Renaissance Festival

Last Saturday was a beautiful day and so we took our first family trip to the Kansas City Renaissance Festival!  It was a K-State game day so our whole family was decked out in our purple and powercats.  

There were lots of booths in small old buildings and lots of games set up for adults and kids.  Nolan had a blast trying a few of them. This one was a crossbow that shoots a ping pong ball.  Love Maya's concentration!

Nolan had some serious concentration too!  Both kids loved the crossbow game.  Nolan also played a leap frog game trying to bounce a wooden frog onto a lily pad.

While we were walking through the "King" and "Queen" of the Renaissance Festival happened to be out for a stroll along with their entourage.  Everyone was in costume and character!

The highlight for Nolan was the jousting.  They have real men actually jousting and getting knocked off their horses!  It was quite impressive!

Maya's new experience was getting her face painted.  We have been encouraging the kids to get their faces painted for years and both of them were too scared or disinterested.  Finally Maya found a pink unicorn that caught her eye and was so excited!!!

Nolan's exciting adventure was trying a kid's joust.  He waited in a long line alone (and made some new friends by chatting up a storm with them) and had to sit on this wooden horse suspended in mid-air.  Can you see him up high to the left of the railing?

He held a jousting lance and after they let the horse go he had to try and "slay" the dragon by sticking his lance through the metal ring in the dragon's mouth.  He did it on the first try!

After that, Nolan was knighted!  He also got a sticker.  :) 

 We were proud of him trying something new all by himself!