KC Ren Faire

     The last time we went to the Kansas City Renaissance Festival I was pregnant with Charles. We went with Tony and Susan. It was so much fun and so much bigger than any of the fairs I had attended previously. So Daniel and I were excited to return. Costco had a great deal on tickets that included turkey legs, so I snapped them up. I had to convince a few of the kids to dress up, but I am nothing if not persuasive.  Per usual I was making costumes up to the last minute. We invite Floyd to join us.

 

The kids made magic wands and learned the spell: Avasillyface! Here Teddy is demonstrating.

We met a wizard.

    There were lots of fairies. Interacting with guests who get into the spirit of the festival is my favorite. They are always so happy to pose for pictures and usually have a little trinket to give you. The kids loved collecting the various treasures. Next time I will come prepared with an offering.

I found the TARDIS!

    Part of the festival is learning about the artisans and crafters. If you visited 6 booths and learned something you were rewarded with a free ticket to return! I was expecting a sticker or something. When she handed me the tickets I was floored.

I first encountered the High Flying Fools years ago so I was excited to see them again. I was surprised that this was their first time in KC. 

We had a great time and I am excited to go back.

It Never Stops

    Emily and Daniel went to a Daddy-Daughter dance. They had fun, but Emily preferred playing a game with some other girls to dancing. Sometimes I don't understand how my kids are my children! 

We went to a Box Hill picnic with the Jane Austen Society of KC.

It was windy but beautiful and the kids enjoyed the park while I chatted about Jane. Later I pressed everyone into service to roll up lumpia.

While the kids were at school, I took Teddy apple picking. I sang the Apple Pickers Reel like a true Washingtonian.

We had to go to my hearing apt in Lee Summit so we discovered a new park to play at. The structures were intimidating for Tedddy, but he persevered.

    I finished my FoE Craft for the month. The theme was visiting fantasy worlds. My partner said she would love to visit Middle Earth so I made her 4 postcards from the Middle Earth Chamber of Commerce. On the back, there was a blurb. My favorite was Mordor: "Nothing will warm the cockles of your heart more than the famous Fires of Mordor! East of Gondor and the great river Anduin, and to the south of Mirkwood. This realm boasts an active volcano: Mount Doom. It’s a volcanologist’s dream! There’s always more to explore in Mordor! 

Paid for by the Middle Earth Chamber of Commerce. One trip to rule them All!"

I had so much fun making them and a little frustration too, I loved how they turned out!

The school had another roller skating day, so I took the kids to fight gravity.

    Yesterday the kids had a temple trip planned and since we had to drive half the family up I decided to make an evening of it and packed a picnic dinner. We walked the grounds and had dinner in the autumn sun while the older kids did baptisms. We headed to the van when the sun set as it got chilly. The kids took forever to come out, but I'm glad we were able to go. Teddy always gets sad when he can't go with us to the temple so when I told him he was going he was ecstatic. He kept telling me all day that we were going to the temple. "I go with you, Mom!"

Portal Parties!

    Henry turned 7 this year. He wanted a Portal party. I was excited to do another Portal party. I got my Portal-obsessed older son to help me. I made a giant companion cube, GLaDOS, buttons, and Turret. We had planned to do an escape room-like experience, but then Henry threw us a curveball. He wanted to invite friends and have it at the space park. Time to pivot! 

    True to form I put the wrong date on the invites so we had 3 celebrations. Why am I like this? The first party was on his birthday. He had been asking for a cake from my Harry Potter cookbook for months. It was a bear to make and I don't know how much he actually liked it, but he got his cake!

    It's a white chocolate orange cake. It was not very sweet. Most of the kids didn't like it. I ended up throwing the rest away a few days later.  I found some cool invitations online and got to work making a live-action  Portal experience. He only wanted to invite 5 people: Grandpa, his two teachers, one friend from school, and a neighbor. 
    This is where it gets convoluted. I put the 9th instead of the 6th on the invite so of course no one showed up. We had fun anyway and it was a good run-through of the game. I had 2 mega buttons that we put around the park and the players had to put the cube on one and a person on the other one to win the level. We also had turrets, people wore a badge with a picture of a turret on one side and the phrases they say on the other. The adults were the turrets. In the game, they shoot bullets so I gave them laser guns. I didn't get any portal guns made, so they had the laser guns too. Charles was the High Energy Pellet dispersal person. He was equipped with an orange bouncy ball to throw at the players. 

At one point Henry put me on the button!

I made propulsion and repulsion gel.

    Wheatly is a character from Portal2 so he is represented by the balloon. Henry really enjoyed it. We recruited a few kids from the park to play too. So overall the first attempt was a success. Then we went home for cake and presents.

    The Cake is a Lie! In Portal they promise you a Black Forest cake as a reward if you complete the game, it is never given to you. To make mine a lie, I made a chocolate cake, but it's not black forest. On to party two!

    The setup was faster and we had to rescue the button a few times from kids, but Grandpa Ron came and our neighbor too so that was fun. This time Henry decided to be the Pellet distributer, unfortunately, this meant he slammed the ball in our neighbor's face. Whoops. She had never played Portal so it took a bit to explain the game, but they ended up playing three times, so this was a Triumph. A huge success. 

Cake portaling away

Just me and my cube.

Henry was being extra sneaky and put the button under here.

After the game, we had to euthanize our companion cube.

    

    It was surprisingly hearty, we had to have Grandpa hit it to open it up! Everyone was excited to get the candy, but no one more so than Devon! Since he finally had his spacers removed he can now have sticky candy again. We finished with PJ&J sandwiches shaped like the Aperture symbol, more repulsion gel, conversion gel, (ice cream), and cake.