Sir Joshua and the Knights of the Red Table

This is a tale for good boys and good girls.  It is the story of brave Sir Joshua of Nesbitt and the adventures of his third birthday party.  It has valour enough to rival Arthurian legend!

(However, click here if you'd rather watch the movie than read the book.)

Brave Sir Joshua

 Knowing that the ville of Henry was soon to be attacked by those pesky Vikings, Joshua summoned reinforcements.  The Knights and Maidens of friendship shortly arrived and were put immediately to tourney.  The jousting began.

Brave Sir Max, renowned for his strength

The mystery knight

The pool noodle lance

At full tilt

Lady Evie astride her steed

The next challenge to train this brave band, was the dragon egg race.

Sir Benjamin, newest recruit to the big brotherhood

Lady Beatrice of the Abbey

Lady Beth of the Rich Mound

Sir Seth, fighting under the Scarlett colours

Those of acute vision might notice that this challenge was weighted somewhat in the gentlemen's favour (the weight being caused by brown parcel tape)

Then Friar Nesbitt hoisted down the King's challenge.

The King's challenge safely secured on the balloon string

Then the brave adventurers set off on their quest, hunting down the magical beans, a heraldic emblem, a golden coin and some of the princess' lost jewellery.

Lady Abi assists Brave Sir Joshua in his heraldic quest

The lady Beatrice displays her finds

A pesky viking

The shield of Nes bit

The tourney tent (with abandoned mount and lance)

Realising that they were almost out of arms, the group returned inside the castle where the boys made their swords and the girls made their masques

The Armoury

Who could it Bea?

Then it was time for some mead and bread.  (Some teetotal bishop objected, so the knights and ladies were denied their mead and so supped juice from their party goblets.)

Partyware for the Princesses

Hot dogs for everyone

Partyware for the Knights

Brave Sir Mike guarded the fruit

The jousting continued on the cupcakes

William tell has been here!

Then the tournament continued with a spot of archery in the back garden.

Until it was finally time for the birthday cake castle

The paparazzi were of course present for this ceremony.

The Vikings finally vanquished, the brave knights and ladies were rewarded with party bags.

Thus the epic tale of Sir Joshua's birthday party endeth.

It's beginning to look a lot like....

There are somethings that just happen around this time of year...for example...the ice rink at the Odyssey gets Disneyfied.  This year, more so than last, Beatrice was mesmerised by the skating and storytelling.

Disney on ice

Amongst all the "merchandise" available and subtly paraded before you is an ice cup, which, on returning home doubles as a hot chocolate cup.  This years cup of choice starred Ariel.

Ice cup

Now, I'm not sure from whence they came, but someone managed to find the Christmas dvd collection.  Suffice to say The Grinch and Santa Paws are now playing on a loop making us all feel festive *

* by festive you understand that we mean "a little bit Christmassy and a whole lot like grabbing Quinn (from Santa Paws) with her high pitched whispery voice and performing a piece of minor surgery where  the only side effect will be that she is rendered mute."

We also tore through the Tesco gift catalogue and the Argos book to create a list for Santa.

Santa also received a little letter which read "Dear Santa, I really hope you are well and happy and that your elves are working hard" but we have already sent that one the traditional way...up the chimney.  Which brings me on to the next festive treat...the lighting of the fire, which you can tell is a particular winner with both Dilly and Bea.

The final little clue that Christmas is on it's way is the arrival of the advent calendar and the return of Cindy Lou, the elf on the shelf.

The Pumpkin ... Garden

On Wednesday we visited Auntie Andrea who had treated Beatrice to a bag full of goodies...included amongst them was this pumpkin dress and doodleboppers.  Bea hastily pulled it on and bounced about the house.  This was a PERFECT gift, because that very evening we headed out to the Pumpkin Patch....

...where we discovered a cheeky monkey hiding amongst the pumpkins!

There was food to be enjoyed (even if you weren't in costume)

For the third evening in a row Alana appeared in costume.  Monday night she was a rather jolly witch, Tuesday...a cat and just as Cinderella held back the most gorgeous dress for the third and final night of the ball....so did Alana...

Ta dah...a princess and two pumpkins!

There was colouring in to be done as the girlies made pumpkin cards...

There was orange paint to create family pumpkin prints...The Scarlett's extended to two pages...but that's just showing off!

There were marshmallow ghosts to eat...

And chocolate apples to make...Caleb is saying "Ooooooh" in delight here....

There was also dunking for apples...or as Bea calls it....duck, duck apple.

Thankfully, Zachary wore his waterproof mascara!

(may I just add...Bea's nails...by Mels)

So proud!

Then it was time to settle down to hear Ruth read the Pumpkin Patch Parable.

At the end of the story, the pumpkins began to glow....

Then there was just time to pop outside to watch the firework display.  

I may just leave you under the impression that the church actually put on a firework display...I don't really need to mention that we watched the Mossley Mill fireworks from the car park!

Then on Thursday night, we headed to the Enchanted Garden at Botanic.  We were promised real fairies and the promise didn't disappoint...

Beatrice found a fairy village....

I don't actually know what this is, but Bea thinks it is a real fairy going tiny.

The Enchanted Garden was magical.  There were real fairies dancing about in a glowing fairy circle who popped over to the fence from time to time to talk to the children and try to catch their wishes.  Bea clung to the fence shouting "fairy, fairy, fairy, fairy..." until they came to her.

A real fairy catching wishes under the trees

There were odd characters, one had a giant lantern with faires he had caught, others told stories about the fairies they had seen and one even rode a giant bicycle that looked like a pony!  If you want to be sure to see a fairy one character advised, be sure to look into a mirror...you will see one reflected more quickly than you will see one with your own eyes!

Hidden in the flower beds were glowing lanterns and tiny fairy villages with washing lines heavy with fairy laundry, plus there were a lot of wooden fairy houses (that looked a bit bird boxy if I'm honest) that when you peeped through the little circle were beautifully furnished, illuminated and accessorised.  (Being familiar with their catalogue, I suspect that fairies shop at the Dolls House Emporium).

A blurry fairy washing line

Now being a geographer I'm going to talk about scale for a moment.  The fairy villages, houses and washing lines were in 1:12.  The real fairies, skipping about on the lawn were definitely 1:1.  

Beatrice asked....

"Mummy are these those fairies' houses"  (insert appropriate pointing)  

"Yes"   

"How do they fit?"  

"Hum, how do you think they fit?" 

 "I don't know"   

"Well, ask Daddy, he is very clever"  

"Daddy how do the fairies fit into the houses?"  

Daddy replies "magic".  

Bea is completely satisfied with this explanation, and I am proved correct...Daddy is very clever.

As we were about to leave, we wandered over to the glasshouse where we saw Edith, a clunky accented girl with fairy wings, twirling around in a hoop which was cycled around the circular flower bed.  As she twirled she carried on an hysterical conversation with the children...."What do you mean I'm not a real fairy...look I'm flying....I spent £4 on glitter last night to make these wings sparkle...I'll grant you any wish...provided we can pop down to the corner shop to get it!"  Despite the rain, Bea wanted to watch Edith "forever".

Edith can really fly.... 

See....

So if you've ever wondered what a real fairy looks like...the answer is a bit like Moaning Myrtle from Harry Potter.  If you've even wondered what she sounds like...the answer is a Yorkshire lass....If you've ever wondered how she flies...the answer is a hoop, a bicycle and amazing arm muscles.