Rennies!

We hit up our very first Renaissance Festival a few weekends ago and had a blast!  One of JJ's med school buddies (J) and his wife (J) met us there... and actually paid for us too... nice guy!  Ok, so there were a few things I would've been ok with M (and C for that matter) not seeing, but for the most part it was pretty family friendly.  M rode on a super cool ride --- swings that were "operated" by boys walking in a circle turning big knobs.  So quaint!  JJ was an audience participator at a magic show, when the entertainer did "the human blockhead" and pounded a nail into his nose.  JJ was the guy who held onto the nail as he extracted it from his head.  Awesome.  We also HAD to hit up the joust, which was also pretty entertaining.  I'm not sure about the accuracy of one of the "knights" standing up on his horse and jumping down to give the guy the People's Elbow, but in the end "our" knight was victorious and fun was had by all!

One funny little story (because you know there always is one when toddlers are involved):
I thought this gal was a part of the Festival, but JJ thought she was just a spectator who happened to be in costume.  Nevertheless a gal came up to M and commented on her big smile.  Then she told a story about a sad dragon with tears streaming down its face (M can tell you the whole story...).  The only thing that could make the dragon happy was the smile of a little girl.  The tears were then saved, and they turned into precious stones.  At that point she gave M one of those little little smooth glossy pebble things that are used in fish tanks or for decoration in vases, etc.  M referred to it as her dragon (she may have gotten slightly confused with the story) and it became her biggest treasure ever.  Until she forgot about it about a half hour later.  Of course she remembered it as we were loading up back at the car -- there was NO way we were going to track this tiny little pebble down, so JJ and I thought quickly on our feet and decided that Dragon had flown on ahead of us and we would find him later.  We drove straight to a Michaels because Mommy was sure Dragon was shopping for a small gift for M, the girl with the big smile.  I wanted to buy a handful just in case we lost one again, but alas, they only came in bulk.  We now have 50 "dragons" in the event that one gets lost again (we have since used three!).