I Dub Thee ...

Sir Benjamin and Sir Garrett

Last week, the boys' primary school celebrated Book Day, and everyone was invited to dress as a favorite book character. Double bonus! Not only did the boys get to go to school in costume (remember, we missed Halloween here), but they also got to ditch the school uniforms for a day.

Given that the boys got swords and helmets at the Medieval Christmas market in Munich -- plus the fact that costume pickings in our apartment are rather thin (have to say, it never occurred to me to pack costumes) -- Karl and I lobbied hard for the knight theme. Karl bought fabric for tunics and sashes. And the boys had to make their own coats of arms.

Garrett designed a dragon on his coat of arms, based on the one that's branded on the handle of his sword. Sir G wanted a shield, which Karl fashioned for him.

Ben had a different design in mind. He demonstrated his intent to defend the honor of T. Rexes everywhere. Sir Ben chose to display his coat of arms on his tunic, so I affixed it with a noble stapler.

Here's how a knight prepares himself for the journey to the shuttle bus: sword in backpack, shield in mittened hand, winter jacket over tunic. I pity the fool who asks these knights if they're wearing dresses.

Aside from the costume contest, Book Day activities included "curating" items for a Storybook Museum in the school's library. Some precious artifacts included Tinkerbell's fairy dust (Peter Pan), Puss's boots (Puss 'n Boots), Lucy's potion (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe), the Red Hen's watering can (The Little Red Hen), and the philosopher's stone with a note from Hermione (The Philosopher's Stone). Of course there was storytelling and big chunks of time just for reading.

Ben woke up that morning, threw back his blanket, shouting, "I'm so excited!!"

Yeah. He's enjoying Riverside.

(We felt rather pleased with the results of our last minute costume effort. "Book Day" was sprung on us with not a lot of lead time. On top of that, Ben's class had been working toward the final phase of their explorer projects, in which the students had to give a presentation in costume as their explorers. We are not costume people. But I think we did pretty well on both efforts. Results of Explorer Day, up next!)