The Lee Family: The Renaissance Festival!

Today we visited the Renaissance Festival, which is just outside of Waxahatchie. Once again, we planned it with Liam and his family, which was pretty hard to do given how busy we both are, but today ended up being a day that worked for us both and it also ended up being perfect weather in the low 80s. We've had a cool and wet spring, so we haven't had many days in the 80s yet, which is surprising given that it is already May. We decided to meet as close to the 10am opening as possible and actually made it there around 10:15am, after waiting in a long traffic line to get into the parking lot. It's a very popular place! We actually came from the lake, so it took us over an hour to get there on mainly non-freeway roads. It was actually a nice drive. CK and I had to drive separately since he had planned to meet Annie that afternoon for a photoshoot with Ryan and Megan for their engagement photo shoot, which they asked to take with his bi-plane.

Sofia originally said she planned to wear her dragon costume, but then decided to just use her Harry Potter cape. Olivia had no plans to dress up and just wanted to dress comfortably. We met up with our friends and took the obligatory photo by the huge sword in the stone. Then we planned our first event to watch. We decided to pick a escape artist show that is a limited engagement, which means they only offer it on occasion. On our way to the stage, the girls found the dragon! They LOVE the dragon from last year. They were so excited and gave her a huge hug and I took several pictures. The show was a lot of talking and then finally the guy got into a box full of water, while wearing chairs and locks on his hands. He somehow got out of the box in about a minute. It was pretty cool, although not really worth listening to him for 30 minutes beforehand. Olivia and CK ended up leaving and walking around to look at the various vendors. Neither of our phones get service at the festival, so we had a really had time reconnecting. Finally, we ran into each other and continued on our way. There are tons of vendors selling anything and everything, including renaissance clothing, turtle shell purses, chain mail shirts, swords (wood and metal), dragon and elf necklaces, wood mugs, ceramics, latex elf ears that look totally real, unicorn horns, and dragon pets (Sofia's favorite). The kids were drawn to all the shops and wanted to explore them all. We told the girls they each could pick out one item for the entire day, so they needed to look at everything and then make a decision. Olivia decided on a cute fairy necklace that has a stone under the fairy. Sofia was set on getting another dragon pet. Both girls picked one out last year and have loved playing with them.

We ended up deciding to get lunch, even though it was fairly early. Mikaela and her kids were hungry and our girls were ready to sit for a minute. I ended up getting a sausage on a stick, which both girls loved and helped me eat. I wasn't terribly hungry so I was fine to share with them. We all got drinks, since it really was starting to warm up. From there we continued walking and decided to go to the other side of the festival. As we started toward the bridge, we were just in time to watch the daily parade. It was actually pretty cool to watch! We stood on one side and watched as all of the "Friends of the Festival" walked through waving. The "Friends of the Festival" are people who aren't actually part of the festival, but dress up and participate and have to pretend like they are in period. Its surprising how many grown adults are into this! Once the parade was over, we crossed over the bridge and headed for the jousting show. We got there just before it started, so there were no seats in the shade and he had to stand at the far end of the arena in the sun. It was completely comfortable in the shade but hot in the direct sun! Olivia and I stood and watched for a bit, while everyone else stood in the shade. Finally, once we got too hot, we decided to move on.

Liam and his family wanted to go take a look at the wood mugs, so we split up and decided to meet up later. CK and the girls and I headed to the stage near the dragon pets. CK and Sofia visited the Dragon Pets hut, while Olivia had a pony ride and then she and I visited the house that sells my favorite ceramics. I didn't end up buying anything, but was nice to look at. Sofia picked out a white dragon pet, which was really pretty and she was so excited to have a new one for the dragon family at home! We then all sat on one of the benches at the stage, an hour before one of my favorite shows from last year. It felt good to just take a bit hanging out in the shade and people-watching. I went and got a nutella and banana crepe, which Olivia was more than happy to help me eat. It was so good, but very rich.

CK headed out while we stayed at the stage to watch the Kamikaze Fireflies, one of my favorite shows from last year. We had great seats and the show was so much fun, as always. The man and wife team are entertaining, funny and do a lot of acrobatic tricks. Its a lot of fun! We got up after the show and headed to the back of the benches trying to link back up with Liam and his family. Sofia felt like she was going to pass out, since her polyester cape was probably very hot and she had only had a root beer all day! I should have had her drinking water throughout the day, but just forgot. She had a terrible headache and felt bad, so we headed to the bathroom for her to cool off. We actually ran into Liam and his family at the bathrooms! We said our goodbyes and headed back to our car. It was such a fun day, although I'd really wanted to watch the Birds of Prey show, but everyone else was done. We actually ran into the dragon just before we left for the day, so both girls were super happy!

We found our car, despite completely forgetting which row we were parked in, and loaded up to go home. We stopped by the gas station and got cold waters for everyone. Both girls were asleep within five minutes of getting on the freeway. It's only an hour drive home and it went by quickly. It was such a fun day and I'm so glad it worked out for us to go with Liam and his family. Next year, I will hopefully remember to bring a LOT more cold water with us, sunscreen, bug spray and wet wipes. I did apply sunscreen to the girls before we arrived, but it would have been good to reapply during the day. And Olivia has an amazing ability to bring every bug in the state to her, so we used the spray from Mikaela thankfully. It ended up being a great day!

Ready for a fun day at the Renaissance Festival!