Better Late than never

Well, here it is friends, the much anticipated (yeah right) pictures of our trip to Dallas last weekend. If you remember, we went for Holley's state gymnastics meet and decided to make a birthday weekend out of it for Scott. We celebrated his 9th birthday (minus the presents- those waited for his real b-day on Sun) in Dallas on Friday night at a really cool place....

The Fab four...heading out...it was a beautiful, sunny day.

Here we are!. After checking in at our hotel we changed and made our way (without getting lost I might add yippee!) to Medieval Times -restaurant and tournament. We were entertained by fabulous food and an awesome 11th century medieval tournament. We were served tomato-basil soup, herb-roasted chicken, prime rib, garlic toast, garlic potatoes, and an apple pastry. We did not have any utensils to use. Apparently, they did not use eating utensils in the 11th century. We did have cups though, thank goodness. You can imagine how thrilled I was (after reading about my quirky food things) when half a chicken carcass was slapped on my plate. Literally 1/2 a chicken. We were served SO much food! Even Scott made it half-way through and said "I'm so stuffed, I couldn't eat another bite!!" (until desert I might add, then he miraculously found little room! Ha! )I picked the meat off with my fingers and then ate it. The kiddies didn't even notice!!! It was fabulous by the way. I even managed to pick up my prime rib and bite the meat off. Guess with so much excitement going on I could focus on other things besides gnawing on this poor animal's rib!!

The fab four outside the castle standing by the moat.

Oops, got the pictures out of order. When you go in the castle you are given your table assignments and you are assigned a knight that will fight for the honor of his kingdom. By being seated at his colored tables, you are a member of his kingdom. We cheered on the black and white night.

Before we were seated for dinner, we got to explore the castle. They fed us yummy cookies that the kiddies got to decorate for Christmas and hot cocoa. The castle was all decorated for Christmas. It was very pretty. I forgot to mention, when we first entered the castle we had our pictures taken with Father Christmas. They turned on the snow machine so it looked like it was snowing. If I didn't look so scary, I'd post it, but sorry folks!! Then we went to the dance floor where the kiddies convinced me to buy light-up fencing foam thingys. They played and sipped on Shirley Temples....and had a blast!!! Did you know that 4 Shirley Temples and 1 small strawberry daiquiri (have no idea how to spell that) costs $28?? Just a little tid-bit of info for you!! I almost fainted.

Allie contemplating her choice of sprinkles. Holley in the background going to town with hers.

We met the horses up close and personal....stinky!!!

Allie cheering on our knight. It was pitch dark in the dining chamber when I shot this pic, she wasn't real sure she liked that...this is her half smile- half "I'm about ready to cry mom" look

Macie and Scott having fun!!! Scott, "Geez, mom, stop flashing the light in my eyes...please!!!"

Group photo with the suit of armour.

This is the falconer. It took about 5 minutes to convince Allie that the bird would not hurt her. She did not trust it!!! Can't say that I blame her...I was scared of it too. Big surprise I know!!!

We ended up having a fun time. The kiddies loved it!!!

Here's a short video of one of the jousting contests.

Sadly, our knight was not victorious....we love him anyway....

Well, now you are caught up on Friday night in Dallas and I already posted about the meet on Saturday. On Saturday night the kiddies and I went in search of a Red Robin (YUM!) and a movie theater. We found both and ate an awesome meal (love those 5-alarm burgers) and went to a super cool movie theater to see the movie 'Bolt'. We were waited on in the movie theater just like a restaurant and had desert there. It was fun. Then we went back to the hotel and headed out about 1000 on Sunday. I hope to post more pics of Scott's actual birthday soon. Also, the pictures from 'A walk in Bethlehem' will be posted soon. I have not forgotten . Stay tuned....S