Halloween & Ren. Fest

(OK, this is Part II. so you might want to skip down and read the earlier posts, if reading things in order is important to you. As an avid reader I sort of have a 'thing' about reading things in order. I don't like my Dragons Drumming when they should be Singing. Honestly though, reading the events of my life out of order probably won't make that much of a difference). Halloween was kind of interesting this year. For months, Jacob has been adamant that he did not want to go trick or treating and that he did not want to wear a costume. It was kind of funny because he would tell us “I just want to stay home in my pajamas and read”, a sentiment that I can certainly identify with. What can I say; the boy is his mama’s child in many respects. As we got closer and they began to do the different activities at school (and I suspect he started thinking about all those tootsie rolls he would miss out on) he capitulated to the point of saying he would like to please just “be a bear again”. For my change resistant child, wearing last year’s costume probably gave it a certain degree of familiarity. Never mind that he’s grown 6 inches since last year. I think with him control is an issue as well, as in “Fine, I’ll do what you want but I’ll do it MY way.” Again, the apple is not falling far from the tree here. Come Halloween night, at a balmy 74 degrees, he understandably decided it was too hot to wear the head part of the costume and so we set off to brave the mosquitoes with Bella as Tinkerbell and Jacob as High-Water Bear. Saturday we headed off to the Texas Renaissance Faire. (The extra “e” on the end is for “expensive”.) But seriously, it is the very best day of the year for me, I love it that much. It wasn’t quite the same without my sandals though; I had to opt for ye olde pink flip flops. Eating: Turkey leg, sausage on a stick, chicken on a stick, steak on a stick, chicken k-bobs on a stick, baked potatoes, The King’s Nuts (that’s what they’re called!), pretzels, (PB&J and an apple from home for Jacob) and chocolates. Yum! Bella especially loved the turkey and the potato. Sights & Sounds: We listened to bagpipes, and flutes and lutes and saw the half horse half man guy and lots of fairies and pirates. We rode on the giant swings and the spinning cups and Jacob rode an elephant and we went to the petting zoo. We had to leave the petting zoo because Bella kept petting goats and then sucking her thumb. Eww, gross! Don’t worry there was hand sanitizer. Jacob was very instructive for Bella at the Petting Zoo. He kept telling her - it's the petting zoo Bella, not the pushing zoo. Shopping: I got a fairy outfit for Bella to wear for next year and a 2008 Faire t-shirt for Jacob. I also got these handmade rustic ceramic pottery glasses for our master bath. Napping: While the guys watched the jousting, Bella took a nap in her sling while I walked around listening to some drumming, checking out swords and really awesome smelling hand soaps. The entire weekend both children were spectacularly well behaved. I know that when they are kind of wild that it makes for more interesting reading, but I really just could not believe how awesome they handled all the activity and off-schedule-ness of both crazy weekends. I sat in Fuddruckers on Sunday after church and watched them enjoying their lunch and laughing all together. They both sat, and we played "I spy" while we waited for our lunch. Then they both ate all thier food. If you have little kids then you know that eating out doesn't always go this way. and I was sort of overwhelmed with how good they are and what a remarkable thing it is that God has entrusted me with them. By Sunday night, we were so grateful for the extra hour due to the time change. I was finally able to clean most of my house and got through mountains of laundry and went to the market – all before 9 PM. It sure felt like it was about midnight though.