The costume -

I have always loved how Jordan likes to get involved in school activities. This year, he decided to be in the school play. He tried out and made it. The director wanted to give the students an opportunity to experience many different aspects of the play, so the students and teacher chose a theme (King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table), wrote about 8 different sketches, practiced, memorized, designed sets, etc, all under the watchful eye of "Queen V," their theater teacher (that's Ms. VanDerloh to us non-drama folk.) It took about 3 months, but finally they were ready to perform. The night before dress rehearsal, Jordan told me he needed a costume. Actually, he didn't exactly tell us, he just proceeded to have a meltdown when we asked him to practice the piano. When we finally got him to tell us what was wrong, the story came out:
"What is the matter?" I asked in that ever (ok, it was not so very) patient voice of mine.
"I need a costume for the play."
"By when?"
"Dress rehearsal is tomorrow."
"So you need this by tomorrow. When tomorrow?"
"3pm."
"What exactly do you need?"
"I'm a knight."
"So, a suit of armour?" (Already I'm trying to figure out where in the world I will be able to find SOMETHING... ANYTHING...)
"No, I'm not fighting, so I don't need the armour, but I'm still a knight."
"But isn't there a fight scene?"
"Yes, but we're in the woods hunting, not jousting. So I need whatever a knight wears when he's hunting."
"And, what does a knight wear when he's hunting?"
"I dunno."
"What are the other knights wearing?"
So Jordan tells me of one guy who has actually brought his costume to school before the dress rehearsal (his mom is obviously trying to show all of us loser moms up), but he is a frivolous knight with sparklies on his helmet and a feather boa. But Jordan is not a frivolous knight, so that wouldn't work for him. And that brings us back to the question: "So what do you really want me to gather together for you?"
"I have no idea."
"And you need this by 3pm tomorrow?"
"Yes."

I love my boys.

So in desparation, I go to the dollar store (nothing), Target (nothing), and call the neighborhood (where I get a few ideas and a helmet). Meanwhile, Jordan tries to talk his dad into taking a milk gallon, cutting away half of it, painting it silver, and using it for a helmet. To which Aaron replies "Let's look online and see what we can find."

Finally we find a pair of faux leather pants at Walmart, but because they were 1)on clearance and 2) by Miley Cyrus, Jordan refused to wear them. Come on, kid! Throw me a bone! Knights would have worn leather pants while hunting, right? And the next morning I find on a piece of scrap paper the name of a costume shop in Salt Lake. Aaron had found the shop online, but decided that maybe it wasn't significant enough to tell me about it, I guess. (Really? What were they thinking? Don't they know I'm grasping at straws at this point??? But this is another story...) So I ran all over town looking for boots and a cape while Jordan was in school . At the costume shop I finally found an old halloween costume that had a tunic and a chainmail-looking hood and sleeves, along with black boot-like covers. Yay! Success! I got it to the school with 10 minutes to spare. Jordan, luckily, was thankful. Otherwise I might have had to thump his skull.

Jordan never did wear the leather pants. But we did get Aaron to try them on:
It was worth the $3. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time! Thanks Miley.