Califoregon Living

After delivering the baskets, I took the boys to Cain’s Crossing Renaissance Faire.  A friend of mine found out that homeschool kids get in for free if you get a voucher ahead of time.  They gave us a passport that had questions the kids were to ask at various stations.  It was incredible educational; one of the most educational faires I have ever attended.

I was amazed at the volume and quality of the costumes, and after spending five hours there, the kids were still begging me to stay!

I did not let anyone know we would be there, and were pleasantly suprised to run into our friends, the McGuire family…

Gardner/Vassallo family…

…and the Clark family!

A couple of faeries handing out wishes…

One of many processionals…

God save the Queen!!

Sword fights…

Teaching the boys how to tie a square knot…

The art of medieval medicine…

Singing for the Queen…

This lovely woman taught the boys all about the various trades they could choose to apprentice for around the age of 12…then a journeyman…then a master…

This kind blacksmith taught ‘R’ how to twist the iron into a spoon that we got to keep as a souvenir!


As we were walking past a group of people, someone asked us if we wanted to play a game.  They boys said ‘yes’, so I said ‘yes’.  Then, they assigned me team captain and wrote the number 10 on my hand (I still did not know what we were doing!)  When I found out that it was a scavenger hunt and that we had 30 minutes to collect the items, I was tempted to back out, but they had added people to “my” team. 

The rules:
-Do not mark the list in any way
-Do not tear up the list in any way
-No use of cell phones to retrieve information
-You can beg, borrow, barter, but not steal, to obtain an item.

There were 10 teams.  One big challenge to the list was that we did not know what many of the items were!  We had to go up to random people and ask if they knew what an item was.  I went up to those dressed as noblemen and women. 

I have to say, I had a fabulous team!  I had two moms who were competitive, three teen girls, 3 pre-teens, and about 5 kids.  Everyone was totally into it, and that made it all the more fun.  We divided the group into three smaller teams, and divvied up the items.

Here is the list…

1. 3 conifer lancettes.  I am happy to say that I was able to figure this out  on my own without help…pine needles!

2. Pirate Swag Silver/Gold/Bejeweled.    The teen girls and a few kids collected some trinkets.

3.  Live Flying Bug.  A preteen girl had collected a gnat right off the bat, but she lost it.  She was able to catch a dragonfly, though!

4.   A comfit.  We had to ask around for the definition of this one.  It is a sweet; a treat to eat.  We were given some shortbread cookies as our comfit.

5.  Palindrome.  One of the moms knew the definition to this.  It is a word that is the same forwards and backwards.  We asked around and came up with ‘refer’, and ‘bob’, but the best one we retrieved was: “Rats Live On No Evil Star”.6.  Spyglass.    I borrowed a spyglass from a noblewoman.  She actually had one in her basket.  It was more like a magnifying glass, though, so we only got a half point for it, because it did not extend like a regular spyglass.

7.  Prize from another game.  This was brilliant!  The teen girls had played a game earlier and their prize was a hug from a man.  So, they tracked the man down and had him join us.  He was the “prize”.

8.  Quaff and Eructation.  We had to ask around quite a bit for this one.  We learned that a quaff is a mug, and and eructation is a belch!  I borrowed a quaff from a noblewoman.  Many of the kids were happy to provide the eructation…

Checking/judging our list…

The remaining items were actually activities that they judged us on…

9.  Grandest Gruning.   We picked one person (one of the pre-teen boys) to stand before the crowd, cover his face with his hands, then remove his hands and show the funniest face his can make.  We did not win this.

10.  Fastest Cracker Whistled.  We picked one person (another pre-teen boy), who ate two crackers and had to be the first person to whistle.  HE WON!  He’s the little cutie in the black…

11.  Most Diabolical Laugh.  We picked one of the other moms to laugh.  We did not have time to listen to laughs, but she said she had a good one.  She did.  SHE WON!12.  Best Sea Creature Impersonation.  We decided it would be a good idea to make it a team effort, so we took four of the older girls and had them create an octopus.  Up to this point, the activities were performed beginning with team 1 and working all the way to team 10.  But, they threw us a curveball and said we not only had to use all the members on the team, but also start with our team 10!  So, we quickly changed our creature into a jellyfish and got everyone involved by linking arms and kicking out.  We did not win this one, and one of the moms was wanting to protest this because our group was so large, but I wanted to wait.  I knew we were doing well, and it just wasn’t worth creating that kind of tension.

So, after tallying up the points, we learned that two teams had forfeited (they were no shows), and out of the remaining 8 teams, WE WON!!  WOO HOO!!  Our team, minus one girl…

A little bit of archery…

A little bit of fencing…

Drooling over the swords and shields…

Mark my words…this will be an annual event for our family.  We might even break down and invest in some costumes, if I can sweet talk our Lord of the Manor into it!:)