Living History Day: Our First School Project

As I approached the carpool line a few weeks ago, I was met with quite a sight. Each and every child was holding a bare shield cut from plywood. As Lily and her carpool buddy climbed in the van with shields the length of half their bodies, it was apparent that their anticipation of this little at home "project" was different than mine.

It was first the real project of their school careers. Their anticipation of it was rooted in excitement, creativity, boundless ideas, and hours of fun. Mine was rooted in fear, financial constraints, lack of creativity, wondering how to tie her ideas to the Middle Ages, and hours of work. MESSY work.

The Mission: to create a shield using whatever means necessary that conveys some meaning of medieval symbolism and a touch of her personality. I just made that up. There was actually a 3 page document that came home with it and several websites listed. Oh dear.

The Time Frame: one month...due the week before Living History Day...A day when the school comes together to experience all things...work, play, clothing, food, etc of the time period they are studying. This year the theme is The Middle Ages.


And so we procrastinated. I had costumes in the works for all four of us before the dern shield even made it out of the van.

And then it was upon us! Yet I put it off to the weekend. Then I realized that Jerry was going to be out of town. Ugh! What's a girl to do? Flee! Run! Quick, for the hills!

Actually we settled for the piny woods of East Texas. I had blessed my mom with an appearance a few weeks back and even brought my laundry with me...giving Jerry a break to study for a Greek exam one weekend. What? Kerry, is your machine broken or something? No, Mom....just behind as usual. So, I thought it'd only be fitting to spread the laundry love to my in-laws as well. As Jerry left town, I loaded up the girls, many baskets and bags of laundry, and a shield. And some paints and some brushes, and some clip art images and ....

The first evening my girls were a bit distracted by the spoils memmy had brought home from a Halloween clearance sale. Within an hour they had dressed as various princesses, witches, a senorita, a flapper girl, and even Cleopatra. Can you say spoiled?

The next morning we went to work on the shield. I traced images with a black sharpie and Lily went to painting. My mother-in-law set in on the laundry. The spoiling doesn't stop with my girls! By evening, my father-in-law got to get out clamps and his mitre box for some last minute touches. Oh a man and his tools!

I only had my phone, but here are some pics of our progress:

This is what we ended up with:

And it finally went to school (after daddy attached some straps for carrying it):

Tomorrow is the big event. It is supposed to be 42 degrees when we get there at 8AM.

I might have just cut the neck off a thermal shirt to match the neckline of my costume. And I might have just spray painted a couple pairs of old shoes gold for the girls.

I might be crazy.