This year, though, they pulled out all the stops. The theme was Narnia, from C.S Lewis's famous fiction series. When we arrived, we had to walk through the seminary rec centre which had been set up like a train station and then walk through a massive wardrobe (crafted just like the one in the movie) through to the seminary central lawn which was set up like a Narnia scene. We were greeted by Narnia characters on the way in, and then made our way through to the central lawn which had Narnia style tents all around the edge, as well as a large fenced in field in the middle which was to be the stage for professional jousters... that's right, there was jousting there, with knights in full armour on enormous horses.
There was a huge area with amazing bouncy castles, which were fun for all ages - it was quite amusing seeing a bunch of adults and even a few professors climbing in and around and up the bouncy castles. There was the normal face painting, candy floss and hot dogs (all free), plus you could get a (plastic) sword after being knighted by Peter and Edmund, or have your photo taken on Aslan's broken stone table.
In addition to all this, they fed us all dinner (the festival was at no cost to us), which was catered by a local restaurant. But the part that got me was finding out that this local restaurant had donated the dinner. We're talking over $10,000 worth of food. There is some amazing generosity around here, especially when it comes to the seminary.
It was a great night - one that the kids loved and will probably remember for quite some time. It's fun evenings like this that make us feel part of the seminary community and are making this place feel more and more like home... at least for now... :)
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| The kids with a Narnia character |
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| Sam and Jack on the horse racing bouncy castle |
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| One of the knights on his steed prior to getting armored up for jousting |
