A Busy Weekend

This weekend has been extremely busy for Katie (not so much for Danny, although he's been having fun, too). First of all, on Friday night we managed to finagle a ticket to see..... the Jonas Brothers concert!!!!! at the last minute (no pics, b/c *I* didn't get to go, lol!). One of Dan's friends was going with his family, planned a long time ago as a b'day present for a niece, but his younger brother wasn't all that excited about it, so we bought the ticket and they took Katie with them instead - she was sooooo excited! Bradley came over here instead, and spent almost the entire 6 hrs playing Super Smash Bros with Danny. They had a blast! Katie didn't get home until after midnight, but she was so wound up it took her over an hour to fall asleep. I am glad after all that I didn't go, b/c the weather turned out to be sweltering that day (the concert was held in that outdoor amphitheater I mentioned before), and I was just happy to stay home in the a/c. So, a great time was had by all!


Then on Saturday, another surprise for Katie, a class called "Adventures in Camelot". We had recently gone through and signed up for some local park programs (some free and some not) for this fall. One was called "My First Horse," and the other was this Camelot program. She decided on "My First Horse", but later on I was talking to my sister, and once I described the medieval class she offered to send up the money for that one too! We agreed to keep it a secret, and surprise Katie that morning. She knew there was something up, b/c I kept telling her she needed to be on her best behavior or I would cancel the surprise.

So anyway, thanks to a generous Aunt Michelle, here is what Katie did in Camelot!
(Just an aside: the arena was huge and dimly lit, so it was really hard to get some of the pictures to come out right. I did the best I could!)




The first thing they did was design and paint their shields, so that the paint had time to dry during the rest of the class. Each kid made totally unique designs, which was so cool.











Then they got to go down to the stables, where they learned how to groom and saddle the horses. They used 2, one was Fancy, a Belgian/Morgan mix, and the other was Jasmine, an Arabian.

Here is Katie helping get Jasmine ready:









When they came back up to the arena, they were able to choose from several costumes and have their pictures taken next to the horses. Katie wore her head piece from Medieval Times (where we went with Aunt Michelle and the whole family over Thanksgiving) which just happened to match the dress perfectly!







The boys had several choices, too; one chose to dress like Peter in Narnia (that helmet was HEAVY!), and the other chose a plated tunic with a cloak, and the metal gauntlets and helmet.




















I found out that the park had ordered the armor (including Fancy's demi face plate) from a local craftsman. They had seen his work at the Medieval Faire, and he offered to make it for them.

The kids didn't get to ride in the costumes, but they all got to ride both horses and try to spear the ring.


The side-saddle was pretty tricky; the girls felt like they should be sitting sideways instead of straight ahead, but once they got on correctly, the weird knobs fit just right. Katie thought it was way cool.












And here she is on Fancy, spearing the ring. Good job!






I could see Katie's face as she sat on the horses, she loves this as much as I do. It's too bad we don't have the money to own a horse. I know my mom always said that all girls love horses, and eventually grow out of it. Well, I never did, and I'm pretty sure Katie feels the same way as I do. DH and I are going to have to figure out a way to get her into some lessons. We have a friend at church who knows a lady with horses at the fairgrounds, and he said she'd be willing to teach K, so I put off looking into lessons all summer. Unfortunately, this lady has never gotten around to calling us. Wah!

So anyway, the weekend is not yet over; we still get to go to Grandma and Grandpa's for Uncle Ray's b'day! Yummy, cake!


BTW, Gretchen, I hope you're loving this post, b/c it took me 4 stinking hours to do!!!