I know it's been VERY quiet over here these past few days, and I will get into all of that on my next post. But before I went on blogging hiatus I had planned on writing about our fun family trip to Medieval Times. My husband and I decided last Friday (September 5th) to take our daughter for her first trip to Medieval Times as a special treat before she became a big sister. We didn't tell her anything about it until we were in the car...and boy was that too early! For the next hour and a half all we heard about was the princesses and knights and horses....literally nothing else. We were happy she was so excited, but having to explain and re-explain what a knight is and what exactly it was we were going to do at this place was pretty exhausting, but it was great seeing her so excited. Of course the first thing we had to do was take a tour around the castle, Isabella LOVED the horses she had to see every single one!
Then we of course had to go and get a flag to represent our knight's colors, we knew we couldn't cheer him to victory without it! Isabella was so excited and was LOVING it when the king made his
announcements and gave us instructions. She cheered just as loud as everyone else! And then we were able to go inside and get to our seats! We decided to upgrade to the royalty package since it was her first time and we wanted to give her the best experience possible, so we were able to sit right in front! We were so close that when the knights began their competition they raised this net in front of us to prevent dirt from getting kicked into our food! Isabella was so excited she could barely sit still!!! She was waving her flag and screaming "wooohooo" so loud my husband and I could barely talk! We kept laughing about how excited she was even though she had no idea what was going to happen. It was so awesome to see the pure joy in her eyes and it made me so grateful that we are able to do these fun sper-of-the-moment things with her like this. I was actually really surprised with how open she
was to eating all the different food they were serving, and to eating with her hands! Normally Isabella
very quick to wipe her hands when they get dirty while she eats, but I guess the atmosphere got to her and she dug right in! For those of you who have never been to Medieval Times, your dinner is a "typical" medieval feast that is supposed to be period correct (minus the soda) so there are no utensils! As dinner got underway we were introduced to the knights! We had the black and white knight and boy did Isabella cheer him on! After every contest the knight(s) that won received some flowers from the princess to give to some fair maidens in the stands. Whenever out knight received the flowers Isabella began screaming and cheering trying to get his attention. She was so bummed when she didn't get a flower from him, but she held it together. But then when our knight won the final competition he was able to select one fair maiden become the Queen of the Tournament and he chose Isabella!!!! She got a flower from him and a sash that showed her new title and the knight was going to battle in her name! She was so excited she slept in her sash! Our knight ended up not winning the tournament competition which in hind-sight I think it was kind of good for her. Isabella hasn't had that much experience with competitions and loosing, so I like that she was able to see that she could still have fun even if she didn't win at something. There I go again, finding teaching opportunities in everything!! Isabella was especially excited when the orange and red knight got to fight the "bad guy" I swear, I have never heard her cheer so loud...and boo!! After the tournament was over and the orange and red knight was victorious over the evil knight we left the arena. Of course we had to go and do another round of looking at every single horse in the stalls. Then we went and got some pictures with 
the king and princess and our knight. Isabella was so excited to meet a "real princess" and king. She was so excited she became extremely shy. And if you know my little girl, shy is a word one would most definitely NOT use to describe my daughter. Eventually she worked up the courage to actually talk to the princess, take a picture, and ask for a hug. Then we went to our knight. Again she was a shy, but not as much as with the princess. And of course my little princess is so well mannered she made sure to thank the black and white knight for making her queen of the tournament! The knight was so nice to her and really made her night! I am so happy we were able to give her this amazing experience and can't wait to come back again and see how she reacts now that she knows what it's all about. The final picture on the left basically sums up our night. She had so much fun she crashed before we made it to the freeway (I was actually quite impressed she lasted that long). Not only did she pass out within minutes of getting in the car, but she was so exhausted she actually slept in the next morning!! I love times like this where we get to make fun family memories that will stay with all of us forever.
So sweet
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