Renfaire October 2010 - Day 2

We slowed down a bit for day two. This was the day Emma found her love of rocks, she has decided to be a geologist. We visited the crystal mine in Sherwood forest. John found a snail to befriend, he dragged him through the faire.

Renfaire October 2010 - Day 1

Yar mateys!!! We love the Renfaire, so this year we decided to spend the night down near it and go both days. Unfortunately, we made that decision when we were well and perky. When the big day swung around, we were in the middle of bronchitis, asthma, sinus infection land. But we decided to go anyway, and glad we did. We all had a great time in spite of it :).

Chloe was pulled into a fairy circle by some lovely fairies. Both girls learned how to shove their hands in a gentleman's face to have it kissed. Some random wench got her hands on Brian and kissed him.

Our friends the Howard's met up with us. A nice shop owner outfitted the kids in chain mail and let us take a picture. In hindsight, I should send him this picture as an advertisement. We should have bought the chain mail. About 30 minutes after this picture a wooden sword connected with a naked head. We really should have purchased the chain mail :).

Pumpkin Patch 2010

Here they are in 2009

Here they are in 2008

Ballet Academy Field Trip

John might be all full up on culture for now, he would argue for the rest of his life. After our trip to the Grand Opera on Thursday, Friday we headed out to the Ballet Academy for a performance. Do you see him laying across Emma's lap? The most pathetic. thing. ever. All in all, he was very patient, I was quite proud of that boy.

Afterwards, we had another of those crazy days. We grabbed some lunch with our friends, had to run a few errands, get new tires for the van... We looked at the clock and realized it was dinnertime. It wasn't hard for the kids to talk me into our favorite "healthier" fast food option, pei wei. Chloe put her "wings" on just as soon as she could. We were all so glad to fall into the house at the end of the day.

It seems like we are having so many more of these days. We are getting it all done, but by the skin of our teeth. I am feeling the need to slow down a little more. To have more pajama days (because those are my favorite). Lazy days with more time for talking. Its always a balancing act. On the one hand, we have all these awesome opportunities for fun and education. On the other hand, I am halfway to being a hermit, and need down time. When I have too much activity, without enough down time it jostles me and I lose my sense of center.

Grand Opera: The Magic Flute

I love this time of year, there are so many opportunities for fun field trips. We went to see a production of the Magic Flute put on by our local Grand Opera.

They slightly tweaked the opera to make it child friendly. Instead of the opera highlighting enlightenment, as in the original; this production highlighted green living. Which is somewhat ironic, since it was sponsored by Exxon Mobile.


While the girls found the opera beautiful and funny, John's favorite part was running away from the opera down the awesomely huge hill. He's a boy, I am content with him just being willing to sit through it... most of the time.

No trip to the outdoor theater is complete without a ride on the train through the park!!