The alligators of November

Brazos Bend State Park







Baby snapping turtle next to my wedding ring for scale.


Fall color.


Spanish moss.


Then the storm hit.


RAIN!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Your blessing, be thankful for them.
They bring you joy, rewards, and thrill.

Your problems, be thankful for them.
They teach you humbleness, patience, and inner strength.

Your family, be thankful for them.
They do all of the above!!

Thanks and blessing to you all.

Adventure! Excitement! Turkey!

Back Twice

It is a common misconception that having a time machine would give one more time to get stuff done. Alas, this is not true. At least for mortals, anyway. Having access to all of time means there so many more things to do and see than one person's life can handle so one must choose when to go wisely.

I find choosing lunchtime is always a good place to visit.


Lunchtime during the Renaissance Period, in particular. This last week we made two trips back to that joyous past! The first as part of a school adventure followed by a return trip just to hang out and have fun.

The school trip was particularly awesome because Miniwether won first place in a poetry contest!


Miniwether's poem "The Fairies"

Flying with the birds,
Sitting on a snail,
Listening to it rain
On the water pail!

Hopping from a leaf,
Dancing on a flower,
Making rose buds bloom
With their special power.

Spinning in a garden
On their little toes!
Has anybody seen them?
Does anybody know?

The Fairies dance and sing.
The Fairies love to fly!
They watch it rain upon the pail
And see the world go by!

She beat out approximately 50 other kids in her age category. Cool!

Since it was School Days, the performers usually asked for teachers to help with the different acts. Seeing as Misseswether is a homeschooling mom she jumped up when a volunteer was needed for the Fire Whip Show.








Clark and the Clackettes attended with us, as well as a friend of theirs and her kids. Actually, I'm not sure how many children were with us, they move too fast to track! Note Miniwether's medal. :-)


Mine plus one of the Clarkettes.


Misseswether is really pretty.


The day ended way too soon so I was very happy when we returned a few days later. Both girls were give $20 in "love money" to spend any way they wanted. Mambowether went straight to lady Eve's face painting booth. Being the first customer of the day, not to mention being in garb and extremely polite Lady Eve painted both girls at a steep price discount. Sweet!


Meanwhile Misseswether chatted with Shakespeare. He's very interesting.


The beautiful final results.




Mambowether also wanted to do the rope boat swing thing. It's fun and the lady running it offered once again to let her go as long as she wanted. After ten minutes (double the normal ride length) I called for it to be stopped just because we had lots more to do.

Happy!



There are lots of free stuff to do. At one point the girls got pulled into a fairy story and by that I mean a story told by two fairies.


Toy makers are always looking for people to lure in to buying their wares by allowing free play. For some reason the "Safer Swords" seller thought my girls would be good models for his implements of limited destruction.


He greatly underestimated Mambowether's fierceness.


Battle-hardened princess and dad.


Cast in Bronze is Misseswether's favorite musical act and high on the rest of our lists, too.


As usual the Wethergirls were invited to the Queen of France's tea party of princesses.


Game time after cookies and lemonade.


How often do you see monster and Rasputin playing chess?


Normally the faire closes with fireworks but the horrible drought and resulting burn ban disallowed that. So instead fairy magic was brought into play to finish the day.

Look, fairies!








The Flaming Whip joined in.








Then more fairy sparkles.














After twenty flashtastic minutes the fairies had to leave and human performers took the stage to sing a final song. What a great day.


Me after a great day!


Adventure! Excitement! RenFest!

Candyman 2011

Oh...hell no!
-Girl after seeing our house on Halloween night

These are a few of my favorite things...






The Wethergirls raiding the candybowl.


The Candyman.




Adventure! Excitement! Terror!