Celtic Festival - 2012

The 2012 Celtic Festival (last weekend of Aug) was so much fun. It was twice the size as last year and I can see it just getting bigger every year. Thanks to our community's support and many volunteers hours, the festival was a success! Here is our family, complete with my MIL, Kay, who was a huge help to me since Michael worked security all weekend. We are all wearing the Clan Lamont tartan, which is where my husband's surname comes from. 

Since we decided to do a clan tent this year, we camped for two days at the fairgrounds. We set up the wall tent behind our clan tent. It worked out great. Our friend, Billy, put together this display board for our clan. He did such a great job! I also put my sword collection out on either side of the tent (can only see one sword in this pic). Next year I want to add clan boards for both of my clans (Clan MacRae on my father's side and Clan Fraser on my dad's side). 

We bought some flags to fly from our clan tent and for the kids to hold in the clan parade Saturday morning.

Josiah got a history lesson as he talked with the Clan Mackinnon representative. 

Michael with his friend, Patrick. He is wearing my favorite basket hilt claymore sword.

Me in my Civil War dress (I re-purposed into a Celtic dress by adding a bodice over the shirt I got at a yard sale for only $2), Michael in his kilt and Hailey wearing her "Merida" dress from the movie "Brave".

Josiah was so excited wear a a t-shirt that said "STAFF" on the back. He helped with the ceilidh Friday night. He was thrilled to be able to help. Although I'm not sure how much help he was when he thought he would be fire-conscious and blow all nine pilot lights out on the burners in the kitchen!   

The entertainment was fantastic! There were a bunch of Celtic bands, but our favorite by far was the homeschooled "Gothard Sisters". These gals were quality and fascinating to watch.

Not only are they world class Irish step dancers...

...they are excellent musicians, writing much of their own material. They play a variety of instruments, and to top it all off, they sing!

Hailey and her friend, Hannah, found a "stage" and pretended to be the Gothard Sisters. They were so fun to watch.

Saturday afternoon, Josiah and Michael took a beginning blacksmith workshop. 

Josiah heated metal and...

...banged it into a coat hook for over 3 1/2 hours. I had to make him stop! He had a great time and I hope we can give him more classes in the future. He and Michael got their picture in our local paper as they worked on their project.

On Sunday, after the Kirk 

service and the Blessing of the Tartans, Michael and the kids, along with a bunch of our friends, ran the Kilted Kilometer. I would have participated too, but I forgot my running shoes.

This was Josiah's first race. He got pretty winded at the end. But all the kids finished!.

My friend, Sarah, took first place. I was so proud of her! She is amazing!

Hailey came across the finish line with a flower she picked along the way for me. So cute!

Michael went back and ran Josiah in the rest of the way. I thought this was such a cute picture. 

After the race. Josiah was pretty wiped out.

After that, the kids got to participate in the Children's Highland Games. 

Caber toss.

Even Hailey gave it a try.

Then there was the ladies' Welsh Skillet Toss. I did terrible, but I got a great pic of my friend, Cora, as she made a perfect ringer around the flag pole. Look at that awesome form! 

We always love the reenactors that set up camp.

 

Last year they had a Jacobite demonstration, this year it was WWI's 15th Division, which was a Scottish division in the British army. The timing of this was great as I was getting ready for Josiah's WWI themed birthday party.

 

I got some great ideas and we all learned a lot from these soldiers.

We topped off the weekend by serving haggis to our friends. Haggis is minced heart, lungs, liver and kidneys mixed with onion, oats, salt and pepper, all stuffed inside a sheep's stomach and then boiled for 3 hours. There were some real haggis lovers there. To be truthful, it isn't my favorite, but I can eat it, just barely. Michael loves it. It is super expensive to buy, so I think I will try making my own when we get our sheep this year. Of course I will be adding more garlic!

It was a really fun, albeit exhausting weekend. Can't wait for next year! This is definitely going to become an annual event for us. I love learning while have fun. Immersion is the best way to learn! We are working our way up to Civil War reenacting, which is much more expensive, so it is taking us awhile to accumulate our gear and clothing, but it is coming along! We had a Civil War replica rifle given to us by other blogger (you know who you are), which really helped out a lot. Hoping that we will be able to start participating in the Fort Steven's reenactment by next summer.

These kind of events are a homeschool family's gold mine. So glad we are able to do these kinds of things! The Lord just keeps providing a way.

God Bless,
Jackie