games again

Day two of labor day weekend. Still crushed by the Aggies' terrible loss the afternoon before, John didn't have the strength to attend the large annual Highland Games with the rest of us. Sure, he made an excuse about having to work or something like that, but I knew the real deal. But the girls and I managed to get over our disappointment enough to follow through with our weekend plans.

Outside the front entrance we were in the presence of someone dressed up like and wanting us to believe that they were royalty. Clearly this wasn't a real queen because it was a very warm day. If she were royalty she'd demand to wear something more suited to the weather.


But the girls thought the little skit and costumes were interesting.

But as soon as we got inside the gates the first thing they wanted to do was watch the Highland dancing, especially because their dance teacher told us that the younger kids would be dancing during the first two hours that day. And the girls know one of the young dancers from their school. She is wearing the light purple in the photo where they are facing backwards.


The girls were so excited to see Elizabeth up there, and they really appreciated the dancing by all the kids now that they are familiar with many of the steps. Erin was particularly engrossed. She loves her dance class and she takes it pretty seriously and she is very enthusiastic. She has progressed well over the summer and has just been moved to a more advanced class, and her teachers want her to be part of a local Scottish performance planned for November near home.

The twins, meanwhile, wax and wane about whether or not they want to continue dancing, and either way is fine with me. After watching the performances though I think they came away with a little more interest.




Altogether we watched the dancing for over an hour and I almost had to drag them away because there was so much more to see and we only had a few hours to be there.

Nearby were the clan tents, so we wandered around there for a while and the girls posed with the chief member for their clan, as they did last year.


Then we watched the clan representatives line up to enter the Highland Games arena, but we didn't follow them in.


Instead, we looked at some animals and some sheep dog trials and spent a lot of time playing games in the children's area.

Kate was Haggis Toss champ, racking up far more tickets than her sisters or any of the other kids while we were there, and she lined up again and again to play.

The hours at the games passed quickly and as usual and we never did manage to see everything we would have liked. But we'll be back next year, and Erin may very well be up on that dance stage next time.