Challenge!

Long-time readers of this blog may recall that way back in September, the Power family briefly got onto a medieval weaponry kick. For a brief reminder, relevant posts are here (where we made the helmets) and here (where we made the swords).

Somehow, we never got around to making the shields. Well anyway, just the other day Mommy was taking the kids shopping for something or other, and they just happened to see a set of toy plastic-and-foam shields. Mommy (who doesn't usually do this sort of thing), decided to splurge, and got each of them a shield.

Of course, one of them immediately broke. I, being the Daddy, was of course called on to salvage the situation with my Paternal Know How. I got out the duct tape and plastered that thing back together so firmly it'll never come loose again, thus reaffirming my essential, indispensable Daddy-ness in the eyes of my family.

So this morning, before breakfast, my sweet little girls decided to do a little single combat. So, we got down those Mighty Blades, Uncalibur-ated and Årþørsgrößtetüðpik, forged last September through the Secret Arts, from cardboard that had been harvested last Midsummer Night by the light of the moon, with shears of pure silver engraved with ancient runes. We got down the helmets and shields, and soon they were ready to test their mettle in epic battle.

Soon, the grim sounds of war began to fill the living room:

Whack.

Whack whack whack.

Ow!

Whack.

Quit it!

Whack whack whack.

Poke Her! Poke Her!

Et cetera.
It quickly became apparent that neither of them had any idea what they were doing. For one thing, just like the Dread Pirate Roberts, both of them were trying to use their swords left-handed, even though they aren't. And neither of them was using the shield to deflect the others' strikes; they were pretty well whacking each other on the head at will.

Now, it was apparent that the Pillowfight Fairy actually did get something out of the Prince Caspian movie I took her to see a few weeks back; she'd learned that what you do with your shield is try to push your little sister around with it. But the Adrenaline Junkie had an important advantage too: her older sister was still in her pajamas, and thus barefoot. All in all, I think it balanced out. They were both pretty hopeless.

So I decided to step in and give them a little guidance.
First, I showed the Adrenaline Junkie how to use the shield properly. Anytime your sister swings at you, knock the sword away with the shield. And I held her arm and demonstrated the motion a few times until she had it. And then I showed her how to poke with the sword rather than slash it about aimlessly; it's much harder to defend against that sort of thing. So yes, I admit that I was the one yelling, "Poke her! Poke her!" Way to go, Dad.

But these little pointers that I gave the Junkie briefly helped her overcome her sister's height and reach advantage, and pretty soon they were whacking at each other like before, until:

Whack!

Waaaaaaaaaaahhhhh.....

Ok, that's enough. I'd say the thing about fun, games, and losing an eye, but as you can see, their eyes were actually pretty well-protected. It's nigh-impossible to see out through those things.

Ah, well. It was fun while it lasted. I wouldn't be surprised if the girls wanted to do this on a more regular basis, actually. Sure looked like fun to me.