Photos from the 2014 King Richard's Faire plus Fun Zazzle #RenFaire T-Shirts! #KRFaire

Thank you to King Richard's Faire for providing Renaissance faire tickets for my family to attend this Massachusetts event and to Zazzle for providing some of the Renaissance faire t-shirts pictured below.  All opinions expressed are my own.

Our 3rd year returning to King Richard's Faire was a memorable one.  There were two things that made it so memorable . . . The first thing was the 90+ degree super-humid weather.  The second was having my sister, brother-in-law, and their 4 year old son with us, who were experiencing the faire for the first time.  We were excited to be able to share some of our favorite performers with them, so that was our focus.  Instead of making it a point to see some new things, we enjoyed our very favorites, some of which were the big cat show and jousting.

Of course, no visit to King Richard's Faire would be complete without seeing Jacques Ze Whipper, who has some new whipping songs to share this year!

If you've seen photos from our past visits to King Richard's Faire, then you know that our children often dressed in costumes for the occasion.  This year, with some advanced planning in anticipation of the hot weather, we all wore Renaissance faire t-shirts from Zazzle and was that ever the right decision!  We were as comfortable as we possibly could be thanks to wearing t-shirts and I felt so badly for the actors and shopkeepers, many of who were dressed in multiple layers.

Even though our children were not dressed in costume, the boys still wanted to bring their swords from the Remembrance Shoppe, so my husband had the idea to add grips to the long swords along with a fresh coat of metallic paint.We also fashioned a holster, one on the back for our younger son and one on the hip for our older son.

Renaissance Faires Rock t-shirt from Zazzle

In addition to seeing our favorite shows, our family couldn't wait to revisit some of the games and activities we've enjoyed in the past, such as shooting crossbows.  We also tried some new things, like the Flying Carousel and the Catapult Game.

Knights of the Realm t-shirt from Zazzle

Another old favorite is the pony rides, or in our daughter's case, unicorn rides.

Girl Penguin in Renaissance Dress t-shirt from Zazzle

As for the famed giant turkey leg, we usually order one for the whole family to share along with chicken fingers, french fries, pizza, and an onion blossom.  By the way, I cannot tell you how many people stopped my husband to compliment him on his t-shirt, even those working at the faire.  And here I was, trying to convince him to choose the Huzzah! t-shirt.

I'm Here for Turkey Legs & Cleavage t-shirt from Zazzle

We always set aside enough time towards the end of the day for souvenir hunting.  We usually tell each child that they can choose one thing (within reason) for their souvenir.  Somehow they always seem to get out of there with more than one thing.  There are just too many cool things in the artisan shops.  One of these years, I'm going to come up with a valid need for a hand carved staff!  Every year, I admire them when I visit the faire . . .

Medieval Joust t-shirt from Zazzle

Something else that was memorable about our visit this year was meeting the new Queen.  We will miss the previous queen very much, but were happy to be able to make the acquaintance of the new one.

A NOTE TO PARENTS:  I want to leave you with one tip for attending the Faire this year . . . if you have younger children, be sure to bring your own drinking straws.  The only beverages that were being served with straws were the slushies.  Imagine our surprise when we asked for a straw to go with our 7 year old son's root beer float and were politely told "no."

King Richard's Faire is currently in its 4th weekend of its 8-week season.  Be sure to visit www.KingRichardsFaire.net to see what special events have been planned for the remainder of the 2014 season, which ends on October 19th.

Click here to see all our 2014 King Richard's Faire photos.