What-What?! Week of October 9th

Arlington Viking Fest

Last weekend, we headed over to the Arlington Viking Fest, now in it's second year.  It was much bigger this year, spreading out over two days, and with lots more stuff to see.

The first thing we did, though, was FIGHT!

There was a boffer fighting area set up, and the kids did a few rounds of combat.  The first round, the shields the kids picked were absolutely MASSIVE.

You can see here that the shield is just about the size of Corwin.

This kid knows how to strike a pose!

Peter did the axe throwing -- here he is learning how to throw an axe.

Winding up!

Nearly a bull's eye! He was pretty good at it, actually.

There was a very friendly blacksmith and his friend, who talked at length about the process and science of blacksmithing.

The blacksmith's friend, showing Corwin what they were making.  It's a Thor's hammer pendant with the great wyrm Jormungand wrapped around it.

Ozzy spent part of the day just being grumpy, but I finally got him to look and touch some chainmail.  We then spent the rest of the day touching all the different chainmail.

He especially liked this picture of a Viking boat, too.

Yeah, we had to do these.

The Sons of Norway was there with their model Viking ship thing.  The kids had a good time climbing aboard and being Vikings.

There were a number of other things that we didn't get pictures of -- the Empire of Medieval Pursuits was there, doing sparring demonstrations.  We saw and took turns grinding barley with a small grindstone.  There was also a local author, and we picked up one of this novels for Saffron (who impressed everyone when she informed them that she had already read ALL the Harry Potter books), and a coloring book for everyone.

It was a very good time, and I am looking forward to next year.

What-What?! Week of October 25th

So, this week's big disaster:

That is the husband's computer and associated electronics and papers strewn over the floor.  My two youngest kids got into a heated argument over cartoon characters, when Oz, who had been sitting at the computer playing video games, decided to beat his opinion into his brother.  Oz became entangled in the cords of the computer, and pulled the whole lot off.  The electronics were not unscathed, but they are entirely functional, so it could have been worse.  No children were hurt.

In other news, Saffron got her early birthday present, a loft bed:

(Husband for scale)

It is very tall, with plenty of space underneath.  In the future, we plan on getting Saffron a desk and a small dresser to put under there.  She's gunning for a giant doll house right now, though.  We'll see if that happens.

On account of this, the both boys are now in the bunk bed:

Corey is very excited, especially considering that we had originally told him that he'd have to wait until he was six to go up top.  Oz is less excited, but he has told us that the real bed is much more comfortable than his toddler bed, so he doesn't dislike it at all.

Yesterday, I took Saffron to a Girl Scout disaster preparedness event put on by the Red Cross and partially (or fully?) funded by Disney.  They mainly discussed earthquake and fire safety, and provided booklets with more information about other emergencies.  The other thing that each girl got was a pillowcase to hold disaster preparedness items, which is emblazoned a list of all the things you should have in there.  The girls were allowed to color them:

Saffron didn't quite get enough time to finish her pillowcase, but I'm pretty sure that I have some markers that will work for it here at home.  If nothing else, I have about a million permanent markers.

Later today, we'll be celebrating Saffron's birthday, which we're really excited about.  She's turning eight, which is both wonderful and slightly terrifying.  Photos from that will be posted next week.