The Feast

The grand finale of this year's Celebration de Reuben was a two-day excursion to The Feast of the Hunter's Moon.  He has been waiting for months for this annual 1700s historical reenactment festival.  I am so thankful for this event because it means we successfully avoided a Chuck E. Cheese birthday, his second choice.

We went on Friday for the School Trip Day and learned some things from costumed actors.

Then we went back on Saturday for the full feast effect.

These pics show a mix of both days.

 

See the learning?

This guy taught us all the parts of his gun, how to load it and fire it.

We took breaks for rest and nourishment.

Watching a wood-turner

This is super hard.

See?

Reuben needed to be convinced to try it.

I think he knew he wasn't going to be perfect at it on his first try

and he wanted to avoid failure.

He was right, so we moved on to the next game.

Throw the ring with these two sticks.

She said this used to be a game played by both girls and boys, but eventually only girls played it.

She thought the boys were banned from playing due to their playing it like boys:

Wild and rough.

It was fun.

And quicker to be good at.

Not like that roll the wheel with a stick game.

I realized today that this one is nearly ten!

Ack.

These are the Budabi Brothers.

We watch their funny juggling show every year,

even though we could tell all their jokes now.

We even considered inviting them to stay the night at our house,

instead of in their tent.

But we didn't.

But it could've been fun.

Or weird.

Okay, down to business.

Forget all this educational, entertaining stuff.

Let's shop!

He quickly learned to say 'rabbit foot.'

The whole point, according to the boys, for this event

is to shop and purchase a new weapon.

Happy Birthday!

Pirate sword with belt and sheath.

Time to battle.

Charlie's first sword.

Ah, so cute.

Here's some battle video.

It was a grand time.

If I had a daughter I'd get more into the costumes.

Fancy dresses and parasols.

Then the boys would want soldier uniforms.

But Paul... he would go more for the voyager look that made us giggle:

the longish shirt with a flappy thing at the waist.

Cold legs.

And bottom.

Pictures Again

 This is my life with three boys...

 We did our lessons on the front porch one lovely morning

and Charlie kept busy parking the tractors.

 Saying 'cheese' with a fudgecicle

 Fudgecicles always remind me of swimming lessons at the Y when I was a kid.

For a quarter we could get one out of the vending machine.

So yum.

 Charlie also enjoys playdough while I formally educate his brothers.

Hammer, hammer.

 Reuben loves to pick from the garden.

Can you guess what he is harvesting?

 Our crop of rainbow carrots.

Orange, purple, yellow, and white.

 Our first trip to Turkey Run since I don't know when.

 Checking out the water under the suspension bridge.

 A sassafras snack

 I am the funnest mom ever!

 Funnest!

And he has a sweet face.

 This week's history lesson was about Mary, Queen of Scots whose husband tried to kill her so he could be king and when she fled to England hoping her cousin, Mary Queen of England, would help her, Mary had her beheaded.  Huh.

So in response, Peter painted plaid fabric...

 ...to make his own Scottish kilt.

So sorry about your pyscho family, Mary, but we enjoyed the project.

In order to balance out the times when my boys wear skirts,
I allow feats of wrestling to keep them tough and manly.

 I missed it when Charlie jumped in...

...but here's the swollen eye as a result.

I offered a little sympathy,

but not enough to weaken him.

He'll be wiser, quicker, smarter for the next wrestling match.

What have I become?

A mother of boys.

Pictures

Back in August we went to the State Fair with our Turkish friends.

We live in farm country so there's lots of farming stuff at our state's fair.

Mrs. O and our boys

She was thrilled when Charlie relaxed enough to let her hold him.

Now for random pics...

Reading The Story of the World, our history book.

A great book for general knowledge-of-the-world reading.

I've learned so much and many parts of my world make so much more sense.

Charlie is a train track-building champion.

Another day

Science with Dad

Something about molecules and whatnot.

I have a great disdain for science and don't even want to know what they're learning about.

This is why Dad as the new science prof is wonderful.

Let's see what else I can find...

 corn starch and water - more science

Science equals mess,

which is great fun for the mess-makers.

But I'm just in a stage of life where mess equals mess, ya know?

And mess means more work for me, the designated mess-cleaner-upper.

But!  As you can see I allow the mess because I value the learning experience.

 This is going to document a history lesson mess.

It started out as burying yellow M&Ms in a bucket of flour to simulate digging for gold.

Here's Rube showing his found gold.

 If there's a mess then that must mean they're learning.

This is what I tell myself.

 Then Reuben asked if he could add water to the flour to see what would happen.

Yes you can.

And then I left the room so as not to have to witness the foreshadowing mess.

If I can't see it then it doesn't exist.

I like this philosophy.

 Upon re-entry to the kitchen I found that Rube had gotten out the rolling pin, cookie cutters, and cookie sheet.

Flour and water cookies.

Peter baked them.

And they ate them.

Paul too.

Good to know they can live on flour  and water if needed.

And then I swept and wiped

and wiped and swept in a silly attempt to rid my kitchen of flour dust.

Reliving these messes has cause my stress level to rise even now.

Which is a shame because I'm sitting in an extremely rare empty house

which should be full of peace.

But for you, I relive the stress.

I hope you liked it.

More pics in a couple days.