Medieval Times!!

A friend of ours gave us tickets to Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament (thanks, Sandy!!). We went last night and had a BLAST. We left Cailyn at home with a sitter (thanks, Lauren!) because the show started at 7:30 and was 2 hours long. We talked with Hannah that we were going to go to a castle and eat and see horses, etc. She was SOOO excited! When we got there and she saw the castle and the moat with fish and everything she was even more excited....then we got inside.

The seating is first come, first served and is assigned. You get a crown placed upon your head when you get there and the color of your crown dictates your seating. We made a HUGE deal and got all excited when we saw that we got to have GREEN crowns - Hannah's FAVORITE color! But, when she did NOT want to wear that crown. I think it was more the fact that it was 2 hours past her normal dinner time, it was bedtime, and it was pretty overwhelming in there. They had stables where you could see the horses, a falconer, and all kinds of gifts and things to look at and buy. And since it was all stone in there, it was pretty noisy. So, this is how we spent the first few mintues there....and I wondered if we'd made a big mistake:

However, once she saw this really neat coat of arms, she ran right over for a picture.

We had about 20 minutes to mill around in the area and look at more armour, look at lots of things we didn't buy, and just take things in before the announced our seating. The arena was a lot smaller than the commercials make it seem, which I was glad for. We had GREAT seats and were able to see wonderfully. Not to mention, we were right by the King and Princess' thrones!

When the show started, it was LOUD and I, once again, thought this was a bad idea...

But then, OUR knight came out and Hannah started waving her flag and cheering him on and forgot about the noise.
For those of you who've never been to a Medieval Times or don't have a clue what it is, its basically a very involved dinner theater, with a (surprise, surprise) medieval theme. Not only does the color of your crown determine where you will sit, but which knight you cheer for. There's a red knight, a yellow knight, a red and yellow knight, a black and white knight, and a green knight. The green knight just so happened to be the king's arch enemy, so we got to cheer for the bad guy, which was actually a lot of fun! LOL So, while the King's Feast is being served, you watch falconry demonstrations, horse demonstrations, and finally, jousting and sword fighting.

The dinner was AMAZING. The menu for the evening was garlic bread, tomato bisque, roasted chicken thigh/breast, bbq rib, pastry and soda/coffee. And, the best part - NO UTENSILS!! You ate it all with your hands, which we all enjoyed emensely. I honestly can't remember when the three of us laughed together so much. They even have the pewter plates, bowls, etc!

Hannah only sat on Daddy's lap for a little while, then decided it was ok to sit in her own seat on a booster seat. It was awesome, they were theater style seats, so she would rock back and forth, pretending she was on a horse, too!

Hannah and Daddy having fun (see the thrones behind them?)

Mommy and Hannah enjoying the show

Hannah drinking her soup

The King's Entry

Our Green Knight, welcoming the King

Hannah cheering her knight (she's actually saying "wooo hoooo!!" in this pic). The flower you see is a special flower the knight threw straight to her!

After the show we got to meet the knights and prince and princess. Hannah wanted to tell the knight thank you for the flower!

Hannah with the prince

The two princesses

It really was an amazing night and we ALL had a blast. We asked Hannah on the way home what her favorite part was and she said, "The green man." Hahaha!! It was something we would've never been able to do on our own, so we owe a huge thanks to our friend, Sandy!