Rosh Hashanah

Today was Rosh Hashanah.

I only know because that meant my kids had the day off school.

And what a beautiful day it was!

We've had so much rain lately, and I was so happy that the nicest day of the week they were off!

 We walked to the lake by our house and did some fishing.

 In the first 5 minutes Ronan caught a catfish!

 It was about a foot long. 

Ronan caught it, & Morgan took the hook out and let him go.

Big Mike made an appearance too....

 We had a great time hanging out in the sunshine.

 Then Ronan caught a 2nd catfish!

 Only this time the hook was stuck near his eye, and we couldn't get it out!

The kids were very distressed about hurting the fish. 

In the end we cut the wire and let him go.

They no longer wanted to fish, saying "We didn't come here to hurt animals!"

So, we walked to the other side of the lake to play at the park instead.

It was PERFECT out!

We hung out there for almost 2 hours!

The kids had a blast playing together, and I enjoyed some time in the shade just relaxing!

What a perfect Thursday afternoon!

Thanks for the day off-we enjoyed it!

Raising Animals

Many a times I feel like I'm raising animals rather than children.

But this past week it's been official.

Ashlyn and Madelyn have INSISTED that they are dogs!

 They want to drink like dogs, eat like dogs (thankfully they haven't asked to go potty like dogs).

And so I...well....let them.

I mean, they are the cutest dogs I've ever seen!

 Found these on my camera.....

 Duncan had a self portrait moment going on.

 Again, with the animals.

After he took the above self portraits, he wandered out onto the deck.

Brian & I were swinging with the girls, and as soon as I saw him with my camera I hollered:

"DUNCAN! Go put my camera away NOW!"

But I have to say, I am kind of glad he caught this everyday moment.

I'm so rarely in photos.

I wonder if my children will look back and even remember that I was there all those days.

So, next time I won't be SO quick to have him put the camera away.

Maybe if it was a less expensive camera he could capture more!

Cooking

Yesterday the girls and I did some cooking.

With our hand picked apples!

 Madelyn had a blast with the 'apple corer/peeler/slicer'!

 So did Ashlyn!

 I had fun watching them!

We peeled a ton of apples!

 And the girls ate the peelings!

It was some good morning fun!

And the product of our labors....

 One apple pie, and 12 mini pies!

Next time I won't let the minis cool all the way before I take them out though.

The foil was stuck to the stone by the sugary juice!

But they tasted great!

We still have a TON of apples, so I'm sure we'll do this again!

The Renaissance Festival!

WARNING: This post might be too long, and contain too many photos!

(Although the 51 photos here is pretty good considering I took 200!)

I am horrible at leaving out photos.... but then again, why should I, right?

I mean this is MY blog, so I don't have to only pick 3 or 4 to post from the day!

Last Saturday, we enjoyed ourselves at the Maryland Renaissance Festival!

It is a set in a permanent standing village amongst the trees, made to be Revel Grove, Oxfordshire, England.

This year the story line was set in the year 1544. King Henry VIII and Queen Katherine Parr, and their royal court were visiting the village to celebrate his 35th year on the throne.

All the events and activities revolved around that theme.

It's just a fun, fun place to be!

It has actually been a few years since we've gone (4 to be exact), and I don't think we'll stay away so long again! There were a few stressful moments of the day, loosing children, getting separated with only 1 cell phone between us, smashed thumb, etc. BUT I'm going to focus on all the wonderful moments of the day! (And there were a LOT!)

We went with our good friends the Cochran's, and headed to the Joust Arena!

We were entertained a bit while waiting for the event to start.

The the king came out to begin the event.....

It was England vs. Scotland

The royals watching the events.

First were some individual events.

Then, what we were waiting for, the Joust....

I think England won, not too sure though.

After the joust was done, we headed straight over to ride the elephants.

This is something Brian has wanted to do every year we've gone int he past, but the line was always SO long! Well, it was just right this year, and on the elephant they went!

Brian, Madelyn, Ronan, Duncan, & Ashlyn on the first elephant.

And Morgan and Hayden on the second.

I opted to stay behind to take photos.

I mean, what good is riding an elephant if you have no photo to prove it?!

 

The kids got put in the stockades!

Someone mentioned that they were entirely too happy about it!

So, Ronan put on a good 'angry' face!

Ashlyn and Madelyn went for a pony ride. And Madelyn actually stayed on the horse the whole time!

Although half way through she had to hold on to Brian and clutched him the remainder of the ride, 

BUT she rode it, and didn't cry! Yay!

A big part of the renaissance Festival is the FOOD

And we indulged in a bit of it!

Turkey legs, steak on a stick, chicken on a stick, fries, onion rings....(all of which I'm sure were authentic to 1544, or they wouldn't of served them, right?)

Next came the giant slide!

I took the kids on this one. It started to drizzle just as it was our turn, and the rain made the slides stick a bit. They offered us our money back if we wanted to walk back down, but there was NO way the kids were doing that! So, we slid, and it really wasn't too sticky-Madelyn and I made it down with no problems!

I just love walking around the village, listening to the music and enjoying the evening.

The girls couldn't leave without getting some flower garland headbands!

Beautiful girls!

I have to say that the last hour we were there was probably my favorite.

The crowds had mostly gone, the music was playing, the evening calm.

It was really nice. The kids each played a 'bowling' game, where if you won, you'd get a token for a free soda. Madelyn won (with mom's help). 

Of course we had to get some apple pie and funnel cake to go along with her free soda!

It was a nice evening treat.

Me and my beautiful girls!

(This is also photo proof that I attend the days events!)

Love my Ashlyn!

I loved this sign....

Just before closing, we went to a 'music' shop and had a blast playing the instruments they had on display there!

Then, at 7:00pm the canons went off, and it was time to leave the village.

Fare thee well, RenFest....until next year!