Of swords and shields...

We were sitting here doing school work and a package arrived from UPS. Tall Girl ran out to get it and was all excited as it was addressed to her and Little Man. I knew I hadn't ordered anything for them recently and I was pretty sure that the grandparents hadn't sent anything either.

We opened it up to find a sword, shield, tote, head piece made of chainmail, an oriental fan and pixy dust.


A little back story...Over the summer we met a fantastic homeschooling couple and their children. They live out west, but have family here. Carla decided to bring their children down to visit for a bit over the summer and wanted to hook up with a homeschool group so her daughter would have some friends while here. She also came out to our place to visit. It was great-she's a wealth of knowledge and fun to hang with. She saw that Little Man loved swords and shields and promised that she'd send him a new set (many of his are broken since he uses them well and often) once the Ren-Fest was in town where they lived.

That's where the items came from, lol. We called her up and thanked her. The kids were so surprised that they were remembered. She had actually watched Tall Girls headpiece being made.

A Very Merry Christmas!

We hope you all had a very wonderful Christmas and to our family across the states: I hope all the packages got there in time and that you all enjoyed everything. The kids have squirelled all their money aside and are saving it for that certain thing/things that they just have to have. They aren't sure yet what all they want, but are begging me to take them shopping today to find it! LOL. I told them that we'll wait until after the New Year...things are going to be insane today and I'm sooo not going out there to wade through the people.

We had a great Christmas here though. The kids and Steve had bought me a couple of CDs I wanted, the new Pirates DVD, and a new address book. Santa brought lots of cool things to the kids and Steve. Remote control trucks for the fellas to play together, 'too cool' they said! A lego castle and some play swords that J was thrilled about. Sister had bought him a couple of disposable cameras to play with. He is always running around with his fingers together like a little view finder 'clicking' pictures as he sees things he likes. He has almost burnt through one camera already!

B got my 'old' camera that I'd been saving for her and it was all set up in a camera case for her. She was so excited! She also got a scrapbook kit to go with it and a coupon to go to a scrapbook class with me this Friday. She's gonna be so excited to do her little album. She's been snapping lots of pictures too.

Santa brought them both a Nintendo Wii after sending them on a treasure hunt to find it...that was the hightlight of the day after it was set up. They were cracking themselves up while playing the sports games. It was a hoot.

Steve got some DVD's he wanted, a cool tie that he just loves, and we both have more candy than we needed; our bottoms and hips thank you Santa, LOL!

Of course Santa didn't forget our four-legged pals! Squeaker toys, treats and bones!

Steve and I have a very overdue date tomorrow for dinner and a movie! We are having a gal from church come and sit with the kids. They are excited. They really like her.

Renaissance festival!

Yesterday we visited the festival near us. Obviously it was a hit with J! He loved the weapons and really tried his hardest to beeeeeeeeeg me to buy him a 'real sword'! He just couldn't understand why I wouldn't do it! No way with that kluztso! We watched the men joust on horseback and then sword fight. Our fellow won the joust, but lost the sword fight. They rode the wooden swings, the wooden barrel (reminds me of those big ships you ride on at the fair that swing back and forth-only this one was on a much smaller scale), and got to shop! Fortunately our tickets enable us to get in free on the weekends and so we're probably going to head out and take Steve with us too. The plays were so funny and the fire-guy...he cracked us up! We all laughed so hard that our faces hurt.

Anyways...here's what you'd like to see!