Okay, we have been out of town all week, hence the blogging lag. We are now back to posting the rest of my mom’s visit, and then I will still have to back blog all of July. How did this happen? Anyway, we posted some pics of Friesach, now time for the huge medieval festival! The kids were all dressed in their knight costumes, and the weather was perfect, not too hot to be outside all day.
The first stop was the mouse maze gambling. There is a small maze with houses in each corner, and you pay a small fee to choose which house you think the mouse will go to first. Then you can win double your money. Oliver just wanted to watch the mouse, so we hung out here for quite awhile.
There were a lot of little parades through the festival area that were fun for the kids to watch. The festival was tons of fun, but it was bigger and better last year, as they closed down the whole town last year, and this year they choose a smaller area. There weren’t any mock fights this year either, which was disappointing. Still a neat festival though.
This kids enjoyed being locked in the prison cage. Maybe I should get one at home…
While we watched some dancers perform, Oliver starting ripping up grass and putting it on this lady’s shoes. Every time I tried to stop him she would look down and smile at him and tell me it was fine, so then he would do it more and look up at her with his happiest face. What a ham.
Here is the blacksmith. The kids liked watching all the craftsmen, especially the ones who work with fire. I am amazed that there are still people who know how to do all this stuff. There was a blacksmith, there are people who work with looms and combing out wool, people who handmake leather shoes. Fun stuff to watch.
There was this cute little wood horse the kids could ride, which Elora and Oliver were very excited about. Elora was so excited to have her knight costume on and to ride a horse. Very cute.
Ollie with his turn on the horse. 
This lady was selling homemade jams, but she had a pet jackdaw. Random, but the kids thought it was neat to get close to the bird.
I’m thinking we should have made this purchase, it really completes Elora’s ensemble.
Oliver was happy to check out all the shields before he picked one out. Now he will have a better chance when fighting Elora since she got a shield last year!
It is so much fun to take Elora to festivals. She loves looking at all the items for sale, so you really get to enjoy all the booths when you bring her along.
Here is Coby trying on an awesome hat. I am not sure that is really authentic for the medieval time period.
Elora saw the face painting and asked for nothing else until we took her back over. She squinched her little eyes shut and was very still the whole time. She even got videoed for tv while getting her face painted, so the lady did an especially good job on Elora’s butterfly face. Oliver hung out with himself in the mirror while waiting for Elora.
Here is our fancy butterfly! She made us take lots of pictures and she asked to look in mirrors frequently the rest of the day.
Ollie having a great time with Daddy at the festival.
Whenever Oliver would hear music he would run off in search of it. We stayed to watch this band for awhile, and Oliver danced the whole time. The music was definately his favorite part of the festival.
Elora making her Ultimate Warrior face. I think the butterfly looked prettier without her chainmail on… She was actually trying to roar at us before attacking us with her stick.
And then the sword fighting began!
We found this little wood horse that some kids were playing with. They let Elora and Oliver ride while they pulled it around the grass.
After a long day of partying at the Spectaculum, both kids passed out in the stroller while waiting for the firebreathing to start. We took them back to the hotel and grandma watched them while we went back with Coby and his mom to see the firebreather.
Before the firebreathing, there was a witch trial. I didn’t really understand what was going on, other than they brought this girl in and out, and then some kids did a little dance with glowing blue rocks that looked like dragon eggs. Hmm. I think they were chanting and dancing to protect themselves from the witch’s charms or something.
Lots of fire juggling. It was pretty cool because they had multiple people performing at once. The guy last year was better, but it is more spectacular to watch three and four people playing with fire at once.
Wow! We were all speculating what they drink to make them spit fire. I thought it was some form of alcohol, but when I did some research after we got home, alcohol can be used, but the best fuel is actually paraffin or highly purified lamp oil. Eewww… that can’t taste good. Still very cool to watch though. A great way to end the Spectaculum!
