fall festival fun!

the kids could not wait to get dressed up for the fall festival at our church's school last weekend! brian was not in a fall festival mood, so he stayed home with amelia... and my mom joined me with the big kids to have all the fun. by 3:30 that afternoon, ethan was dressed and ready to slay that dragon! i hated to break it to him that the cavalry would not be leaving until 5:30.... two hours finally passed, and princess caroline was already needing protection from her brave knight, sir ethan. she plays a good damsel in distress, don't you think?!


first on our agenda was to visit miss mara and pick out a medieval headdress she had made for caroline. i love this picture of caroline and mara!


then caroline headed straight to the face painting station. i think she could've stayed there all day getting painted up. such a girlie girl. :)


when she was finished, she wanted to see what she looked like, so i snapped this shot. she is starting to lose her baby face, i'm afraid.


ethan had already had enough of this girl stuff, so he found another knight friend, caleb.


we circled around all the little games. the kids skipped some of them (like the one where silly string came shooting out the door you open! ha! i don't blame them!)






after the cake walk (my personal favorite!), we ran into cousin thumbelina! the girls were so excited to see each other. i love it!


nana was all dressed up as a medieval princess! my kids actually didn't recognize her at first and were hesitant to talk to her. i thought that was hilarious... she was a princess, not a goblin! by this point, they were used to princess nana. :)


and then we found joseph! these boys had chatted on the phone the night before about their costumes and how they would fight the pirates (joseph's cousins) at the fall festival. joseph's grandmother hooked ethan up with some finishing touches on his pull-your-knight-costume-out-of-the-bottom-of-the-dress-up-box costume! the guys thrilled on having matching shields and arm/leg guards.


boy did they love to fight with those swords! i must admit that i grew weary of the sword fighting by the end of the night... but they were so excited to be playing knights... and how do you tell them to stop when they are knights?! (and ethan is usually at home with his sword and two sisters! so fight away with joseph while you can, buddy!)


after some friendly dueling, the brave knights mounted their horses and readied for battle. ethan was a little unsure about getting up on this huge horse, but he ended up enjoying the ride.


my knight in plastic armor... i sure do love this boy.


don't you just feel so much safer with these knights and the king nearby!? (the king is joseph's neighbor friend.)


and then it was time for the queen and princesses to ride! tammy hopped on there with little claire...


and caroline was not hesitant at all to ride this palomino. (don't be impressed... i called it a "white horse" and was quickly corrected by the horse man!)


the horse handlers (whatever they're called) were so patient with the paparazzi mamas. they'd stop the horses anytime they saw us about to take a picture. the younger guy was having a hard time staying out of the picture, but we tried not to stress him out. :) they were really great to all of us!


caroline took a second ride on the horses later... this time with sweet georgia, who was celebrating her 3rd birthday! caroline kept wanting to turn around and wave at karina, and i started to get worried she was going to fall right off that horse.


the princesses showing off their sparkly shoes!


this place was crawling with princesses and glittery dresses! :) caroline loved seeing her friends all dressed up! here she is with lola and amelia.


isn't lily one cute little cowgirl!?


after the second horse ride, we went back to the gym to find gram and ethan. and then. THEN. the kids got a treat. i was not even paying attention to the size of this cotton candy! and after ethan had eaten a bunch, someone pointed out that it was twice the size of his head. wow. i was a good mother and helped him eat it. you gotta do what you gotta do to protect your kids. and caroline's sno-cone? i asked the guy to make it small, and he seriously did not know what to do. half the ice, half the syrup. is it really that difficult of a concept?!??!?!


such a little lady slurping up all that sno-cone juice...


ok, i take that back.


we should've had the sugar rush when we first arrived... not as we were about to leave. but they got all their energy out in the bouncy house on the way out the door! it was a fun, fun evening. the kids had fun spending time with their friends, and i enjoyed running into some folks i had not seen in awhile. we brought some candy home to daddy, and thankfully, the kids are still in the "out of sight, out of mind" stage. too bad mommy remembers the candy!