Alatheia's Medieval Surprise

A party with knights, sword fights, frogs to kiss and maidens in distress...who could ask for more!

Costumed young maidens by the droves converged on the Powell's house for Alatheia's medieval surprise party. The excuse for the party was Alatheia's birthday which was almost two months ago. Needless to say, Alatheia was not suspecting a thing. The party was right after Mr. Hess's recital. The girls had to be 'casual' while leaving the recital so as not to arouse suspicion.

The birthday girl herself.

Alathiea was surprised, but had enough self possession to immediately notice and comment on certain individual's dresses!

The opening game was 'Pin the Kiss on the Frog'...hence the maidens in distress! We tried not to win that game.

Meredith found a frog to kiss!

Since the theme of this party was medevial we all ate with either our knives or our hands. Elizabeth put hours and hours worth of work to make the meal authentic and tasty. We had strawberry soup, salads with pansies and fruits in them, bread with rye, wheat and white all twisted together, herb or honey butter shaped into pats, candied nuts and a bowl of rose water to wash our hands in.

Elizabeth bought rotisserie chicken from Sam's club for the main course. Oooo, are they ever good. Every three girls got their own chicken and Alatheia got one of her own. We wacked off hunks of chicken and 'delicately' ate them with our hands!

A toast to Alatheia and our wonderful hostess.

The goblets held sparkling cider refilled generously by the page.

Paul Powell the page...(say that three times really fast!) Paul was the fair maidens server for the feast and was commonly referred to as the 'whipping boy.'

Waiting for the birthday girl.

Several of the fair maids...

The costumes were found at Goodwill, made for past NCHEAs, borrowed from friends with too many medieval costumes in their closets, sewn by those with too much time on their hands or revamped wedding finery with old lady jewelry put to good purpose. Those that did not come properly dressed had to sing for their supper!

Those not in costume weren't the only ones doing some singing. Listen to the wine glasses. Elizabeth found the various wine glasses at Good Will. They were beautiful. The girls still practice making their wine glasses sing, and we got a concert when they got home.

After the delicious meal, all the fair maidens went outside to watch the afternoon's entertainment.

Sword fighting...

Sword fighting is not as easy as they make it look in the movies.

The enthusiastic audience hollered encouragement when the knights seemed to be slowing down a bit.

Two young maids in the audience.

Anna Beasley was very helpful in providing costumes for the unfortunate people who didn't have any. She had three costumes...two from NCHEA and one from making matching costumes with Alatheia.

Later in the afternoon, a general vote was taken and everyone decided to play" Do You Love Your Neighbor?"

The circle of contestants kept getting smaller as the game progressed.

Towards the end of the party, Elizabeth brought out a CD player and put on some lively, fiddle music. All the girls joined in the Virginia Reel.

We were sad to see the party come to a close, but all good things must come to an end. Happy belated birthday, Alatheia, and thank you SO much Elizabeth for having us out to help celebrate.