Wednesday – A Boy, A Mermaid, and Two Dragons

[ninanevermore]

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A couple weeks ago, I discovered that I live 13.4 miles from entrance to one of the largest Renaissance Festival in the United States. I knew that I lived pretty close, but I haven't actually gone to the Texas Renaissance Festival since I bought my house so I didn't realize exactly how close I lived to it.

They have a garden on the grounds that exists for the soul purpose of providing photo opportunities. With a 4-year-old boy in tow destined to star in a calendar that I needed to print for his maternal grandfather and his paternal grandmother (the only two grandparents he has left) in time for Christmas, I took advantage of these prefab ops and scored not only my calendar cover photo, but the pictures for 4 other months as well.



As a mother, you'd think the last thing I would want is a picture of my son standing next to a topless woman. When the woman is a mermaid, though, somehow it doesn't seem so bad.



They also have two benches carved to look like dragons. The benches are huge; you could probably fit the whole Duggar family on one of them if you wanted to and they were so inclined. My son seems to be negotiating with the dragon and talking him into a ride in one photo.



In the next, the dragon seems to have agreed to be ridden, and so my son had taken hold of his ears and is smiling in triumph.



The smaller gold dragon in the Asian garden are not meant to be ridden, but try explaining that to a 4 year old. I have trained my son to say "ice cream" instead of "cheese" when I want to take his picture. He likes cheese, but he loves ice cream. When he says "cheese," his smile is cheesy. When he says "ice cream" he breaks out in the blissful smile of a lover speaking the name of his beloved. I had my back turned to him looking at another sculpture when I heard him say "Ice cream!" and turned around to snap one shot before explaining to him that he needed to get off of the little dragon.

"Why?" he asked

"Because you might break him."

"But I'm being careful."

I finally prevailed, but if anyone connected to the TRF happens to see this picture and wants to complain that the exhibit is for looking and not touching, I agree and will willingly submit to a lecture.



So, for those of you who need a face to picture when I talk about my Sweet Pea, now you have it. I'm hoping the grandparents enjoy their calendars, and appreciate the effort of wrangling and taming dragons I had to do in order to make it for them.

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Comments

[sidneymintz.livejournal.com]

Very sweet :)

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :)

[mersipan.livejournal.com]

Aww :) Great pics!

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :)

[ayoub.livejournal.com]

Ah, but what of a face for you?

:D

[simplecity2htwn.livejournal.com]

Part of me wonders the same. The other part of me enjoys picturing her as looking just like Olive Snook (http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0027934/) and tells the first part to hush up.

[ayoub.livejournal.com]

LMAO!

Yes... Very much Olive :D

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

It'll ruin the Olive Snook thing for you guys, but I have put pics of me in my other other (oft neglected) journal: http://ninabadina.livejournal.com/40699.html

Don't go there, though. Keep thinking me of Olive. I'm cuter that way. :)

[ayoub.livejournal.com]

You're very cute in real life, too :D

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

*blushes* Aw, thanks!

[noblwish.livejournal.com]

Wow! You really COULD be Kristin Chenoweth! Well, about as much as I could be Brooke Shields, anyway. ;)

[simplecity2htwn.livejournal.com]

I refuse to look. I've grown to enjoy the whole Olive Snook image.

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

Smart man. :D

[simplecity2htwn.livejournal.com]

Cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute. The grandparents should love it!

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

Thanks! And they never have to know that I paid for the calendars with my My Coke Rewards points and only paid the shipping and handling fees. *****shhhhhhhhh******

[sarcasmoqueen.livejournal.com]

Your son is adorable!

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :)

[artkouros.livejournal.com]

Those are great. I didn't know that our Ren Fair was the largest.

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

I'd read (The Houston Commical, I think) that it was the largest. The TRF website calls it "one of the largest," so there may be one somewhere that's a bit bigger. I guess I'll adjust my wording.

[drippedonpaper.livejournal.com]

YOu're skilled with your camera as well as with words:)

He's adorable. When will he be 5? My middle child is 5 Jan 26th, as she reminds me DAILY!

Thanks for sharing.

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

To catch a few good photos, I have to shoot about 100 bad ones of a blurred little boy dashing out of the frame, or hiding when he sees the camera, or making a face that is goofy. With enough quantity, anyone can get quality, I think.

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

PS. He just turned 4 in October.

[adamant-turtle.livejournal.com]

I just esp. enjoy how you tagged him "sweat pea"... now I've got a mental image of a sweaty child running amok...

Is it totally wrong that the first pic makes me laugh? 'Cause it totally looks like the kid's on his tiptoes, trying to peer around for a full frontal peek...

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

It is wrong, but I can't blame you for it.

[jenelycam.livejournal.com]

I love that last photo...even if he wasn't supposed to ride it. :P

Your son is completely adorable!!!

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

I cropped it and centered it, and that is the cover photo for his calendar. It's a cute shot, and I couldn't resist taking it even if he wasn't supposed to be there. :)

Thank you! I've seen pics of your girls, so I know you know adorable when you see it since you live with it yourself. If you say he's adorable, it must be true. ~_^

[jenelycam.livejournal.com]

Well, Duh!! My kids are the epitome of adorableness. LOL

[niecystrips.livejournal.com]

Great pics. They totally made me smile. Thank you.

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

Thank you (and you're welcome). :D

[agirlnamedluna.livejournal.com]

Those pictures are awesome!!!


He totally looks like you describe him ;)

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :)

[jessnhalinda.livejournal.com]

The fantasy buff in me can't help but imagine him as S'Pea, Dragonrider of Pern.

That looks like a great place for photo ops. Our mini-Ren-Faire must pale in comparison to yours--but I imagine we have less heat stroke in the summer.

(My best friend makes me smile properly for pictures by telling me to say "Peter Tork" instead of cheese. For some reason, it delights me that the same basic technique that works on a 4 year-old still works on my 31 year-old self.)

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

TRF is on a large, permanent site, but it's only opened in the months of October and November, which is when the weather is tolerable and even pleasant in this part of Texas. The Rennies basically close out their traveling season down here, then a lot of them move down to Galveston for the first weekend of December to work on Dickens on the Strand (most of them don't even bother to update their costumes from medieval to Victorian).

You and my kid are easy. To get a natural smile on my husband, it takes a flash of bare breast. It public places, I have to accept his cheesy fake smile rather than risk arrest and public embarrassment. ;P

[suspiria.livejournal.com]

I love the dragon pictures!! Teaching him to say ice cream is brilliant. My step-son has the most horrible pained looking camera face. We have like 2 decent pictures of him, and they only happened because he didn't know there was a camera. Maybe if we make him say 'video games' he'll bust out a grin. =)

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

Video games might just do the trick. If it doesn't, try getting him to say a tongue twister or something that he thinks is funny or funny sounding. The idea is to get them to smile naturally, instead of faking a smile for the photo. Some people (most of them male) can't fake a smile to save their lives, and you have to get creative in order to get a good photo of them.

[suspiria.livejournal.com]

My mother-in-law is making us take family portraits this year over Christmas. It's going to be hilarious when it comes back with the blonde child right in the middle making a face like he's trying to poop.

[hermes-wade.livejournal.com]

Awwww, too adorable!

[neanahe.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but he bites.