At the Faire

Okay-- I do recognize this post is two days late--there's a reason for that. Or two or three.

Reason #1--we got home from my Mother's Day gift--a trip to the Ren Faire in Grass Valley (Up near where Cory and Green live, or where Mikhail's horsey friends live, depending on which series you follow)--and everyone was too tired to move. It was COLD, and although we had fun, no one was dressed for the cold--it makes getting home at five o'clock sort of a recipe for eating and falling asleep nearly at a rational hour!

Reason #2--The teenagers both blew five years of perfect attendance yesterday when the stomach bug woke them up at asscrack a.m. --so, yanno, when I say 'blew', I mean BLEW. They lay around the house like sausages, wrapped in their favorite blankies for the rest of the day, but, well, to say it put a crimp in my usual schedule is something of an understatement. (They're both feeling fine this morning, thank Goddess! Seriously-- who wants to be sick in the LAST four weeks of school? Especially Big T, who is graduating, and who is having all the fun shit right now. I felt bad for both of them!) Anyway, no blogging for mom--children to tend, dishes to wash, and a variety of shit to deal with!

Reason #3--I really wanted the pictures. they were hella cute. So I had to have Mate send them to me. Mate's priorities are not always responsive to the the world of blog--he sent them this morning, and so this morning I shall post!

So first off, the surprise was blown--but in a good way. It was sort of funny, actually. Mate still wasn't spilling about where we were going, and I went to take a shower, and while I was getting out, I could HEAR the chaos in the house around me.

They were getting 'dressed'. Not dressed, throw on some jeans and a T-shirt and go--they were getting DRESSED--as in, "We haven't put on these clothes in a year and a half, where the fuck did we put them?" dressed. It was SO much fun-- total excitement. You forget sometimes that getting dressed is half the fun!

Anyway, we got everyone dressed (except Dad, who couldn't find the shirt to go under his huntsman and didn't like his old breeches) and away we went. We forgot jackets.

That's important. It's MAY people--it should be UNCOMFORTABLY hot. If you're putting on clothes during Renaissance season, you should DREAD the feel of them against your skin because it's so uncomfortable. Not on Sunday. On Sunday, we were freezing our asses off.

It was funny though-- the whole day was one long shift of spare jackets to little kids and back and spare shirts to little kids and back--it was musical layers. Zoomboy spent his day wearing Chicken's undershirt under HIS long sleeved shirt, and his brother's sweater dwarfing his skinny widdo body. Squish walked around holding my sweater around her shoulders like a shawl. That cowl you see on Chicken's shoulders was bought at the fair--as was Dad's new outfit (they were on sale!) and basically, the day was a lot of fun, except for that eternal struggle to stay warm.

(What was REALLY frustrating was how close I was to having the big alpaca thing finished--Sunday could very well be the ONLY place/time that thing would be appropriate to wear, and I'd JUST finished the third medallion cable on it. I probably could have sold it for a downpayment on a car, if I'd worn it, too--the woman who sold Mate his new outfit tucked her business card inside my knitting bag in case I wanted to start a new franchise on fingerless mitts. I shit you not!)



But cold or not--it was a blast. There weren't that many people there, so we got to hit three shows (Daredevil Chicken was a pleasant, hilarious surprise, the Parrot Man was still a favorite!) and we ate (really good sausage!) and we shopped. EVERYONE got something--but not TOO much (except Mate, which still cracks me up!) T got a leather pouch for his i-Pod, Zoomboy got that wooden sword Chicken is wielding, I got a Claddach Ring (even though I found my wedding ring months ago) and Squish? Squish got a crown. I shit you not. It's lovely wire filligree with a little gemstone that falls between her eyes. Since we've been through around five million plastic tiaras in the last three years, it's damned near cost effective--and she's never felt more like a princess. (As you can see, she got to see the Queen:-)



It was lovely-- the trip was lovely, the thought was lovely, my family was lovely We stopped by Mate's mother's on the way home, and she fed us root beer floats. We dropped off a plant at my stepmom's after that (no one was home) and we came home and vegged. (And snuggled under blankets! COLD!) Mate got food for dinner (SMDM!) and generally?

It really WAS my day:-)