Birthday Adventure

For my birthday this summer, I wanted to spend time with family doing something out of the ordinary. When my neighbor happened to mention a field trip that she had taken her class on this past year to a real castle, I figured visiting this site would make a perfect birthday adventure! We were excited that Grandpa and Grandma agreed to join us for the day's outing, too.

Our first stop was visiting a bakery run by the same guy who built the castle. It's a pretty good business tactic to have the bakery be the site where we pick up our castle tour tickets. We, of course, were tempted by the delicous bakery smells and all had a sweet treat. Yum!

Then, we drove just a few miles from the bakery to find the castle, hidden away in a quiet, wooded area. It's called Newman's Castle, after the guy who built it. Mr. Newman spent nearly a dozen years bulding this medieval style castle and actually now lives in it!

Mr. Newman began the castle tour with a small talk--a brief explanation of how and why he built the castle. Then, he made a few volunteers honorary knights for the day and gave us a demonstration of his catapult. This thing was impressive!

He also showed us how his castle drawbridge actually raises and lowers, using this wheel connected to the drawbridge chains.

After Mr. Newman's presentation, we were given free reign to roam the various rooms of the castle. The boys LOVED the chance to explore, run and climb. Adley, however, was a bit freaked out by the castle and took quite some time to warm up to this large edifice.

The castle had lots of rooms, but not all of them were decorated. The neatest ones were the dining hall and the chapel.

The boys were especially intrigued by the castle dungeon-- sitting on the nail bed... 

...and being temporarily imprisoned by one of the castle guards.

The boys and I even climbed high up into the castle turrets.

Climbing to the very top was a bit of a challenge, as we had to squeeze past a large bell, but we made it. The views at the top of the turret were beautiful!

At the end of our exploration, we were directed to the castle kitchen, where we received a sack lunch and another bakery treat. Then, before leaving the castle grounds, the kids and I walked for a bit along the pathway surrounding the castle moat, into the forest. What a fun experience!

On our way home, we took a little detour so that we could visit the Blue Bell Creamery in Brenham. All of the adults had previously visited this place--home of our very favorite Texas ice cream--but it was a first for the kids.

The Blue Bell ice cream parlor sells LARGE scoops of ice cream for just a dollar each. Talk about a nice birthday treat!! 

We stopped through the Blue Bell visitor's center as well and learned a little bit about this company's 100+ year history. 

Back at home, our family ate a delicious crock pot beef roast dinner, lovingly prepared by my husband, and capped it off with a cookie cake for dessert. The kids were thrilled with all the extra sweet treats we enjoyed on this day. 

What a fun and memorable birthday adventure!