Medieval Olsen's

I'm finally catching up with events the transpired over the holiday weekend! It was a BUSY one, but great!
On Saturday, all 5 of us got dressed up and headed into the countryside for the Ohio Renaissance Festival. We've been to the Arizona one several times, usually getting all decked out then, too. This was Leora's first and she wore the same dress Charla wore to her first... cheesy, I know. Charla wore her Disney Belle gown and Gregory was just happy to have a (plastic) sword.

I was pleasantly surprised by how kid-friendly it was! It was enormous and the variety and choices of things to do were overwhelming! We've decided to forgo the plays and acts for the next few years until our kids can have any idea of what's going on. We didn't even miss it, though. It was so entertaining watching the kids having a blast.

One of the highlights was the archery area. Everyone got a "shot" at it... even Leora got to hold the bow for a picture. Charla had the most success getting her arrows anywhere near the target (aside from Fred, of course).

They also enjoyed this "frog" launching pond, with miniature catapults that children operated to fling green pieces of wood into the water.

Both Gregory and Charla loved the man-powered swing carousel (everything there was man-powered).

We got a good laugh at the fishing pond. I'll admit, the little wooden fish were nigh impossible to hook, so it wasn't too surprising to see Gregory "cheat" to get his fish.

There were lots of other booths and rides that the kids (and sometimes we) got to enjoy. One highlight was definitely the camel ride! I was happy to stay on the ground with Leora and the camera. I was so proud of my boy sitting by himself in the front!

We enjoyed good food and sight-seeing, as well. One thing we agreed was a real treat was seeing how many people just visiting were all dressed up, too. I'd say about 1/2 of the patrons were very medieval-looking! Lots of people paused to admire our little princesses. Charla walked the entire 5 hours in her hard plastic Cinderella shoes, even though we had the double stroller. When she sets her mind to something...

Anyways, by the time we headed home, we were a lot of tuckered out Olsen's. Gregory was so sad to leave, so we've promised him we'll go again next year. It was near 90 degrees, so when we got home, we threw the kids in the kiddie pool and turned on the sprinklers! Great end to a great day :)