Renaissance Fair

I told you I'd be out of order a little and playing catch up.  This post is all about the Renaissance Fair we went to with Emma last month.  We're lucky that we live so close to it, so no travel was needed.   Emma had never been to one, so I wasn't sure how excited or interested she'd be.  I had only been to one 9 years ago, so I didn't even know if I'd enjoy it that much.  But we went, and we all had fun.  We saw several shows, and they were all great.  A couple were aimed a little more toward adults with some of their jokes, but it was such that Emma didn't understand what they were talking about, so no big deal.

And now for a little soap box action.  I never understand why so many women think it's okay to dress the way they do at these things.  I don't really want to dress up, but if others do that's fine.  It's not the dressing up itself that bugs me, it's the way in which it's done by so many.  For example, why does it always need to be a contest to see who can show the most cleavage or wear the tightest corset?  Seriously, you look ridiculous.  And gross.  And slutty.  And like you have no brain, which I guess you don't because you dressed like that in the first place.  Seriously people.  I wouldn't be surprised if at some point they adopted a clothing optional policy.  And just because you're dressing up that doesn't make it okay to practically expose yourself.  I know plenty of people with similar beliefs and morals as me who fudge these lines a little when they dress up too.  Maybe not quite as far, but more than they probably should.  So it's not just people who don't see anything wrong with it in the first place who are doing it.  And kids shmids.  It's not because there are kids there that I don't think it's appropriate (although you'd think that would be enough to stop some people).  I don't want to see it either.  I think the worst offender I saw was a gal wearing a chain mail bikini top without anything on underneath.  Not even a lining.  Chain mail isn't exactly solid.  Yuck.

But, all the hideous fashion aside, we did have a good time, and Emma loved all the various activities they had.  Plus she was chosen from the audience to help out a few times, which she thought was fabulous.  I think she'll want to go back.

Kids Joust.   She'd ride/glide on this griffin (dont' know why it's not a horse) while holding a lance and try to grab a ring being held by a knight.

She loved the archery.  And she was really good!

I'd say that's pretty nice grouping considering it's her first time ever.

Nice lily pond next to a bridge on the grounds.

Emma loved the climbing wall.  She climbed the shortest one which was 18 feet high.  

Looking good!

She rang the bell right after I took this picture.  She was very proud of herself for making it all the way up.

One of the shows we saw, Barely Balanced.  They were doing acrobatics of sorts.  Very good with their balance, just as their name would suggest!  =)

This is what too many snarky comments will get you in my house!

The Wheel of Death.  Spoiler: he didn't die.  False advertising if you ask me.  =)  Pretty tricky stuff though.  He walked inside and outside this thing, with and without fire, as it spun around.  He acted like he was about to fall a few times (you know, to get the hearts of the crowd racing).  I'm sure I would actually fall if I were to try it.  The name would definitely be more accurate for me.

The magic show.  Emma was chosen to help him on stage.   As you can see, she was quite pleased with this.

She looked in the bag to see if she saw anything.  Nope.  Empty.

Showed the audience that there wasn't anything in her hand.

She reached in and pulled out an egg from the empty bag.  Pretty neat trick.  

This family put on a little circus of sorts, with several different things.
This guy made me want to watch Labyrinth.

Chosen again to help.  This guy was the crack whip guy.  Really good.
But first he wanted Emma to try to pop a balloon.

She was trying to pop it by sitting on it.  Very funny!  She was trying everything.
At one point she was about to try biting it.  But she finally got it.

Her reward?  A balloon.

With the fire whip.

Emma wanted to try the trampoline thing where you're harnessed and bungeed in and can do flips and stuff.
She was very excited as you can see.

Grabbed this one while we were waiting for the joust to start.  The sun was very nice behind her.

You've seen one joust at these things you've seen them all.   Blah blah show your skills, blah blah defend your honor, blah blah joust to the death.  Personally I would have called it joust to the very bad acting.  But that's just me.  =)

We were in the silver and blue knight's section, and he of course was the one who was going to win.
The story was not hard to decode.  Here he's fighting the bad knight who broke all the rules.  Blah blah.

Wow, what a surprise.  He won.

Emma met the Queen before we left.  

Emma's Birthday

We've done a few things I haven't posted about yet this summer, and will hopefully get to those soon.  But I wanted to get this post up because I promised my mom I would.  So things will be a little out of order for a few posts.  Oh well.

This past week was a busy one.  Great, but busy.  Emma's birthday was this past week along with her party.  I can't believe she's already 7!  And about to start 2nd grade.  Sheesh!  Where has the time gone?

As you are probably aware, Emma loves taekwondo, and she has been wanting a taekwondo birthday party for a few months now.  Fine with me!  It finally took place this last Wednesday, and everything went great.  I don't think it couldn't turned out better.

We did the party through her TKD school.  We were supposed to get some invitations from them to send out, but when we went to pick them up the night before I wanted them mailed out, they had run out because of several last minute parties that people had signed up for.  Bummer for us!  I was sent into a panic trying to figure out what to do.  I know I could have run to the store and just bought some generic invitations, but I wanted them to be theme appropriate.  I ended up making some, which left me with very little sleep that night.  I drew a shirt outline and then traced in onto some cardboard so I could quickly trace tons of them out of white paper.  Draw a line for where the shirt wraps, add some ribbon, and voila!  You have an invitation.  I like how they turned out, I just wish I could have taken my time to make them instead of scrambling.

The take home gifts were so much fun to do!  I made and iced some cookies and made some chocolate suckers for the kids to take home.  I found some adorable ninja bread cookie cutters, and simply iced them so they looked more like taekwondo students than actual ninjas.  The suckers would have gone faster if I had purchased more than one mold (which made 4 at a time), but I didn't think about it when I ordered it.  Oh well.  Next time I'll know better.  For their take home gifts the kids each took a cookie, a chocolate sucker, a bandana/head wrap thing (can't think at all what they're really called) from Emma's taekwondo school, and a voucher for several free TKD classes if they want to try it.  They all ended up taking home some other candy and treats too, because there was plenty.

Ready to be given out

Chocolate suckers ready to be given out

We decided to keep the decorations simple.  We hung a few balloons and a little crepe paper.  But our main decorations were some photos I took of Emma posing in her uniform.  We had them blown up at the copy store and just hung them on the walls.  It wasn't photo quality, but I really liked the worn faded look they had.

And here are the pictures that I took and blew up to hang around.

I love how you can see the moving of her weapon at her side

When the kids arrived we had everyone go outside to undergo some TKD training.  Three of Emma's instructors came to help out.  They were fantastic!  First thing, Emma received her honorary black belt that she could wear for the day.  Then all the kids received their bandana thing. Then they lined up and learned some of the basic moves as well as how to show respect for the teacher.  They all looked great doing their blocks, kicks, punches, and even learning how to use the Ssahng Jeol Bongs (nun-chucks).  They were also able to practice breaking a board.  They also had a few relay races making the losing teams do push-ups.  Both teams ended up needing to do some push-ups.  Eric even joined in a little of the fun.

Emma was able to show off a form (routine) her teacher had made for her just for the party.  She did a wonderful job!  Another instructor showed off her awesome skills too (she's mighty impressive).  After a few more games we all went inside to open presents.

Part of her form

part of her form

getting ready for presents

When it comes to cake, Emma is a little more difficult.  She doesn't really like frosting, so even if the cake part is great, it's not really her thing.  Cupcakes are the same.  Last year she had brownies instead of cake, and I made a three tiered cake to put the candles in.  I was going to do something similar this year with some of the rice krispy treats, but forgot until after I had cut them all up.  Meh.  What to do?  I just smushed a few together and threw candles on there.  Good enough.

Following the presents and the "cake" the kids had some snacks for the remainder of the time.  We just had some simple snacks for them.  Most of them represented something, but since I forgot to make labels for any of it, no one knew.  Oh well.  I'm sure the kids wouldn't have been impressed anyway.  The licorice represented the belts, the wafer cookies were the breaking boards, the pixie sticks were the bo staffs, the sixlets were the Ssahng Jeol Bongs (when we opened the bag they were different than the ones I was picturing, so they didn't work as well anyways, but they were yummy!).  The popcorn was just popcorn, and the rice krispy treats were of course, in lieu of cake.

Emma had so much fun, and it was wonderful to see her smiling face before, during, and even days after her party.

Of course, with Eric's parents visiting this week her birthday was even more magical.  Thanks so much for coming to visit us and for helping to make Emma's special week and day even better!

Emma wanted to go bowling on her actual birthday (which was Saturday), but I wasn't sure if we'd have enough time with everything else that was planned, so we went on Friday instead.  We all had so much fun, and Emma was very impressive with her game.  I ended up winning, but that was in part due to some help I received from the gutter rails which were up on the lane I was sharing with Emma.  I will none the less celebrate the victory.  I gotta take what I can get!

When Emma woke up on her birthday and came out of her room she was greeted with an avalanche of balloons.  We had taped up some plastic and filled it just outside her door so that when she opened it  they would all spill into her room.  There were so many of them.  These pictures do not do it justice.  When we finally pushed all the balloons into her room,  her entire floor was covered!  We had big, small, long, and wiggly balloons, along with some balloon animals and things that Eric made.  We wanted a variety of shapes and sizes just for fun.  The weirdest balloon we had (and it came like that in the variety pack I bought) was a chicken.  Just odd.

We went out for breakfast at Cracker Barrel (Emma's favorite place), and then went to pick up the remainder of her favorite gift.  She asked us for some fish, so we have been running the tank for a couple weeks now getting the water ready for the fish.  We already added a shrimp and a frog, but we were able to pick up her fish on her actual birthday, and she was just thrilled.  She got 3 guppies, and now her tank feels complete.  She has decided on some interesting names for them.  The red fish, blue fish, yellow fish, frog, shrimp, and moss ball plant will be named iron man, captain america, thor, hawkeye, black widow, and the hulk, respectively.

We went out for dinner with Eric's parents and some of our dear friends here to our favorite place.  It's an Irish restaurant, and the food is simply amazing!  It was a wonderful ending to a great day.

I think Emma felt special all week long as we prepared for and then celebrated her birthday over several days.  And that's all I really wanted.  For her to feel as loved as she is.  I am so blessed to have her.  You couldn't ask for a better child to call your own.  I have felt spoiled for the past 7 years having her in my life.  She makes everything more fun and much more interesting.  What can I say?  I love my girl.