Like, forsooth.

So, yeah, the SCA event, with rafaela and the young'uns. As I said at the troll gate when we paid admission, "Two children acting like adults, and two adults acting like children." 'Twas a blast.

Abbey and Nik were almost obscenely excited, and I had the impression we were going to have our hands full, oh, around the time we were first bundling into the car. Oh, the joys of youthful adrenaline at 9 a.m. on a Saturday. *confetti* We ran a few preliminary errands before heading to the apartment and doing the Garb Thing. rafaela already had on her gorgeous homemade tunic dress, and was already deeply regretting choosing a cotton-linen blend. Abbey looked lovely in her red cotton dress with a ribbon cinch, and was only mildly disappointed that her hair proved to be a bit too short to braid a ribbon into. Nik's tunic, sadly, had met with a natural distater of the four-legged furry variety, so rafaela had quickly cobbled together a tabard for him, again with a ribbon cinch, and it looked quite dashing on him.

And me? rafaela's black blouse, grey sweatpants, old belt, bathroom slippers. I must apologize to her for my skepticism prior to the event, because y'know what? I looked pretty damn good.

Troll: Oh, I love the embroidery work on the sleeves!
Me: [exchanging a smirk with rafaela] Lane Bryant.

The event itself was great fun, even more so than I'd anticipated. (Yes, I'm addicted all over again. And rafaela knew I would be. Dammit, dammit, dammit....) Perhaps best to vignette this one out:

* I almost didn't get past Merchant Row alive, between the garb that rafaela was coveting, complete with unseemly drooling and whimpering, and the games that I was coveting, with what I'm certain was hardly any drooling or whimpering at all.
* Abbey in particular was getting so into it: "Father, may I go greet the horses?" Too cute. This lasted about half an hour, until she said, "Dad, I'm getting a headache from trying to talk like that."
* Nik, on the other hand, loved the combat. I realized that trying to keep a sugar-enhanced nearly-five-year-old calm after watching eighty guys in armor whonking each other with sticks is probably a futile gesture: "I wanna get out there and poke the bad guys in the butt!" Yeah. (Burly-looking knight on the sidelines flashed him the Arched Eyebrow of Bemusement. One warrior to another.)
* Okay, kids, let's learn the meaning of the phrase "electric fence", shall we?
* There was only one kids' activity planned, which was making God's-eyes with scavenged sticks. Abbey and Nik both made them, basically wrapping just enough so that the sticks would remain together, then abandoning ship. They're so proud of their work, though.
* While the kids were winding yarn, rafaela bounced up to me and handed me the pentacle necklace that I hadn't told her I'd had my eye on. *swoon* Have I mentioned lately taht I'm totally twitterpated over this girl?
* Fun statistic: 2 = number of women on-site who might have been more careful about keeping their tents zipped shut. Not that anyone noticed, or, um, anything. *cough*

So yeah, a grand time all around, after which the grownups deeply regretted not dipping into the kids' SPF 30 Sun Glop. *wince* Afterwards, we went to Friendly's in freak-the-mundanes mode, prompting one table to say, "Hey, look! Hare Krishnas!"