Renaissance Festival 2018

A couple of weekends ago, I slipped away with my humans and headed to Medieval times for the 30th Annual Renaissance Festival.  The event is hosted in Apache Junction about 50 minutes east of Phoenix, so we prepared for the journey across town and multiple freeways and got there midday.  Thankfully, the weather was in a cold phase and hats and jackets were even necessary.n

If you've never been the the Renaissance Fest. The venue is full of permanent structures so it really feels like old villages.

Our first stop was of course the bakery.

We got a fancy croissant filled with cheese and jam.  warmed to perfection.

Next, we stumbled upon the Court Jester performing on stage.

Yes, that's a real sword in his mouth balancing on his tonge.

My littlest carnivore, as a mostly vegetarian, and sometimes vegan mama I am honestly shocked at how much meat this child craves.  She asked for this turkey leg herself and of course as moms we all know sometimes we have to sacrifice our morals if it means our kids are going to actually eat something!

Next stop was this year's newest feature the mermaids.  A real mermaid in a tank!  only took an hour and a half line to get inside to see her ourselves.

It has been a few years since I'd been to the festival about 12 probably, so I was impressed to see how much it has grown and there is actually quite a bit off free stuff to do included with the cost of the ticket, honestly the girls would have played on this playgound all day if I had let them!

Walking around we passed by an outdoor kitchen and the kitchen witch in me burst!  It on my life goals to create an outdoor kitchen complete with cauldron and kettle just like the one pictured here.

After exploring a bit we found out way to the Jousting Arena, my littlest is obsessed horses and unicorns so when we told her there were real horses and we could see them she literally jumped for joy and squealed a bit!

We had so much fun, I definitely plan on making an annual tradition out of it, it's fun to play make believe with these kids as they get older, play dress up (even though we didn't really have dress up clothes this year, next time!) and just take a day to be present with them.  Did you go this year? What was your favorite activity or souvenir?