Children's Festival

Friday was the annual Children's Festival at Pioneer Park in Nevada City.  The Children's Festival is a summer tradition where a Renaissance Faire meets a kid's craft fair.  Amazing volunteers work all year on craft stations from wands to soapstone carving.  Adults dress up in feathers and pointy ears and long gowns.  Anika has learned to join in the fun.

She brought a dollar from her piggy bank for her big treat.

A troll guards the little bridge over the creek.  His toll is a stick or rock.  His eyes are red.  Really red!  He has metal fingers that he drums on the wood of his cage.  Clatter, clack clack.  Brave kids come right up to him.  Less brave kids hide behind their parents to cross the bridge.

After a $3 entry, all the projects are free.  Ian made a lovely butterfly ring.

Anika's big treat.  A lemon with a peppermint stick straw.  You suck the lemon juice through the peppermint.  Super yummy and a Children's Festival tradition.  You can see that she has already collected her stick-toll for the bridge.  It's best to be prepared :)

Another craft is painting pillowcases for tunics.  Ian is a brave knight :)

Anika smoothing soapstone with sandpaper.

Ian gluing yellow lentils to a wooden medallion.

Ian when a friend gave him a wood sword built at the wood/nails/hammer table.

Ian's wood sword!

Ian painting a giant cardboard castle.  Kids paint all day.  Of course, the castle needed more orange :)

Anika and her friends with their shields and wood swords in front of the dragon.  Etalia was the Earth Knight.  Anika was Water and Gwynna was Air.  Ian was Fire except he was more interested in painting the castle . . .

Looking through windows was hazardous since the whole thing was covered in wet paint (luckily, all washable).

Ian inside the castle.

The fire-breathing dragon!  He is a years-long sculpture by a local artist who brings him to the fair every year.  He is big, made of bits of scrap-metal and wood.  Truly amazing!

Ian's face when they made him give the paint back since it was long past 8pm.

We always have next year!  Ian's happy to share his painty hands :)