Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01015

Today we went to King Richard’s Faire. I did not think that we were going to make it this year because of all the time I have to take with testing for my Black Belt in Krav. However, we were gifted free tickets for the family and I was able to get enough time to take yesterday off so I wouldn’t be completely dead on my feet today. This year we took Eva’s friend Bridget with us. Eva was very excited to have her along. Eva had also made her entire costume for the faire. She designed it, and did all the sewing on it as well. She also made Andy’s cloak. We did not know if we’d see our friend Ryan at the faire but he was there. This year he is Pulcinella, the town crier. It was nice to get a few minutes to chat with him before we went off and explored the realm.

We arrived a little before the gates opened and were able to see the introduction skits that happen before the gates open wide. Then we went in, saw our friend Julie (Thanks for the tickets!!) and also our friend Ryan. Once inside many of the inhabitants of the realm are around the entrance and the kids got to talk with King Richard and Queen Anne and many of the other people. Andy spotted a guy with a giant bubble wand. He was off like a shot trying to pop the bubbles. He had a great time doing that.

The first act that we went to see was Jacques Ze Whipper. He is one of our all time favorites. He is so funny and great with the whip. This time Andy got to help out with the action. Andy was given the task of throwing a stuffed Barney toy up to Jacques so that Jacques could whip it out of the air. I have some video of that and Andy threw the Barney toy backwards on his practice attempts. Good thing they practiced. Afterwards andy and Jacques posed for some photos.

and Andy says that he doesn’t want to perform. Sure…

Our next destination was to The Joust. Eva and Bridget were all about the joust because there is a female knight there and they wanted to cheer for her. We ended up seeing two of the jousts for that very reason. They are always fun to watch.

this time around we took out some money for each of the kids. They had a certain amount of money that they could use at the Faire. Andy did a lot with his money. He bought himself a dragon pet and a few necklaces. He picked up necklaces for two of his friends in addition to a necklace for himself. Because he had money that he could use however he wanted he also played some of the games. He tried out the darts, crossbows and even the feat of strength by trying to ring the bell on the high striker. He didn’t quite get there but Bridget did and she was made a knight of the realm.

One o the new acts was the Accidental Acrobats. I was mesmerized by the muscles on the female acrobat. Her arms were so strong. She did some really amazing tricks and at the end shot a bow and arrow with her feet. Incredible!

It was a fantastic day overall. We had lots of good food (I over estimated on the amount of food tickets we would need) saw great shows. Oh, yes, there was also the musical. We made sure that we watched both acts of the musical which was a history of the Richards of the realm and also the villains of years past. All was done to parody music that was amazing. We love these performances and look forward to seeing them each year. This truly is one of our family’s most favorite yearly events to attend. There are still two more weeks of The Faire and it is well worth a visit if yo are interested. You can find out more information at King Richard’s Faire Website.