Saturday, October 17, 2015

Weekly Wrap-Up ~ Birthday and Renaissance Faire

This was a week filled to bursting with activities. We sure have P.E. covered in our homeschool. Before the day is out, Anne will log nine hours and Dean five hours of dance.  They also got to have an hour of swimming with Grandma at the YWCA, which is turning into a weekly tradition. Lastly, I signed Anne up for one hour of tumbling each week. She paid for the semester with her birthday money. I feel much better about her learning aerial cartwheels and other exciting acrobatics from a professional and with a spotter.

Anne celebrated her 12th birthday with her three best friends. She had a tie-dye birthday sleepover --complete with tie-dye t-shirts, 3 foot long sundae, tie-dye cake, movie watching and hours of goofy dancing and squealing. You can read more about it here.


She also had a special birthday breakfast on her official birthday. It is always fun to have cake and presents for your birthday! Anne got the retired American Girl Doll, Kirsten, from us. I won't go into the details of how many auctions I lost on Ebay before I finally won this doll. She also got money for classes, earrings, and some cute America Girl Doll accessories.



We participated in our church's turn with Room In the Inn this week. This is a wonderful program that involves churches opening their doors for one week at a time to 12 emotionally stable, drug free, homeless women while they are working to get their lives back on track. The group of women move from church to church each week. We volunteered to make bag lunches for the women one of the days during our church's week. Anne and Grandma decorated the bags.




We attended our state's Renaissance Faire this week. We went on education day. I have had this on my bucket list to do with the kids for years, so I was glad to get it off the list. However, it wasn't nearly as educational as I thought it would be. Mostly, it was too crowded, very expensive and filled with very rude men (several of them helped their children/students cut lines and then yelled about people who tried to correct them). I was much more shocked by the poor behavior of the adults than the children. The kids had fun and I am glad they are old enough to remember it, because I won't be taking them back next year.
Tim, Dean and Anne ~ my kids are growing up so fast.
The kids never miss a chance for fish and chips.
We went through a coin finding maze. Anne loves to find money, even when it is fake.
Dean liked the axe throwing station.
He even got one in the wall!
We also took Grandma!
I got my picture taken with the Queen and her court.
The kids with their souvenirs. 
The kids were fascinated with the dungeon that taught about Medieval punishment and torture. Tim also got to see the jousting, which he always loves. (He got to go to Renaissance Faires several times when he was younger before Anne and Dean were born.) Dean spent hours this week working on his sword. It came out great. He even wrote some medieval humor on it.


It says, "Stabby Time".
What a full week.

Blessings, Dawn

9 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing your week. Nice to get something like that off your bucket list, even if it didn't quite satisfy. I have had similar experiences at these events, unfortunately. Sounds like a fantastic birthday celebration!

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  2. Well, if a Hobbit sword can be named Sting, I suppose Stabby Time is as good a name for a sword as any!

    You make me feel better about not making the effort to get my kids to the Ren. Faire a couple of hours away from us. :) My husband and I went once when we were dating, a couple decades ago, lol.

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  3. I'm glad they enjoyed the Ren Faire, even if it wasn't the best type of crowd there. We took Amber last year for the first time, but it is such a hassle and really not worth it two consecutive years. Our local Ren Faire is only about 10-15 minutes from our house too!

    I'm glad Anne had a great birthday, and Happy Birthday!. It's hard to believe she is 12 years old already.

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  4. Yes, definitely a full week! A fantastic birthday, an opportunity to serve with a great ministry, and renaissance faire, too! Looks like your crew had a great week!

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  5. What an exciting week! Looks like Anne had an awesome birthday, too! I am always disappointed in how rude adults can be at public events, but we try to ignore them and have a good time anyway! Thanks for sharing at FH&L!

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  6. WOW What a fun week for sure. Love the tie dye theme! happy birthday your your Anne!

    We have not taken the kids to the Renn Faire here yet...mine are still too young in my opinion.

    Enjoy the week coming up!

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  7. What a great week. Anne's party looks like such fun!!!! I love the theme. Our Ren Faire is this weekend. We can't wait. I'm sorry you didn't have a good time. When I lived in California I went to the Ren Faire there and I would NEVER take Keilee to one like that. Ours is more family friendly. Have a great week Dawn.

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  8. I love the 'Room in the Inn' idea! How wonderful to be able to minister to ladies getting back on their feet and to be a small part of their journey. I'd love for our church to do something like that.
    I hope you are having a lovely week.

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  9. Happy birthday, Anne! What a cool party! I'm sure those girls are a great time together! Something about that age, the giggles! LOL And a awesome thing to do Room in the Inn. I'm sure those women appreciate it!

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