So, What Happened...?

I never did get around to reporting how it went at that medieval camping event.

I spent a whole month preparing Sonshine to go to it. I let him roll around in a pile of fabric for an hour so that he could pick a fabric for his tunic that would feel comfortable to him. I made two tunics for him, two for Bagel, and three for Knuckles (you can't go anywhere with Knuckles where there's going to be strange food unless you have three outfits, because he WILL throw up). I had Sonshine and Bagel try on their outfits numerous times and play fight so that they could see how fun it would be there. My brother Little D made Sonshine his very own personalized boffer sword. By the day we left, Sonshine had made a lot of progress. A month earlier, he would withdraw and start making Curious George noises instead of talking, just from fear of this event. Now he was excited to go and see the event.

We got there and it wasn't an hour before Sonshine was melting down and scratching himself till he bled. We called my mom (who had agreed to be our backup in case this happened) to come and get him, but she couldn't get him until the afternoon. But it did comfort him to know that his time there was finite. Nevertheless, he started having bathroom issues. He had to "go" so I pointed him in the direction of the nearest portapotty, but he went without his shoes on and got stuck screaming in a patch of sticker burrs. After I rescued him, he waited an hour or two before trying again to go to the portapotty. But then he wouldn't go into the portapotty. I tried to explain to him that the portapotty was freshly placed there and so would be cleaner than the park bathroom, but he still wouldn't go in the portapotty, so then I had to persuade him to walk to the park bathroom. By the time he got there he had wet himself, so we had to go back to our tent and change him into his spare outfit, and I washed his clothes and hung them out to dry.

Bagel did all right during the morning, but he refused to eat the lentil pottage I made for lunch, and by afternoon he was melting down. He badly needed a nap, but he would not take one and he just kept screaming "Get off me! Get off me!" So Grandma took him home too.

Knuckles did throw up right after lunch, but he enjoyed himself the rest of the time. He had a grand old time playing with a bucket with a couple inches of water in it. It kept him cool in the heat, and made a splashy noise when he put his hand in it, and the best part about it was that there weren't any brothers shoving him away from it. He had it all to himself! Princess enjoyed running around in her medieval clothes with her little rag doll wearing a matching tunic. She made some friends and they made forts in the bushes.

Little D and I sold scarcely anything. We let a lot of people sample our wound ointment though, so hopefully next time they'll remember how well it healed their minor wounds and buy some. We did sell some body powder, but I've gotta figure out a better way to package it. But Little D did get to do some boffer fighting, and he made some friends with other young men his age. We had them over for dinner on Friday when I made vinha d'alhos. I had made my usual 5-pound package of vinha d'alhos, but I didn't think that Sonshine and Bagel and FH would not be there, so we had a TON left over and we invited all and sundry to come and eat with us.

FH had to work on the Friday, so he came up on Saturday to the camp. He wore the tunic I'd borrowed for him, but he didn't stay long before he took off with Little D to go to Smith and Edwards to browse for medievalish stuff.

Our next event is going to be the Shire of Arrows' Flight's Insurrection, which is being held here in Tooele. I will be making a very brief appearance at Harvest War, just long enough to teach a little class on counting boards.