The Scotland Reformation Faire

Well.... what a day! Saturday we headed down to Peoria for the Reformation Faire hosted by Providence Church. Lauren spent the night Friday and drove down with us since the rest of her family was unable to go.

We got up EARLY on Saturday morning, dressed and ate a hurried breakfast, and then piled in the car for the 3 1/2 hour drive down.

In the car on the way there

After we arrived we were pretty much free to roam around the towne square area until the boffer war.

The "Saint Andrew's Towne Square"

A bagpiper

Then the young men and boys (and a few dads) were provided with arms (boffers, shields, spears, super-long boffers, and bows and arrows - all made of PVC pipe and padded) and were given instructions on how to fight.

The warriors receiving their orders

The march to the battlefield (a.k.a. the park down the street)

Tom bearing those heave plastic spears

The Scots charge!

Into the fray!

Emily and Tara looking stuck up (actually I think they were just straining to see!)

A 16th century bagpiper - on a cell phone??

Tara, Mom and me

After the battle, there were highland games and a Psalm sing happening simultaneously. Most of us girls wisely chose the more edifying route of the Psalm sing. :-) The highland games were still going on once we were done so we went back over to the battlefield, which had thankfully been cleared of the dead bodies. :-)
I didn't get any pictures of the boulder throwing contest for the men, but the next was a stick-throwing contest (excuse me, it should probably be called a log - stick doesn't sound very manly, does it?)

Mr. Geaschel gets ready to throw the log

The feminine camera crew with a few camera-less supporters :-)

The force of the toss throws Josh to his knees

Mr. Chidlow throws the log (don't you just love his authentic medieval Scottish costume!?)

Mom was cold so Dad generously shared his cape with her :-)

Despite not being exactly - ahem - average height, Tom threw the log pretty far! :-)

Sweet little Geneva Degenhart in the chapel - she's gotten so big since we saw her last!

We girls wanted to take a bow and arrow out to the field and take some pictures for fun, but the boys were playing with them - so Emily thought that if we just took the arrows as they came down, the boys would run out of ammunition and give up! :-) Here she is hiding one in her cape. It turned out that we didn't have to because the boys were told they couldn't shoot arrows so close to the church.

Bow & arrow photo op - Sokea

Tara

All the rest of us look so dramatic and Lauren looks so dainty!

That's a little better...

Emily

Me

Joanna - I think she posed the best!

Sokea took this picture of me walking back from retrieving the arrow and I think it is so funny because it looks like I must be weary from a long day of fruitless hunting or something!

Sorry, Wendy, I don't have any pictures of you because my card was full!

After the games there was "chapel" which included a performance by Nathan Clark George, singing one of the Psalms and a speech on John Knox by Mr. McDonald. Then after a little more time in the towne square, we headed inside for a spaghetti dinner and dance.

Justin and William McDonald playing cars (a very scottish pastime)

Then we piled back into the car for the 3 1/2 hour drive back home. Tara was so tired that she slept/rested the whole way, and Lauren and I were so tired that we yacked in subdued tones the whole way home about everything under the sun that was of no importance, from campaign signs to chocolate, and white or dark meat preferences to deep fried twinkies. Yeah. Oh the things we do when we are exhausted!

All in all, it was a wonderful day and a big, huge, GIGANTIC THANK YOU goes to the McDonald family (and the other families from Providence) who put this on and sacrificed their time and sleep to make this a fabulous event.