Xavier's First Renaissance Festival

Yesterday we took Xavier to his very first Renaissance Festival, specifically the Maryland Renaissance Festival.  It's the first time Liz & I have been able to get to a ren fest in the last four years, previously having it been a yearly occurrence for most of the 13 years we've been together.  We were also there 5 years + 1 day since we got married (wearing renaissance attire), so it was a big day all around.

I thought Xavier would have a great time.  I wasn't prepared for how much fun he would have!

Liz & Xavier waiting while I get gas before our 1.5 hour drive to the festival. We were lucky & there was no traffic. We got there just as they were opening.

Tickets acquired! He was already having fun before we were even inside!

My Lady and the little prince.

Loving the smiles! We got many compliments on his attire.

They had free pony rides for kids.  After a bit of convincing Xavier said he wanted to ride the pony. I'll be damned but he didn't chicken out like he normally does with that kind of thing. I even had to stop him from taking down the rope barrier and jumping on one of the ponies.  Problem was when we were in line I said "When this pony comes back around then its your turn."  That pony came back and it was HIS DAMNED TURN.  He didn't get upset or anything, he was just super jazzed.

Liz calls this picture "Proud Daddy."  Pretty much.

Waiting in line for a pony. That's totally not Angry Orchard hard cider in my cup.

Ride that pony!

He was having a blast!

Smiles!

Some of the Royal Court.

Bows.

Observing the Royal Court. That piece of paper was from a coin striking booth. Xavier held onto it for like an hour. He loves the designs on the pictures of the coins.

There was a reptile house at the festival! This dude is awesome.

Not surprisingly the reptile house (which was free admission) was one of Xavier's favorite parts. We went back later.

This is where things started to get weird.  They had a dunk tank, or as it was called in ye olde mediaval tymes: Drench-a-Wench.  Xavier wanted to watch.  This is totally normal for him, he loves watching people do things.  A few younger kids tried and they got to stand really close.  Xavier was having a blast watching.  Liz went to a nearby shop to look around while I stayed with Xavier as there was no pulling him away.

I told him when we got to the festival that he didn't have to do anything he didn't want to and if he wanted to do something just ask.  Everyone in line at the Drench-a-Wench had their shots and left.  I told Xavier it was time to go.  He grabbed my hand and said "I want to try!"

I looked at him in shock.  "Seriously?!"

He gave me a big smile.  "Yeah!"

"Are you sure you want to try?"

"Yeah!"

I just started laughing.  "Okay!"

So we head over to the booth and the guy comes over.  "The little man would like to try!"  I was doing that proud daddy giggle.  Fellow dads will know the one.

"How old is he?"

I laughed.  "He's very nearly three."  He smiled and grabbed three balls as I gave him the whole $1 game cost.

By this point Xavier was already over to where he'd seen the little girl in the above picture and I was hurrying to get my camera.  Remember, Liz was nowhere around and I knew I had to grab a picture of this!  The nice gentlemen was telling Xavier to get twice as close as he already was and Xavier had no hesitation complying while I stood way the hell away from him (again, this is all very strange behavior from him. Good! But unusual.)

"Come stand here."

 As Xavier was walking up I heard the "wench" say something about him getting a free one.  I didn't understand until about a minute later what she meant.

Side note: For adult & older kids the wench calls out insults/taunts like at a carnival. For Xavier she was silent, as you'd expect. The sign on the lower right is sad, but probably necessary for some people.

"Try and hit right here."

First ball too low!

Second ball very close!

Third ball even closer!

This is when I figured out what the "free one" was.  The guy picked up a ball off the ground, handed it to Xavier and said "now close your eyes and throw it!"

I got him about to push the button!

 That was the best thing in the world.

Congratulations!

Priceless smile.

Fortunately Liz came over for the last actual throw and saw the rest. Awesome.

After the Drench-a-Wench Xavier found a bunch of people juggling.  Turns out it was a free juggling school.  Xavier was too young to learn, but one of the teachers talked Liz into trying.

Chillin' at the jugglin' school.  Prince-ing it up.

The school was right next to the playground, so we watched Liz learn to juggle one then two balls then went over to the playground.

Two ball juggling in full ren gear!

Another weird thing for Xavier: he played on playground equipment with tons of other kids around. That very rarely happens.

 After that he said he was hungry so we went back over the the juggling school and sat on a bench and ate some lunch.

Liz and her very cool and helpful teacher.

FOCUS.

So it turns out Liz can juggle now!  Who knew!

From there is was mostly general exploring and having fun.

It did not take much to convince him to ride that turtle.

Of course, he loved seeing the elephant and camel.  Wasn't interested in a ride, which suited us just fine.

Majestic creature. Also there's a camel and elephant.

 Eventually it was time to go. That's when Xavier discovered one of his favorite things of the day at a shop near the gate.  A puppet maker.

Xavier crazy loved that thing.  The puppeteer was clearly a super nice guy and very skilled.

Xavier could have stayed with that thing forever.  He's clearly inherited my love of puppets.

He slept the whole way home and that night Liz gave him the map from the festival.  We all sat in bed looking over it and recalling what we did.  We talked about what he liked and asked if there was anything he didn't like.  He didn't like the music that was playing at one of the stages we stopped at (it was damned good music though).  He said it was too loud.  Fair enough.

This morning when he came out of his room he had the map with him. He laid it out in the playroom and set to work studying it.

Basically, it was about as perfect as any day I've ever had.  And I think the same goes for Xavier.