Family Fun at Renn Fest

Saturday was our annual outing to the Maryland Renaissance Festival. This is something we've been doing since Mason was a baby. All of our kids really look forward to going and seeing the jousting as well as the other shows. Usually, the girls wear princess dresses, but the morning was a little chilly and it had rained all day Friday so I was worried about mud. Everything was pretty dry; I shouldn't have worried at all.


The photo above is Mackenna watching "Fight School," a show about weaponry. She liked watching the men swing their swords at each other at "fight speed."



For lunch we purchased all kinds of yummy treats. Michael thought be bought the giant turkey leg for himself alone, but Marlee and Mackenna had other ideas. The end of the drumstick was practically as big as Teensy's face! Both girls loved the meat and wore a nice shiny coat of turkey-fat lip gloss by the time lunch ended.

In the category of "New Things Tried This Year" would be the knife throw. First, Michael had a go. Then, Mason wanted to try. Just look at my sweet little boy between all those grown men. The knife throw must be a lot harder than in looks; only one man got one knife to stick in Mason's whole group. Mason was thrilled to have tried.


After doing some family favorites like the pony rides (Teensy and Kenna's second this week!) and the giant wooden slides, we let the kids run free in the kids' free play area. This area has really been growing in the past few years. In the photo above Maia is climbing the rope ladder on the deck of the giant wooden pirate ship. It was great for the kids to play and climb in between sitting and watching the shows. In addition to watching "Fight School" and the jousting tournament we enjoyed Johnny Fox's sword swallowing show.


After three hours of festival-ing, it became evident that some of our kids needed a little lift. Michael suggested getting the snow cone things that come in oranges. What a splurge! Add that to the "New Things Done This Year" list as well! All the kids really seemed to enjoy their frozen treats, as did Michael. I abstained, still happily digesting my part of our "cheesecake on a stick" from earlier.

The last show of our day was a new one for us. It was called "The Sword in the Stone." The book listed it as family-friendly so we thought we'd check it out. Well, it was done by a mime. If you know my feelings on mimes, you must know that after two minutes I had a head-ache. It's just not natural not to talk, that's all I'm saying. And I think Maia agrees. The entire time the show was going on, Maia kept asking when it was going to start. I kept trying to shush her and tell her that the show, in fact, was going on. When it was over, she pronounced, "That was dumb!" And it was--even using more than one definition of the word "dumb," if you know what I mean! The three younger kids didn't seem to mind the mime, but my Maia is her mother's daughter on that point.

All in all, it was a great family day. We had the most beautiful weather we've ever had for the festival--no humidity, no rain, no oppressive heat. It was great!