A local festival, The Feast of Ste Clair, is held annually. I *love* these kind of festivals and hope my children will also enjoy them. While this year was mostly rainy, and the re-enactors all looked a bit water-logged, overall we had a great time. I'm looking forward to next year and hope it will be nice and sunny!!
Basically, the river and lake were discovered on the same day as a Catholic feast - thus the name. The festival recreates and demonstrates four periods in early MI history, portrayed by four "camps": Native Americans, French explorers, British traders, and American revolutionaries.
Now, onto the pics (not that many, as it was rainy and I just didn't get my camera out that much).
Here's one of the puppet show - I think the teens did this, and they weren't all that good. But hey, the kids didn't care. My son laughed hysterically the whole time!
Local group (I believe) - they sounded nice.
My dh says if we ever do this, he wants to be the "important" people (ha!)
I know the bagpipes are fairly difficult to play - but she wasn't all that good...
Not nearly as good as our very own flute player!
Selah's necklace (which she made herself) is the only purchase we made that day that isn't broken now...
Isaac's sword (how cool). The handle fell apart within minutes, but dh can easily fix that (sorry the photo was so dark - by that time, it was about to rain again and my flash didn't go off).
So there ya go! We had a good time. Isaac's favorite part was the Battle scene. I didn't get any pics (we let Isaac go sit up front, but we were pretty far back). It was darn near impossible to get Isaac to leave the battle field - even when the battle was over. He was fascinated with the guns - what a little boy!
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We got a few "what a nice family" comments, which were nice. We also got a really nasty comment from a wooden salesmen. I was about to purchase some wooden spoons, maybe a nice bowl from him, when he said "Are these kids all *YOURS*??" Why yes, they are (I replied, glancing around to see if I had somehow picked up a stray or two). He just grunted. Another older man told me that he had two kids and that was two TOO many - how sad....
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Overall, it was a good day. For future outtings, I think I need to come up with some more spiffier replies to the "are these ALL yours?" kind of comments. I want it to be loving (well....I really want to be just as rude back to people, but that's hardly Christ-like now, is it?), I want it to show that we ENJOY and WANT these wonderful children in our lives. I would even like a response that maybe could let people know how rude/innapropriate they're being (but I doubt I could come up with one that was also loving).
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We did run into our friends (and semi-local celebrities) who have 10 children (waiting on #11 and possibly #12). When I think of the piddly comments we got, compared to what they must go through every time they step out of their house, well....that puts in all into perspective!
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~Loving my Michigan life & family~
*Michigan Momma*
5 comments:
Are you on the Quiverfull digest? They always have a conversation every few months on good responses to comments. Besides "All they all yours" the most popular is "Don't you know what causes that?" or "Boy, are your hands full!"
To "Are they all yours?" I usually say "Yes, I sure am lucky!" To the hands full one, I say "Better full than empty!"
Yup, I am on the QF list - I guess I need to pay better attention to those types of conversations - I've only been a member for a little while though.
My friend in CO, who never could conceive, adopted three - all very close in age. When she got the "Boy, you sure do have your hands full!" comment - she ALWAYS responded with, "Better full than empty". And she *really* meant it, she had felt "empty" for 9 years.
~Lori
Great re-enacting pics! I checked them out, but I didn't see anyone I recognize. As for your hubby's comment on being one of the "important" people, it takes a LOT of time, money, research and effort to be one. It's much easier to be an average joe. When I first joined, I wanted to be an aristocrating lady. The problem is, I just couldn't pull it off! So, now hubby and I are basically butler and lady's maid to our "aristocratic" friends. We get to dress almost as fancily as they do. We live in a well accomodated tent (see my blog) we eat great! Most people think we're indentured servants, but our positions in the 18th century would have been a paid career and we would have been free. We wouldn't have been considered aristocratic, but we would have been higher up on the social ladder than most people. Of course, hubby and I also do the Turkish thing, too.
Another thing....even though the "important" people get to live in those nice tents with all that nice stuff, they don't have servants in real life to do the setting up and taking down. We have to do that all ourselves! My friends have a HUGE tent(you can park 3 truck side by side inside and still have room) and all sorts of fancy furniture, silver, etc. It takes them 4 hours to set up.
It's probably good that I haven't been around when y'all have gotten those kinds of comments about the brood. I sometimes have a problem responding to stupidity with love. I guess I have to remind myself that it's usually just ignorance and not malace.
Looks like everyone had a great time. I really like Selah's necklace. I want one!!
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