Calling all Ye People

I love Renaissance Fairs. We used to go to one in Virginia, but it's been 6 years since we've been anywhere near one. So, when we found out there was one here in Wichita, literally up the road from us, we jumped at the chance to go. And we had a grand time. As always, there are more photos over at Flikr.

The best thing was the chivalry class for children. The jousting competition came a close second -- they were funny ("Can't you please put an Ent to these bad jokes?") and they had horses. They got to meet the queen...


And even got knighted.


They got a certificate, as proof.


And even Kristen had a good time, too.

The Uncle Wayne-Aunt Becca Honorary Shirt

Up close:

She said: "You have to put it on the blog and tell Uncle Wayne and Aunt Becca that they have to print it out!" Consider yourselves told. :)

Camping

Our ward has a father-daughter campout every year. The girls were terribly excited; they love camping, and we'd decided that Kristen was too little. But now... they all went, and had a grand time, staying up much too late (11 pm!) and getting up much too early (dawn). They liked having all the other girls there, too, to play with. And I enjoyed the quiet night at home with Kristen.

Megan's Book Report

(The assignment was to write a letter of advice to a character in a book she's read.)

Saruman,

I will advise you Saruman, as the only person, hafling, darwf, or even elf ,that will never feel your wrath. This advice will anger you greatly so you should read it once, think it over then read it again. While you read it think of the good points.

Saruman why do you want the ring? Do you know what it can do to you as a man, even a wizard of great power? It will destroy you trying to get to its master, Sauron! The ring doesn’t want you, Saruman. It will not help anyone save Sauron, Lord of the Ring. He created it. It will devour you. Look at Gollum. The ring is his master. It ate him and left him a creature that no one has seen before: a shriveled bat-like figure who is consumed by the ring. Saruman, I know you. You are to independent for the ring to be your master!

Why do you want this power? Sauron is not meant to rule. Wizards are not meant to rule. You are too ignorant. It is the age of Men. Even if you think you can rule, you are indeed very ignorant to think you can be Sauron’s partner! He is using you, Saruman, because of your power over Isengard. Sauron is evil, he has been evil for many thousand, million, years! Do you not remember the elves’ poem:

Three rings for the Eleven Kings under the sky,
Seven for the Darwf Lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for the mortal men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his throne,
In the land of Mordor, were the shadows lie
One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them,
And in the darkness bind them,
In the land of Mordor, were the shadows lie.

The ring is meant for Sauron ONLY!!! The Elves knew that. They say that in their songs and poems. Everyone but you knew that, Saruman. You have locked yourself in that tower of yours and aren’t keeping up with the news. I will repeat it one more time to get it through your thick skull : SAURON IS EVIL!!! I can do nothing to help him. But you, YOU, you Saruman CAN be helped!! Let me help you: give yourself up to me, to Gandalf, to the elves, the Ents, anyone but Sauron!!

MEF

If you don’t heed my advice, beware Gandalf!!

A Day at the Fair

We're in Kansas after all. There's more pictures of our day over at Flickr. We had a great time. The weather was perfect (overcast, but not rainy or hot). We didn't go on enough rides to satisfy the girls, even though we went through 44 ride tickets! We saw a 680.5 pound pumpkin, three pig races (one race: "Oprah Swinefry" vs "Christina Hamulara" vs "Miss Piggy", who won) , a sculpture made entirely of butter (except for some fake bees), ate funnel cakes, and wore ourselves out.

We had fun.

Megan's Mallory

That's its name. She's very proud of it.

A New Superhero?

I was standing in the kitchen when I heard, "Look behind you! It's shopping girl!"

I have yet to take a pitcure of the elusive shopping girl, but her powers are great.

Alison's Pretty Song

Megan's Take

On our evening in the park on Monday.

It's a bit jiggly. Sorry. Try not to get sick

A Pleasant Evening

We went for a picnic in Sedgwick County Park on Labor Day. It was so nice -- a nice evening, a nice park -- and it reminded me of all those nice evenings we'd spend along the Potomac in Virginia. I've missed that.

We were eating, and the ducks just wandered over to us. We fed them leftover tortilla chips. They liked that.