Renaissance Festival

We had a surprisingly good time at the Arizona Renaissance Festival. Yes, it was a surprise. I had been there before in my early 20s when I knew everything and was way too cool to participate in the fun. That's not to say that I wore a costume or got into character, but I did have fun playing along this time. Of course, it helps having two young kids that are enchanted with the happenings.

Jocelyn, especially, was mesmerized by all the happenings. The first area we saw as we walked in was devoted to Twig, the fairy. She was so cute and Jocelyn could not take her eyes off of her. Twig was totally in character and played her double flute for Joci, then gave her some sparkly fairy stones. I probably stood there for five minutes with Jocelyn, watching her watching Twig. It was hard to pry her away from her new friend.

We saw some nice ladies that let the kids wear some fun hats.

Then the rag hag (yup, I just made that up) gave the kids each a rag in their favorite colors to help me with the cleaning around the house...yeah right! Like those tiny rags could get our house clean...ha ha ha. Joe was terrified of this woman, while Joci, again, found her fascinating. We caught a show with juggling featuring a poor audience member christened "Dim Whit"...poor guy.Next we caught the Pirate show. Ok, so I wasn't very hopeful about this at first. Especially when we caught one of the stars out front of the tent trying to get folks to come in, and the over-acting just about made my eyes roll out of my head, but I hung in (not out, like the guys 'tenders' - yikes!) there and the show was a lot of fun. It was really interactive and the kids had a fun time following along the song we all sang together. The funnest part for us, though, was when Joe ran to go up on stage when they called for a volunteer from the audience. He got a special button from the show and now thinks he is a pirate, a captain actually, and would prefer that you call him that now. Oh, and he's not just a captain, he's a famous captain because he was in the show. So cute!
The Kids got their faces painted.
The kids got some Renaissance Headgear.
Joci rode the Butterfly swings. She had to have the pink one, of course.
As we were walking, we realized that Jocelyn had kind of wondered off to this little grassy area where a very nice lady was playing a small piano. Joci was quite literally enchanted with her and her music. She sat down on the ground and listened and watched. The lady had Joci come up and help her play Twinkle Little Star and commented that "This little one will need to have piano lessons". We were shocked how Joci was almost in a trance watching and listening. We sat there and watched for a good half an hour.
Joe's favorite part of the day, he told us again and again, was seeing the turtle (his favorite animal) at the petting zoo. Unfortunately, you couldn't pet the turtle, but he was still way excited.
It was time to leave, and so we had one last visit with Twig. This time Joe got in on the action and also got a special fairy stone.
The kids said goodbye to everyone, and we thought this sign was pretty funny.
The ride home was quiet with two exhausted kids in the back, and two tired parents in the front. All in all it was a great day and I am so happy that we went.