she saw the big maypole…

and even MORE thrilled when she got to do the maypole dance herself! (I was happy they had a little maypole they were allowing people to dance around, since I wasn't sure they'd be letting just anyone do it, and I knew Daisy would be really sad if she didn't get to!)

More maypole-ing (you can see Daisy watching in the foreground to our right)

The birds of prey show was cool. I love owls.

We looked around at a few of the booths, but I was too afraid someone would break something to really want to browse around much.

Jousting Show. My friend said she was underwhelmed by the jousting, but I thought it was awesome. Probably my favorite thing we saw. I've never seen real jousting at all before, so I guess I was just impressed they were really doing it! Their lances broke every time, but no one got knocked off his horse. I loved the thundering horses' hooves and the flags flying in the breeze. It was so hot, but that breeze made it bearable.

My poor, sad children in the stocks. (Looks like Junie didn't get the memo about being sad.) I think they are trying to re-create this picture I showed them:

of me in the stocks while visiting Stratford-upon-Avon in England. So sad.

Darling Emeline. Such a sly smile. She looks like a little fox here, with her red hair.

Adorable Harriet in her Scottish garb, and sweet Junie. I'm not quite sure why there was face painting going on here? But, the little girls loved it.

Queen Elizabeth with the girls

Junie was SO proud of herself when she got to dance around the maypole. She couldn't stop beaming.

Malachi did the maypole with help from this lovely girl. I think he was quite taken with her, as he kept mentioning how pretty and how nice she had been with her "beautiful dress." I love his shy little smile in this picture.

Malachi must have done this sword-fighting game 30 times. He loved it so much.

There were such cute little ponies giving rides! They cost money, so we didn't ride, but we loved the little ponies.

Junie got to pet one of them! So cute!