Day 1592 - Ren Fest

Yesterday, Melissa, my father, and I took Ruth to the Maryland Renaissance Festival.  Ruth is very excited about stories of princesses and knights and dragons and such, so we thought she'd have a good time.

And she did!  Sorry, didn't mean to leave you in suspense.

Melissa had the good idea, since we knew she'd be interested in the costumes, of helping Ruth make one for herself to bring.  So, you can see her outfitted in her knight's breastplate.  Melissa spraypainted it silver, and painted the phoenix on the front as a device (at Ruth's request).  In the next photo, you can see Ruth striking a "knight pose" and showing the rose she painted on the back.

Despite my insistence that there were some famous female knights and warriors, like Joan of Arc and Wonder Woman, she insisted that she was going to tell everyone her dress was a tunic because she was in disguise as a boy, since "most fighters are boys."

After a somewhat confusing scene at the entrance (that you're not interested in, I'm sure) about whether or not we needed tickets in addition to our internet "vouchers," we went in and let Ruth lead the way around.

Oh, by the by, Ren Fests are always an eye-opener.  Who would have thought that belly dancing and tattoos were so popular in the Rennaissance? <\ obligatory joke about Ren Faires being more D&D than history>

We started out by catching a performance of A Fool Called O and La La's show right after we got in.  I thought some of the physical comedy was funny, but it left Ruth underwhelmed aside from the whoopee cushion bits.  Oh well.  Then we found a face-painting booth; face-painting is Ruth's new obsession.  So she quickly ended up being a rainbow-princess-knight.  A hungry-for-meat-rainbow-princess-knight.

Bellies full of teriyaki (AUTHENTIC RENASSAINCE FOOD) jerky (and mine of coffee), we saw a ping-pong crossbow game that Ruth wanted to try out.  I helped her steady and aim the crossbow; she didn't hit anything (unsurprisingly), but seemed to think it was neat to pull the trigger.

The other big thing that Ruth decided she wanted to try was climbing the rock wall.  I was about to tell her she was still a little bit too small, but the attendant said that, nope, they'd had smaller kids try, so I figured I'd let her give it a go.

Ruth getting snugged into the harness

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Miss Paige talking to Ruth about how to climb the wall.

Climbing!

Unfortunately, right after I took that last picture, I came around to the side to get a snap of Ruth from a different angle (she'd made it up to having her foot on that yellow rock) and she started to get scared.  So they let her down, and tried to give me my money back, which was nice.

Let's see, I'm going to get the order wrong, I'm sure, but for most of the rest of the day we:

• At Ruth's insistence that she "knows it's fake" and "won't be scared," tried - and failed - to take a walk through the Museum of the Unnatural.
• Watched part of the singing pirates, which Ruth seemed to enjoy, but then asked to leave because she had "stage fright."  We tried to explain that you can only really have stage fright when you're on stage, but that was her story and she was sticking to it.
• Rode ponies, for free!  The pony-leaders did not seem that thrilled with their jobs.  Ruth's pony was named Misty.  Surprisingly, later in the day she turned down my offer to buy an elephant ride for her.
• Ruth wanted to watch me throw axes, and to be fair I didn't take too much prodding.  I could consistently hit the target, but not get the rotation right - I kept bonking it with the handle.
• Ate bratwurst.  My dad tried a smoked turkey leg, which was, as I remembered them to be, really hard to eat.
• We went to the children's knighting ceremony, but Ruth was getting pretty wiggly, and has stage fright (see above) so didn't want to go up to get her picture taken with the king and queen.

We figured we'd end the day with the Joust, and we did go.  It was cool, Ruth enjoyed it, and the dude who got unhorsed made it look like hitting the ground in full armor is really, really, really not fun.  Ruth was acting very tired by this point (despite an emergency ration of candied nuts), so we skipped the siege engines that I'd wanted to see to head out, but then Ruth got sucked into the Renaissance Man's Romeo and Juliet show.  

If Ruth tells you that Romeo and Juliet made "poor life choices," as she did to us several times on the car ride, home, that's from me trying to explain why everyone dies at the end.

She also turned out to be fascinated watching one of the small glass-blowers after being utterly uninterested in watching the larger glass-blowing show (that Melissa took in).  She watched him make a small dragon hatching from an egg in rapt fascination, along with a ten-or-so-year-old boy who was really digging it.

Then home again home again, and to complete our tour de force of historical accuracy by watching Jason and the Argonauts.

MELISSA: Oh, so that's why the restaurant is called "Harryhausen's" in Monsters, Inc

Days 1290-1291: Secret Parties!

Friday, we recovered.  I think we ate pizza and watched Ratatouille.  But then, that's just statistically a good guess as to what we did.

Saturday was kind of a big day.  My mom had noticed that they were setting up a market on the lower campus, and so Saturday morning my folks were going to take Ruth there to look around while I caught up on some more work (if you must know, I started reading Osiel's Obeying Orders).

Then I got a call from my Dad telling me I needed to come down to it, as there was a huge celebration going on.  I heard Ruth say, "I saw a king!"  So I rushed down.

The first thing I noticed was that it appeared to be a major royal event sponsored by MTN.  And people say that tradition and modernity can't mix.  Pfft.  That tent you see on the left of the photo was signing people up for MTN mobile service through the whole thing.

It took a bit to figure out what was going on.  I'd missed out on the big parade when most of the VIPs came in, but fortunately, chiefs kept arriving (often interrupting the announcer, who was trying to keep things moving forward with random chiefs who couldn't be bothered to show up on time barging through and needing some pomp and circumstance).

Anyway, like I said, it was all very impressive - "I saw a princess! With a silver tiara (more of a headwrap with silver threading - Ed.)!" "I saw a queen, and you know what?  She threw candy at me!" "That man with the golden staff must be the king." "No, sweetie, I think he's the linguist, sort of like the king's herald." "No, I think he's the king." - but it was a bit hard to figure out what it was all about.  Part of it was language barrier, and part of it was that everyone around seemed to think of it as common knowledge - we'd ask, and they'd be like, "oh, it's just the [word I don't know]."

As near as we could figure out, it was part of a celebration of the founding of Akuafo Hall - "The people in green are the ladies in waiting!" "Sure - they're wearing green though because that's fabric for the residence hall they live in." - which was given a large grant back in the day from the cocoa farmers' associations.  So we think this was the durbar (gathering/procession of chiefs) to celebrate that and elect the "Farmer King" and "Queen Mother" of the hall.

Anyway, it was fun to watch!  And made up a little for the fact that, due to a date change, the Sunday Adae festival in Kumasi, where the Asantehene (King) meets with his subjects was the same weekend that we were in Tafi.  But this way at least Ruth got to see a king with a golden crown.  And for the rest of the week she kept wrapping herself up in sheets with one shoulder bare, emulating the way the "princesses" wore their robes.

After that, we did in fact go over to the market, where Ruth had a ball getting her hair braided, and my dad talked highlife with the guy who owned the beauty school whose pavillion we were in.

That night, my folks went out for Nigerian food with the Fulbrights across the hall (Bill and Theresa), and Ruth and I went to a SUPER SECRET HALLOWEEN PARTY.  I'd been invited to bring her to it on the condition that I not share too many details (especially in advance).  And my mom had brought with her some fairy wings and a fairy tutu, so Ruth even had a costume to wear.

I felt a little bit bad for her.  As I'm not an employee of REDACTED and everyone else there was, talking to the adults was fine and people were friendly but it was clear that they knew each other well and were more being polite to me (can't fault them for that!).  So a bit awkward, so I can deal.  But most of the kids were kids of the employees, and so clearly knew each other well.  Ruth spent a lot of time running up to everyone, explaining that she was a fairy, and asking, "what are you supposed to be?"  Some of the older kids kind of snubbed her, but mostly they were like the adults - polite, but she wasn't part of their group.

Still, she seemed to mostly have fun, so I'm probably projecting awkwardness that a 3 year old doesn't really feel the same way.

They had pinatas (separated by age), but Ruth balked when it came time to hit hers and just watched/grabbed candy when it was broken.

One of the cool things, though, was that they had a "trunk or treat," which I'd never heard of.  What it ended up being was that, in the parking lot, a bunch of folks had decorated the trunks of their cars - pretty elaborately! - and the kids went from trunk to trunk getting candy.  People really went all out - costumes, light shows, smoke machines, etc. and Ruth seemed to think it was all pretty cool.  She especially liked the 70s-themed one.

After trunk-or-treating (and eating some of the candy), we waited in line for the "non-scary" (lights on) run through the haunted house.  Kudos to the work put in by the folks who did it, but even the "non-scary" run was pretty scary for the little ones.  Ruth was the youngest to brave it (Melissa!  She really wanted to go, and they said non-scary!) but all of the kids on my run flipped out a little at the "scary doctor."  They had not turned the lights on in his room, and it was frankly pretty creepy - a patient tied down spreadeagled and moaning/writhing on a medical cot, the "doctor" with a bloodstained lab coat and glow-in-the-dark butcher knife, etc.  Ruth needed to be carried the rest of the way (and reassured that we were leaving as quickly as we could) and one of the other girls (about 7 or 8) who had gone in without her parents held my hand the rest of the way, too.

Afterwards, I was more or less able to convince Ruth that the scary doctor was really a nice man who was only pretending to be scary, and we called George and went home.  Poor George - by now, Ruth had warmed up to him, and monologued to him about the party the whole way home (especially about how the scary doctor was just pretend), but I think George didn't quite understand that she was trying to talk to him instead of talking to me.

Plus, you know, scary doctor, but she thought the scary clown was hilarious.

Day 1158 - I Have No Idea What is Going On In This Picture

From 21st Century Digital Kid

Day 1060 - Ruth is a Princess/Chef

From 21st Century Digital Kid

Yep. I'll be trying to update things a bit better. Gimme a minute.

Schober-Levine Family Christmas!

Now that we've got Ruth, having the only family tradition being heading to see Trixie Little and Mr. Gorgeous in the Holiday Spectac-u-thon isn't going to cut it.

Of course (day 970), to get her in touch with her roots, we like to go to the Kwanzaa festival at the BMA (though this year the drums were too loud for her):

From 21st Century Digital Kid

Another, started last year with my folks, is to head out to Feezers Organic Tree Farm* to have Ruth pick out a tree.

Day 977 - The Tree Farm

From 21st Century Digital Kid

From 21st Century Digital Kid

Later (same day) we went home and the ever-handy Melissa helped Ruth make (as requested) a wreath/spray for the front door from some of the boughs we found at the tree farm. After an hour of searching various stores, I finally had the good sense to go to my mother's favorite store, Herman's Discount and found ribbon and inexpensive bulb ornaments for it.

From 21st Century Digital Kid

From 21st Century Digital Kid

Then Melissa and Ruth trimmed the tree, including the garland that my Mem gave me, which had been on the tree when I was a kid (I did the lights and placed the tree upright, but there's no photo of me being assaulted by a thousand Norway Spruce needles. I sang this song to comfort myself).

From 21st Century Digital Kid

From 21st Century Digital Kid

From 21st Century Digital Kid

And then, of course, there's Christmas morning (Day 983)! Ruth got a magic dragon wand:

From 21st Century Digital Kid

And she played with her spaceship dollhouse in her much-beloved tutu from Uncle David:

From 21st Century Digital Kid

She also got a moose from Aunt Connie that she looooooooves! But, unfortunately, I took a photo of her hugging it before I realized that last night, while cooking, I'd accidentally smeared duck fat on the lens of my phone's camera. We should all have such problems.

And, of course, she started writing thank you notes:

From 21st Century Digital Kid

* Insufferable liberalism not included with price of tree.