Robin Hood
My Mother Marge planned a wonderful family reunion last year. My mum is an extremely creative person; in fact her favourite place to visit is the craft shop. She even makes ornaments and decorations for Christmas gifts so when she decided on a "Robin Hood" theme for our family reunion I knew it was going to be good.
The invitations she made were very innovative. The paper she used looked like parchment and she stamped images of a tree, a feathered cap and bow on the cover. I coloured them in with felt tip markers. Inside was information of the location, date and time of the reunion. Although most of our family lives within an hour of where we live, we also added a map and directions to the park where the party was to take place.
On the day of the reunion I arrived at the park and was amazed to see Mum wearing a Maid Marion costume and Dad was dressed as Robin Hood. They looked fabulous. The picnic tables were all covered with white tablecloths and each place set with pewter dishes and either a metal mug or goblet, utensils and cloth napkins.
A metal lantern hung over each picnic table using a clothes line strung between the trees. A garland of artificial climbing roses had been wound around the clothesline to disguise it.
Snacks like mixed nuts, sliced apples and french bread with cheese, as well as a green salad were set out on a table in wooden bowls or on pewter platters.
Dad cooked steaks, burgers, sausages and chicken breasts on the barbeque. There was plenty of soft drink, beer and wine for everyone. Everything was delicious.
It had been years since I'd seen some of my relatives. Everyone had a great time eating and chatting. The day was sunny and bright, but mum had done a great job picking an area where there was plenty of shade all day long.
Dad organized an "archery" contest, but the bull's eye was just a velcro dart board so there was no chance of anyone getting hurt. The arrows were just darts with velco tips which stuck to the special cloth on the board. You had to throw them just right or they wouldn't stick. The kids loved it! There were even some silly prizes like paper Robin Hood hats, and toy bows and arrows. I had trouble even getting the darts to hit the board. There was a lot of pressure on dad, since he was dressed as Robin Hood, to be better than anyone else. He must have been practicing long before the reunion because, on his turn, he hit the bull's eye every time. Everyone laughed when Mum gave him a big kiss. Uncle Bob took lots of photos during dinner and video taped the "archery" contest as well.
I organized the younger kids and played a pretend game of Robin Hood. My little cousin, Ralph was chosen to be Robin Hood. Ralph picked me to play Maid Marion, little Angela played Friar Tuck, Jason played Little John and Billy wanted to be the Sheriff of Nottingham. The whole game ended up being Robin and his Merry "men" chasing the Sheriff around. Dad captured everything on video.
Our game of pretend inspired the adults to start playing charades. Mum tried to keep the topics confined to the Robin hood theme, but that didn't work out quite the way she wanted. Everyone really got into it. I took over in the video taping when it was uncle Bob's turn. His portrayal of Guy of Gizborn, was a truly classic moment.
When the sun started setting everyone pitched and helped pack everything into Dad's pick up and Mum's minivan so we could go home. Everyone agreed they had a really great time.
