Medieval party for the "old man"

Recently my old man became an old man (or, in other words, my dad turned 60 and my kids inform me that is when you officially become old...sorry, Dad, it had to happen sooner or later).

That dashing guy on the left is my father.

Anyway, so we opted to have a party to celebrate the event.  

And since he is so old, we decided to have a medieval themed party so he would know we appreciate how ancient he really is (or so he would still feel young because even he wasn't alive back then...either way).  A couple of my creative and quirky brothers came up with the idea and laid out the plan.

We decorated the room with "wanted" posters feature my dad's smug mug.

Brian and Paula and fam made torches and an awesome chandelier (which has since been adopted by my son Gavin and now resides in his bedroom) to light up the place.  They also managed to find a lovely musical score for the evening of period music (yeah, I would be ok to NOT listen to that particular sound track again any time soon...but it really did set the mood).

Josh and Heather made a poster (it says "Just like yon yeer of birth")

And each family designed a coat of arms to represent their clan.

This is ours.  We put each of our crests on a fabric aprons (Dad had a more official sounding name for them, but darned if I can remember what it was) so we could wear them around and be easily recognized as DeMouxs (um, yeah, that's pretty much never a problem -- we rarely go unnoticed).

And then, after everyone gathered, it was time for the fun!

We are short a few cousins here, but this is the bulk of the crew.

Josh and Joel had prepared a freshly minted madrigal to perform for Dad complete with guitar, catchy lyrics and dynamic actions.  It was pretty fabulous (and fairly hilarious) and quite well done.

Every medieval chap (and chappette) needs a sword, so we put some together using pvc bits and pieces.  Thankfully, even with all the lunging and parrying and everything in between no one ended up hurt.  I count that as a major win!

Once we had practiced sufficiently on each other, we took our new weapons outside to use them on evil fiends hiding the trees (yup, walloping balloons with pvc swords -- fun for the whole family!).

We also practiced our jousting skills.

And some archery (surprisingly, only one arrow ended up in the neighbors yard so that was pretty good...it goes without saying that one of my nutjobs was the offender who shot the arrow over the fence...sigh, that's just the way of things).

And then, of course, we ate!

This is the spread.  Turkey legs, breads, fruits and vegetables (and, naturally, we were sure to include those medieval favorites -- ranch dipping sauce and squeezable honey butter).

Yeah, those turkey legs were GIGANTIC!  It looked like we didn't eat a thing, but the leftovers will be well used.

After some present opening and hugging and remembering of the past, it was time to disperse and head for home.  A fun time was had by all.  What a wonderful evening and a great chance to honor a guy that we just love to pieces.  

Hope you had a great birthday, Dad.  I'm awfully glad we have you.

And so is the rest of my crew.