Fun at the Medieval Faire!

We've been busy around our house.  We had been planning on taking the kids on an overnight trip down to Florida for the Hoggetowne Medieval Faire and the kids wanted to earn some extra spending money so I put them to work!  Here they are with happy faces, scrubbing the grout in my kitchen.  Perfect kid job!  They are lower to the floor, after all!



 We stayed over night in a hotel on Friday night and the weather was so beautiful on Saturday morning that the kids wanted to swim!  Ahhhh.  Tis a lovely early February in sunny Florida!

Willow looked more like this.  She still has a cast on her leg.  No pool for her!









We spent the day at the fairgrounds wandering amongst the peasants, enjoying sunshine and fun activities like archery, horse back riding, sword fighting and magic. 

Met up with a small Genghis Khan. . .

    and an elf princess!

Willow and I also got our hair plaited by the Queen's royal hair lady.


A lovely time was had by all!  We hope to do it again next year!

Daniel's cow

Montage of Messes

Wordless Wednesday: 

The unblog post

I'm watching tv.  The 49ers are playing.  Nuff said. 

Always learning

Once you've home schooled your kids, it's hard to change that mindset.  Every day contains a learning opportunity!  Today, we had a baked Italian pasta dish for lunch so we set the house up like an Italian Bistro, turned on some traditional Italian music, and learned some Italian words.  I taught the kids how to say "pane" for bread, "insalada" for salad along with "por favore" and "grazie" and a few others.  We learned a little bit about Italy's history and I had the "big kids" show Daniel and Willow where to find it on the globe.

After we cleaned up from lunch, the kids wanted to watch a movie.  After scrolling through pages and pages of choices on the Netflix instant stream, they decided on the original Cheaper by the Dozen from 1950.  The movie takes place during the 20's which led to a discussion on why they were called the "roaring 20's," the economy during the 20's and what happened to change the boom after World War I.  We then discussed the stock market crash of 1929 and trading practices on Wall Street, including what it means to buy stocks on margin and how that led to people losing so much money. 

All in all, it was an interesting day!  The kids had fun and stayed busy which is always good for Moms! 

Happy Working Song

Today my day was of the monotonous, no news sort.  I didn't have a nurse here to help me with Willow so I spent much of the day catering to her needs (wiping an 11 year old's butt is so NOT blogworthy) while juggling all my usual chores.  I did better than I thought I would.  I of course didn't get everything done that I wanted to do but managed to keep my kitchen clean, do a few loads of laundry, make a yummy dinner and mop a few floors as well as do a full day of school with both girls and make a few phone calls that couldn't wait.  So without anything inspirational or thought provoking to share, I thought I'd make this blog fun. 

My favorite princess movie is Disney's Enchanted.  I like it for so many reasons but number one is because it takes princess movie cliche' and makes a joke out of it.  Amy Adams does a great job in her role of Giselle with her over exaggerated arms and painted on smile, portraying the classic Disney princess but at the same time, she's not "one of them."  She learns that not only does she not need a prince to save her but in the end, she doesn't want that for herself!  My favorite scenes, of course are the songs (also princess movie cliche') but with a comical twist.  See below: 



Love, love, LOVE the singing and dancing vermin!  I chose to post the clip with the words at the bottom because the lyrics to the song are quite funny.  I also love that the smile never leaves her face as she takes a hairball out of the drain and holds roaches on her finger, (not real, I realize) but funny nonetheless.  My favorite part?  When the pigeon eats the roach.  Great stuff!  I've seen this movie at least a hundred times and I'd watch it again tonight if it wasn't time for my kids to get ready for bed.  What's your favorite princess movie?