Renaissance Fair

We made it out to the Renaissance Fair this week.  It was in Todd Mission, TX, population 146.  Since we had been once before, the kids were more interested in using this visit as a theme park/riding rides visit.  And true to form, almost as soon as we arrived, they were hungry.  We decided to do a very early lunch (9:30 a.m.) so that we could see the other happenings.  Henry wanted a giant turkey leg, while Josiah and Caroline opted for over-sized corn dogs.  We did try to get some learning in at the beginning.  They sat and watched the blacksmith for far longer than I expected.  Next door to that was the broom-maker who was very interesting.  Brooms are made from broomcorn, a sorgum, that is basically grown for the sole purpose of making brooms.  Education completed.  On to the rides.  They did this mini-4-story crawling maze that they had done on our previous visit.  Henry actually tried to do the maze the correct way and made his way through it fairly quickly.  Josiah and Caroline were intent on getting their money's worth and took a very long time making it to the exit.  Henry kept coaxing Caroline towards the exit.

They did the jousting ride again which is a favorite.

Both boys are in this picture

Later Josiah and Caroline opted to do a bigger maze - more like a corn maze, but with tall sheets instead.  While they were finding their way through that, Todd and Henry went on a spinny ride.  After all the rides, they wanted dessert.  Caroline and Henry found ice cream at the first dessert vendor we stopped at.  They were happy.  They were enjoying their ice cream.  And they had nearly finished their ice cream when we stopped at the cheesecake-on-a-stick vendor, which is what Josiah had been holding out to get.  The minute the cheesecake was placed in Josiah's hand, Caroline threw a fit.  She said she didn't want her ice cream anymore  (note that she was at the very bottom of her cone).  She was yelling, "I didn't know it looked like that" and throwing a big-kid tantrum.  Meanwhile, Josiah enjoyed his cheesecake.  He even let her finish the last third of it.

This was Caroline shortly after we got home from the Ren Fair.  She slept for a couple of hours.

Henry had what should have been his last baseball game of the season mid-week.  He has a make-up game scheduled this coming week, so that'll officially be his last.  This game was like all his other games.  By the end of the third inning, the score was 10-10.  It was 8:05 p.m.  The games are scheduled to go til 8:15 p.m.  The (teenage) umpires did not call the game at this point!  There was absolutely no way we were going to finish a full inning in 10 minutes.  So the players took the field for the top of the 4th.  Our team was fielding.  After the opposing team hit their 5-run inning limit, our team was coming off the field.  When, to our surprise and dismay, the opposing manager came out on the field and yelled that once you hit the 4th inning, there is no run limit per inning.  So, by the time Henry's team came up to bat the score was 20-10 and it was getting close to 9 p.m. on a school night.  I had already left to take the other two home, but we were quite annoyed by the whole thing.  Todd said the umpires were just calling everything on our team so the game would end.  Final score was 20-10.  Henry was livid.  He's never playing baseball again!  Except for the game this coming week...

For CC this week, we had a part of the day that was spent cleaning up the church where we meet.  Caroline (and many of her classmates) kept saying how fun it was to clean.  But then they were quick to qualify that they enjoyed cleaning at CC, but they did not enjoy cleaning at home.  The difference?  Cleaning with friends was more fun.  I say we just have playdates where we rotate houses and spend the time cleaning.  Make use of this cleaning-with-friends-is-fun bit.

We were supposed to go to Dewberry Farm this Friday, but it got postponed until the spring because it rained cats and dogs the day before.  Every mom in our group was very relieved to not have to walk around a very muddy farm in 55° weather!  I still made the kids get some school work done, but they did have extra time to play on Friday.  They made tons of creations using Brain Flakes.  They were very creative in what they made, but I didn't take a lot of pictures.  They played with them for hours, all the while getting along.  It was awesome.

Josiah wanted to help make a spaghetti dinner tonight.  Our ever-shirtless boy enthusiastically put on my kitchen apron to "protect" himself from the steam. 
Henry and Caroline are always telling him to put a shirt on. 

We have  a regular week of school coming up along with Henry's final baseball game.  We're really hoping he gets a hit for this one.  He's struck out at bat over the last several games, which has been quite discouraging to him.  We'd love him to get a decent hit (or really just a hit).