Baby, we're halfway there

Avelyn is six months old... as of 5 days ago but still, I can't believe it! We decided to go to the Renaissance Festival for her 1/2 year birthday. I wanted to go last year but we never made it and I was determined to take Avelyn. I was a woman on a mission to find a stool. More on that later. There is an unbelievable amount of pictures in this post but I couldn't help it, we had such a great day. The weather was perfect, if not a little hot in the sun, and the freaks were on parade. I would like to enter into evidence, Exhibit A:

But the freaks are the main reason to go to the Renaissance Festival. If you think it's fun to go to play the cheap games, eat the overpriced food or ride the incredibly unsafe looking rides you are sadly mistaken. It is the weirdos. They abound. Now don't get me wrong, I have nothing against these weirdos, for the world is full of all kinds of weirdos. As I said they are THE reason for going. That and wooden stools but we'll get to that later.

Anyway, we pulled into the festival somewhere around noonish. It had been cool that morning so I had Avelyn in a white t-shirt and jeans with a cute little green hoodie from Gymboree. Given the surprise heat and her penchant to overheat like her father, the hoodie was immediately thrown in the stroller basket and her flower headband pulled on her head to avoid any references at all to her being a boy. Ten minutes later we walked through the woods to the entrance and I heard a woman say to her husband, "Oh look at him in his blue jeans. Isn't he so cute?"

I just looked at Kevin, "SHE IS WEARING A DAMN HEADBAND. WITH A FLOWER ON IT."

"She's an idiot," was all he replied and we kept walking. After we walked about 25 feet inside the entrance my brilliant husband wondered aloud if I'd packed any sunscreen. Crap.

"Should I leave and go get some?"

"I don't know. Maybe they sell some here."

He went to ask. "The lady said they don't sell sunscreen inside the gates."

"That's ridiculous. It's an outdoor festival, how can they not sell sunscreen. Go look somewhere else."

"Okay but I might have to leave and go to that gas station up the road."

"We'll wait here."

Five minutes later Kevin returned with an outrageously expensive bottle of sunscreen that was for sale at a shop next door to the idiot lady. I make peace with her by believing that she is probably a die hard Renaissance person who believes if it wasn't made a few hundred years ago it just IS NOT sold at the Festival. That or she's a total fruit. Either way it might be the best sunscreen we've ever bought. It smelled curiously of bananas even though it wasn't Banana Boat and it didn't burn at all. I hate sunscreen because my sensitive skin burrrrrrns when I use it and I was terrified of putting it on Avelyn for the first time. I think I might buy boxes of this new stuff in bulk. After applying it we were all pasty white which is only humorous because we are three of the whitest people you will ever see with or without this body paint sunscreen.We walked around looking at wares. Avelyn flirted with several big busty ladies as if she knew what the big busty parts were meant for. (Trust me - she doesn't.) We sat around and people watched for a while while I talked about getting Avelyn's face painted (we didn't) and Kevin studied the map and figured out the most appropriate route to take so we wouldn't walk in circles (we did). We walked over to an archery set up and I talked Kevin into giving it a go. He grabbed a bow off the post and when we couldn't find any arrows he just used the bow to grab one over the fence. It's harder than it looks but he did pretty well. As we walked away I noticed a sign that read "10 arrows for $X". Way to STEAL arrows, Kevin.

When we all got hungry I had my long sought after sausage on a stick which wasn't nearly as delicious as I remember. Avelyn had a bottle. Kevin had a GIANT turkey leg and felt sick halfway through at the sheer amount of meat. I tried to guilt him into eating the whole thing by talking about how huge the turkey who died giving up that leg must have been. He didn't buy it. (And Erika, I cannot believe we never thought to take a photo of Avelyn holding that turkey leg. It must have been as big as she was.) One of Kevin's favorite tradesmen at the festival was the pickle salesman. He walked around with his big pickle carts yelling "Pickllllllllllllllllllllles! Colllllllllld pickllllllllllllllllllllles!" I really wanted to stop and ask how his Renaissance era pickle refrigerator worked but I refrained. Kevin also really enjoyed making fun of all the hypocritic weirdos.

We walked some more after lunch and looked at all the things Avelyn will one day beg to do and that I will pray don't kill her. 1) The elephant, camel or llama rides because a) it is depressing to see those beautiful animals walking in circles all day and b) who's to say they won't stage a coup and stampede away with her astride? 2) The bungee swing. I am AMAZED every child on that thing did not snap their spine. 3) The crazy renaissance version of the tea cup ride. Just looking at it made me gag on my own vomit.

I stood in line for a good 5 minutes to have my palm read. I thought I was second in line but as it turns out an entire family of half drunk "fancy" red necks (red necks with a little money) were in front of me, all talking at length about who should get what. "You git the massage and the tarot and I'll get the palm reading. No let's all git massages together! No let's all git a reading and a massage and we can go get another drink until it's our turn!" I took it as a sign and walked away. It would have been entertaining but I don't need a kook to tell me what an awesome life I'm going to have and how rich I'm going to be. And if she was going to say something else than clearly she's an idiot too.

We strolled through some gardens and got some pictures of my little Sweet Face. Wouldn't you know she smiled the biggest when Kevin forgot he was on manual focus.

I finally found another face painting booth that didn't have a long line and jumped in. Five minutes later we had this!

I'm still bummed I didn't get one too. Next time, definitely. We went in a lot of shops and found neat things but we couldn't get everything we liked and I was still holding out hope for a stool. I wish we'd gotten things in every one of these stores. Look how interested she is in the water prisms...

For the rest of the day we merely walked around looking in shops, ate some funnel cake and took photos. I found a pretty butterfly garland to hang from the ceiling in Avelyn's room. I will try to get a photo and post it here later so if you really, really care about butterfly ceiling hangy things be sure to check this post tomorrow for an update.

Here are some good Avelyn and Daddy shots. Anyone else want to second his motion for a paternity test? No?!? Didn't think so.

My husband, the ham. Okay, I asked him to take the executioner picture. There is a photo of my dad in the whatchamacallit thingy you put your head and hands through at the Renaissance Festival of 1987. I was kind of recreating that memory. He did it for me.

Avelyn's six month birthday pictures! These are some of my favorite pictures of her to date. She sat up so well at her Halloween pics on Friday and by the time we took these on Saturday she was a sitting up pro. Oh, my beautiful baby.

So about this stool I was looking for... I have a vague memory of a stool my sister got when we were little. I remember her getting it at the Renaissance Fair. That may not be true but please, don't fool with my memories, they're all I have left. Anyway, I remember getting one of those flower crowns with ribbons running down the back but it clearly did not last as long as that stool. I think it had a bear with some balloons on it or something and maybe had her name painted on it. I'm not sure but for some reason the memory of this stupid stool stuck with me and I wanted one for Avelyn. Maybe it is because it is something that will last longer than a fairy costume or a pair of wings. It's something Avelyn can use at the bathroom sink to brush her teeth or crawl into her big girl bed when the time comes.

We looked all day for this stool and couldn't find anything. I was getting pretty discouraged. Disillusioned, I thought of the earlier Festival experience and how different it seemed to me 20 years later. Finally we stumbled into one of the last stores of the day. I wasn't even going that direction, I was ready to pack up and go when Kevin dragged me over "just to check it out". Guess what we found... Avelyn's stool! It was perfect. I fell in love with it the moment I saw it. We hemmed and hawed about a butterfly desk/chair combo, a lamb rocking chair or this ladybug stool. The other two were more expensive and they were beautiful but in the end I decided to stick with what I came for. I love it, and I hope it gets a lot of wear and tear over the next few years.

All in all we had such a wonderful time. I can't believe six months have gone by since Avelyn was born. Just today I watched the video of her birth for the first time. It was beautiful. Of course it helped that Kevin heeded my words and angled the camera in a way that does not show the ooey gooey. I had almost forgotten how tiny she was. How beautiful she was from the very beginning. Also, how freaking good I looked for having just birthed a human being.

Happy half year birthday, Avelyn!!

Love, Momma