WWI Fly-in and Picnic

Yes, all our kids got to sit in the authentic WWI fighter plane.  Well, Ana was at a YW's activity so she wasn't there.  But all the rest, oh except Nicolas who had crashed by then.

Even Leo.  He was the most excited, actually.  :)

And here for Jethro and Leo are some other planes we saw.  This was a WWII fighter plane.  I knew that without anyone telling me.  Ha!  I have learned something being married to Leo.

Sebastian wanted to see the helicopter first thing.

I thought the ambulance was awesome.  Gosh I wish I had a Downton Abbey dress to wear and pose beside it!

People were so nice, you could just ask anyone driving by and they would give you a ride in their cars. Leo and the kids all rode in a Ford Model T while I sat and chatted to some reenactors about their costumes and where they bought the WWI military uniforms (Pakistan, as it turns out).

The convertible behind the car on the left is the one they rode on.

I loved these bikes!  So sweet.  They were driving them around too, but some other kids were already getting rides.

Loved this car!!

Leo's pointing at the Fokker Dr. I Triplane that had just taken off, the same type of plane the Red Baron flew.  It was very loud, and very slow.  And just for you Jethro, here's a link to the airplanes the museum has in it's collection.  

Sebastian was not cooperative as you can see by his glares here.  Only ice-cream bribery worked.  But it was so funny, because whenever we stopped to take photos, 5-10 people gathered to take photos of our little pilots too.  The one guy said he'd put up their picture on the museum's website.  Another guy commented after taking a picture of Nicolas posed by a machine gun, "Ha!  Take that Emperor Obama, we teach our kids to like guns early!"  Or something like that.  Ummm….whatever…….was my internal response.  I just politely said nothing.  Yes.  Texas.  It's sometimes so funny to see people's extreme dislike for Obama here in Texas as opposed to the extreme craze for Obama in Chicago that we experienced when he was first elected.  Interesting anyway.

There were some newer cars too.

I thought it was so funny that Leo found this museum to go take pictures at himself.  He asked me if I was going to take pictures of the boys and where, and I said yes, and I didn't know.  The next day he called me from work and told me about the Kingsbury Pioneer Flight Museum and how they were having a fly-in picnic that very Saturday (an event they hold twice a year), so despite our busy schedules, we just had to go.  It was super fun.  I'm glad we did.  That night we made it back in time for  our ward's 50's sock hop, which was also super fun, (the little girls never stopped dancing) but unfortunately I hadn't even had time to start my 50's dress that I was planning on making for it.  I have the fabric and everything.  :(  But I had been working on my dress to wear to my brother's wedding like a mad woman.  And the next morning with two hours of sleep I made it to the airport for my 6 AM flight with Nicolas to Utah for my brother's wedding.  Pictures to come, I promise.  Anyway, it was not a nice flight and Nicolas screamed the whole way to Phoenix.  Oh well.

The guy in the background kept changing costumes and driving by in different vehicles.  Once he was dressed as a British mailman and it totally reminded me of Larkrise to Candleford.  It was awesome.  Yeah, I'm a nerd.  Whatever.  Just wait till you see the little girls' costumes and mine.

And just FYI, the coat I made from a men's 1970's western leather jacket I bought on Ebay for $8.  I kept the original collar and just cut it down and made sleeves.  I also made their hats from the same jacket. Here's the tutorial I used.  I didn't bother to make jodphurs for Nicolas, but just made a basic elastic waist costume pants from another pattern.  And the scarves I had especially knitted by my awesome cousin, Kristi, from her shop on Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/bluejeanmama
I bought the Nicolas's sweater on ebay for $7, and the googles from Smith and Edwards.  I'm not going to tell you how much I paid for those, just know that I was very, very sad when one of the lenses was broken.  And I made up the pattern for the Sebastian's boot tops.  He was supposed to be wearing lace up cowboy boots underneath them, but we only ended up with one in our van the day we went to take pictures, oops.  And we never bothered to lace on Nicolas's boot tops. Sometimes sanity and children's happiness wins the day.

It worked right?