Dining Out in Style

After the first week, we were pretty much over jet lag and ready to focus on our two main activities: spending time with the babies and eating.  

The babies are adorable, and since there are two of them, it minimizes fighting between Viv and Elena over who gets to hold a baby.

I also love how when we go over to Judy's, the girls go straight for the babies.

Being a big kid cousin though, requires lots of fuel, and so I have been feeding the girls fun food on a regular basis.  One of the important restaurants on our list was Carlyle, which is a family favorite.

Elena was so excited to have lemonade AND water that she almost couldn't decide which to drink first.

For dessert, the girls opted to go a couple doors down and put together their own frozen yogurt creations.  The did not, however, appreciate being asked to stop eating, so that I could take a picture.

We also went to visit the shellfish at Red Lobster, and I am not going to officially record the obscene number of biscuits that Vivian ate.  Both she and Elena were very excited for an opportunity to show off their new purses.

Our "crowning" dining achievement though was an evening at Medieval Times in Maryland, and, to make it even more fun, we met up with friends to enjoy the feast.

We were seated in the red section, which was easy to find, because they put red lights on it.

In addition to our red crowns, we each got a red banner to wave enthusiastically, which the girls did.

What we DIDN'T get were any utensils.  This wasn't too bad for the tomato soup, because you could pick the bowl up by the handle and drink it, but when they put half a chicken on our plate, we all had some technical difficulties.  We were very close to the queen's balcony, so hopefully we didn't embarrass ourselves.

The knights came out at the beginning for introductions, and we cheered a bunch for the Red Knight.

We all really liked the falcon demonstration, and there were also some pretty horses that pranced and ran around.

Elena was getting a little antsy though.  She was asking when the fighting was going to start.  I told her to wait, they wanted us to eat first.  There was some pomp and ceremony with the knights.

They did some feats which require real skill to show their horsemanship and accuracy.  When they succeeded at a challenge, the queen threw down flowers which they distributed to their supporters.  Elena waved her hands frantically in the air to show she wanted a flower, and, like many before him, the Red Knight could not resist her charms.

Finally, they got into the fighting part.  They started with jousting.

This is when Vivian and I started grabbing each other's hands and flinching in unison with the clash.  Now, while this is obviously choreographed for safety, I don't in any way want to take away from the skill it involves.  The "injured" knight always "fell" from his horse, which involved the man in question, flinging himself off the horse's back.  No matter what, that is a LONG way to fall, I don't care how good you are at landing well.  Then, once they're both on the ground, they go after each other with these big metal weapons, which may not be sharp, but they are certainly heavy, and they hit them together hard enough to create sparks.

Both girls absolutely loved it and wanted to know if we could go again next week.  Vivian loves the world they create, and Elena is sold on the sword fighting.

I'm so glad they enjoyed their outing, but I also like it when everyone is quiet and reading a book at my parents' house.  They're still having adventures, just in their minds.