An Epic Tale...

This is a little after the fact, but worth the wait I am sure. Last Tuesday, I had the opportunity to stay at home with the kids as mommy went off to coach field hockey. Lil Bit was going down for a nap, so I was upstairs listening to that special sound she makes as she goes off to sleep (some people would categorize it as screaming, screeching, or crying. I prefer to think of it as pre-snoring). After she finally stopped and went to sleep, I went to the basement to check on the other three. Upon reaching the top of the stairs, I noticed that there was a great big mess down there, which led me to think that maybe I should not go down there, as the general rule in our house for messes is that if you find it, you are responsible for cleaning it up. As a side note, this is also our rule for poopy diapers, which has led both of us to pretend that we have stuffed up noses on several occasions. But I decided that I would go down there, and boy am I glad that I did. As I was able to see one of the great theatrical performances in our family's history. I tried to capture it on "film" but I am sure you have all read about the trouble we are having with our camera, which is also the reason that I was unable to switch to video mode to capture it as it happened.

As I reached the bottom of the stairs, I noticed that Little Daddy was decked out in full knight gear. He had on a breastplate and was carrying the scabbard of the sword that went along with the breastplate ( the sword has long since been confiscated from the original owner, Cubby). Additionally, he has on the knight helmet, and was holding the Swiffer end of a broken Swiffer, which confused me at first, but then he explained that it was his shield. Next I came across Cubby, working very hard to squeeze himself into a Size 12 Months pair of pajamas that his mother had sewn an alligator head to. This is a 4 year old boy wearing size 12 months pajamas, you will note that they do not reach his knees, but he got them to zip up. He then put on a set of butterfly/fairy wings, at which point he grabbed an orange visor. I was equally as confused by this as I was the Swiffer, so I asked what he was doing. He explained to me that this would be his "fire breath" for the battle. At this point I had yet to notice Sleeping Beauty on the couch in a bright pink tutu, also hand crafted by her mother.

So I have set the scene for you, and for those of you who know our kids it is fairly obvious that this idea came from the head of our very own Cubby, who is remarkably creative for someone who is destined to lead the Cubs back to World Series glory. He then explained everyone's role in the play. Little Daddy would battle him with his sword and shield as he breathed his fire breath at him.

Sleeping Beauty would lie on the couch doing nothing until she was rescued.

After the battle, which of course was inevitably won by the handsome knight, the dragon would lie dead on the ground...

... and the knight would give Sleeping Beauty a kiss!

The most amazing part about this entire project, which was entirely kid driven, was that they actually did what he said. Even the kiss, and they repeated the scene for me several times so that I could get pictures. After the many takes they decided that they should rotate roles, which I thought was going to work out fine, but alas neither Cubby nor Little Daddy wanted to be Sleeping Beauty so the play fell apart and we all went upstairs to make some cookies.