What-What?! Week of February 3rd

Last weekend was Ursulmas, an SCA event organized by our barony, but attended by people from the entire kingdom.  It's probably the most public-facing event of the year, intended to foster interest in Medieval times.

The husband and I volunteered to help with the Ursulwick Village, which is a series of vignettes showing examples of historical life.  As part of this, there's a kitchen area, a small farm, a garden, and a dining hall.

For the display, we spent the two weeks or so before the event making a prop stove out of two-by-twos and styrofoam insulation.  Very pleased with how it came out:

Maestra Fiamma provided the other bits -- firewood, pots, standing portion, etc.  We were actually getting people walking up to it and touching it to see if it was real brick!

Another part of the kitchen area -- can you see the rubber chicken?  The table in the front area there held Maestra Fiamma's almond milk making demo -- we had raw almonds, a bowl of hot water (soak them in this to free the skins), and a mortar and pestle to crush the almonds.  My kids each spent some time working the mortar and pestle or skinning the almonds.

The barn and rose garden area -- this area was specifically set up to provide a nice photo opportunity.

Everyone look at the camera at once, and not look miserable?  Difficulty rating is pretty high.

Taking a break to play around :)

The husband, discussing the quern he was demonstrating.  This viking-style hand quern is family-sized, and was made by another SCA member.  Historically, this quern would be worked by the youngest children, and for long parts of the day that's exactly what my kids did.  It was pretty funny watching my two little boys squabble over who did what, and what order things should be done in, etc.  When they were sorted out and working as a team, they were a pretty good flour-making machine.  As you can tell from the photo, by the end of the weekend my husband was well-covered in flour.

Saffron, playing around with part of the quern demo -- this is a piece that shows how the grooves on the interior sides of the rocks grind the grain into smaller pieces.

What-What?! Week of January 6th

Didn't post last week because I was too discombobled to know it was Sunday...

So here's some Christmas pictures!  I swear I had more of these, but I can't seem to find them now.  If I find them later, I will post.

First, Christmas Eve.  This year we opened one present each that night, then the rest Christmas morning:

Our Christmas tree this year -- it was a bit gappy and not the best because there was apparently a tree shortage this year.

Osric was really excited to have this, and we have now played it enough to know where all the ambiguous rules are, because we have argued about them.

This is definitely one of Corwin's favorite gifts -- the Dungeons and Dragons Starter Set.  He immediately sat down and started reading the rules and adventure, and now wants to run a game for the family.

Lego!  Much Lego was had this Christmas -- the house is bit awash in them.

Playing Trouble with Oz

Saffron organized her Lego extensively before building

He is actually happy at this time, but all the pictures of him smiling were blurry. :P

Christmas morning

Giant yeti castle thing -- this goes with his giant yeti thing

This is a pretty cool set -- it's like a cross between Lego and old school Construx.  He's built the crossbow and it works quite well, and also pretty sturdy.  I am impressed.

Saffron got a few Barbie sets this year -- she's gotten a bit back into them.  This is a bee keeper set, and she also got a set with a dog that gives birth to puppies.

Harry Potter GOOD.  This kid got lots of HP this year, much to her delight.

Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots.  This game is moderately loud by itself, but turns into extremely loud with the two boys playing/yelling at each other

I don't know where the other T-shirt pictures I took went, but Oz got this one, Corwin also got a ninja one, I got a pyromaniac squirrel with a flamethrower, and the husband got a DnD dungeon diving one

Saffron got a bit of Hogwarts -- the Whomping Willow, and a portion of the castle, including Snape's office and the Gryffindor dormitories

This is a Lego stop-motion movie making set;  expect some movies in the near future...

A Harry Potter dragon -- the wings on it are posable, so I believe right now it's hooked on her bed

I bought the husband a Star Wars Y-wing Lego set -- this is a big model.  It's not as fancy as the special black box edition (which is something like $300), but very nice all the same.  Eventually would be cool to display this and our other Star Wars sets together somehow.

These Hot Wheels city sets are pretty cool -- the kids bought these sets for each other.  They hook together, and also hook up to the regular HW sets, so you can make a giant area to drive your cars around in.  The boys' have used their own money to buy another four sets since then.  Oz really wants you to know that he bought himself a color shifter car that changes color when in hot or cold water.  Connecting all the sets together takes up about half the living room right now.

Finished HP set -- this took her quite a while to do, but she was able to complete it by herself

Corwin got this building set to create a motorized bug -- it walks around by itself!  Pretty cool set, though he needed help with some of the screws, since the holes weren't very well aligned

Finished bug -- this guy will actually walk over bumps and stuff too, so if you get it started and forget about it, you may find it someplace surprising

There is tons of stuff I don't have pictures of -- I got a ton of music, including some stuff by The Sweet, which is really good if you aren't familiar.  Comic books, a few movies, fancy chocolates... yeah, was nice.  I took about a week and a half off work and mostly actually didn't work, sorta.  Did very little of anything, actually. :)