St. Francis Festival

This past weekend we visited the ol' Alma Mater (and accompanying families) for a fun weekend of partying, Medieval-style! :) Because it's a Franciscan School, they throw a big shindig every fall around St. Francis' feastday. This was the occasion for Miriam's medieval princess dress.

The girls were angels on the trip. They did a fair amount of this:

What, don't you like to fall asleep chewing on a gumby mouse?

I packed the car with snacks, books, and toys, plus we kept driving past fields with cows, so they stayed well entertained for the 6 hour trip. We also stopped halfway at our now traditional stopping-place, a Burger King with a playplace! Woo hoo!

We got lots of good family time. Miriam and Edy attached at the hip the instant they saw each other. We had to surgically separate them before we left.

Two beautiful princesses.

The festival itself was quite fun -- or at least, it would have been if it hadn't been drizzling the whole time. Various Households had booths set up with food, games, crafts, knick-knacks, all kinds of stuff. They even had games like "Kiss the Leper and Earn a Plenary Indulgence" and "Baptize the Heathen with a Water Balloon". Only at Steubenville!

There was even a petting zoo set up on campus, with teeny-bopper owners hovering about protectively. Miriam promptly dropped her guinea pig. Then Katie tried to grab one and it started squeaking. So we left.

I swear this is not painted on.

Later she did better with a kitten.

Painted ladies.

The highlight of the day:

Pony rides!!! Both Edy and Miriam sat very well on their horses. I thought it was cute that Edy kept trying to hold the reins and steer the horse. She knew EXACTLY what to do.

When we got too cold and soggy we went inside the student center for the living chess game. I wish I had gotten some good pictures -- I learned halfway through the game that it was Middle Earth vs. Narnia. Some of the costumes were very clever. One of the black rooks was a guy dressed as the wardrobe: he wore a big piece of cardboard with doors painted on it, and did battle with coat hangers. The other black rook was Mr. Tumnus, wearing what looked like a furry rug and carrying an umbrella. He also had ears that I'm guessing were made out of paper towels tubes. The black king was Professor Digory, played by... one of the professors! When he did battle he read out of a huge book that he carried, then whapped his opponent with it. It's good to see that the professor who taught me Greek & Roman Mythology hasn't lost his comic edge. On the side of Middle Earth, there were quite a number of elves (with bandaids for flesh-colored pointed ears) and hobbits. My favorite, however, was one of the rooks:

Barad-Dur. (At first I thought it was a rocket ship!)

After the game was over, the White Witch of Narnia gave Miriam her crown and scepter, which of course she shared with Edy.

Best friends forever!


Whenever we return from vacation, one of the things I like about unpacking is still smelling the place were we visited on our clothes. While unpacking Miriam's suitcase I held up her pajamas and told her to sniff. She inhaled deeply, smiled, and said, "Mmmmm, it smells all Haroldy!"