Medieval Games Tournament, May29th 2009

Here it is, the big day the the kids have been training for with John since March. Shields in hand, the kids arrive. Each contestant made thier own shield in order to get into the mood of it all (and they do make great decorations).

Here we have Mackenzie and Julie in the rod fencing competition; looks as if they are listening to John's instruction for the event. Who got the point?

Can you see the javelin that Andrea just threw at the target? The camera caught it in mid air! The target by the way, was a watermelon on a hay stack. Julie nailed it first try!

Jeremy is posed to hit the target....will he hit it?........Oh! so close.

Katelyn, Sarai, Olivia and Andrea during rod fencing warm ups.

Onlookers, Kasey and Elena. Kasey had a grand time building fairy houses during the quiet moments of the game.

The final ceremony.

Everyone received a metal, as all participated in each event. Good show squires and knights!

Completed Projects: Castle and seasonal trees

I am behind on my posts, life being so full of events and vacations. Here are the fabulous projects the kids have recently finished.

The Castle

Here it is, the seniors finished medieval castle. Isn't it a beauty?

It took four Monday mornings to complete it. They became so engaged with it, we couldn't stop them. Literally.

And here we have the finished seasonal trees made by the juniors. And the lucky seniors, several, who have said "The juniors get to do such fun projects" get to make their own trees this week. By the way, I have heard the juniors say the same thing about the senior projects. Oh, the grass on the other side....

It will soon be time to change these spring trees to summer trees, with fruit bearing heavy on the tree branches.

Soon to come, photos of our Pine Wood Derby and Medieval Games Tournament

May Day!

Impromptu May Day Celebration

I have lead a May Day celebration for 8 years in a row and honestly, I was feeling complete. I knew my son was ready to move on as well. Now, having said that, I still like honoring May Day in our own private family way...taking joy in the full blossoming of the earth with simple activities such as going out in the morning and collecting flowers from our garden to bring spring inside, adding nasturtium petals to our salad for lunch and lavender petals to our biscuits with tea in the afternoon. But, I didn't have it in me to do a full on May Day party....again.

Or, so I thought.

When I mentioned May Day to my daughter, she brightened up and said, with an excited blissful look on her face "Oh, May Day? When do we get the May pole out?" Uh Oh.

Needless to say, we had a May Day celebration....again.

The girls making May Day baskets. Thank you everyone for the beautiful flowers from your gardens.

Our May Pole dance

More May Day baskets being made

Calendula Dye Bath

We made dye baths with calendula petals. The dye will sit in the sun all week collecting the suns energy to make a beautiful sun-yellow-orangey color with which we will dye our clothing blanks next week with. Thank you Mary for organizing the Dharma Trading order and leading the dyeing project! That was a huge job.

Medieval History Continues

Castle Making Project is a hit with our seniors

This is their third week in working on their castles. I initially gave them two weeks to work on it, but they were getting deeply into the project and were working so well as a group, that we just couldn't stop them! Luckily we had some wiggle room in the calendar, so us moms quickly got together to arrange another couple of weeks to give them completion. There is much talk of castle life and how to represent it, helping their medieval studies come to life! Thank you Karen and Bonnie for leading this project.

Soon to come, photos of the masterpiece.