Happy Veteran's Day

Kira's school had a Veteran's Day program and the fifth graders were the hosts, so I went to it.  I love elementary school so much.  All those kids were gathered in the gym, sitting on the floor with their classes, being adorable.  There was a guest singer invited to sing the national anthem.  She was a teenager with a beautiful voice and the idea was for her to sing a moving rendition of the song a capella, but the kids all sing that song every morning so they joined in, even though their teachers were shushing them.  The singer was a high soprano, so the song was being sung higher than I've ever heard it and the kids that were relentlessly joining in really had to strain to keep up, but they did.  It was just about the cutest thing I ever heard.

Okay, this was supposed to be a reverent Veteran's Day post, but I'm sitting here next to Mitch who is in the process of making a homemade pantomime horse costume and it's very distracting.  There's a lot of thinking-out-loud going on about the facial expression it should have, and perhaps maybe the face should be velcro-able so the expression can be changed to match its mood.  That way it would be a much more versatile pantomime horse, which is a better value any way you look at it! 

This is NOT Mitch's pantomime horse.  
I am under strict instructions not to take any pictures of it until it is finished and is running around our yard.   

In case you didn't know this already, Mitch is obsessed with pantomime horses, and he and Kira want to be one in the worst way.  When I was gone on my trip he bought a bunch of fleece and made most of the costume.  Right now there is the better part of a pantomime horse sitting on the couch in the basement and Mitch is talking to me about whether or not the horse should have eyelids, or if they will just blend in too much with the rest of the "hide," and maybe he could make eyelashes out of yarn!  Now he just said, "You better not be live blogging this."  Oh, I'm live blogging this. Now he's wondering if the panto-horse should have reins, a harness and a saddle blanket, and Hey!  Maybe some blinders!  He realizes a saddle wouldn't be very practical for a panto-horse because come on, nobody is going to ride it!  That would be ridiculous!  But the quality of a panto-horse is almost totally dependent on the tiny details.  He realizes that his sewing isn't the best so he wants to draw the eye away from the puckered seams with fantastic facial features.  Now he just tried the eyes on it and said, "Oh yeah, the eyes really make it come alive.  I'm sure glad I didn't go with the googly eyes!"   

So happy Veteran's Day, Veterans!  You fight to keep our panto-horse dreams alive!  Thank you!