"Mom, by tomorrow, I need..."

I wondered how long it would take for the emergency request -- you know, like at 9 pm you hear, "Mom, I told the teacher you'd make three dozen frosted cupcakes for our class party tomorrow."

Jackson's Medieval Feast is today at school. This is a big deal for the 4th graders. They have a parade, feast, and dance, and they've been learning about Medieval history since the beginning of the school year leading up to this.

Yesterday, he gets home at 3:00 and says in a guilty-sounding voice, "Oh Mom, remember how I told you that our teacher said she would give us costumes to wear for the Feast? Well, actually, we have to have our own costumes tomorrow, and if we don't, we get marked down." He tells me this one hour before we have to be at our church's Wednesday-evening kids' program, and by the time we get home from that, the party store will be closed. ARGH!!

Thankfully, my mom happens to work at the party store. Even though she home sick in bed, she recommended the perfect knight costume (breast plate, sword, and shield for only $10!) and told me who to call at the store so they could have it at the registers for us. We rushed over there and were able to buy it and get home in time for the church program.

A little advance notice would have been nice! We could have made something with tinfoil or pop-tops or something. Now he just has to wear cheap plastic, but he's thrilled with it, so I guess that's what counts.

 

Oh yes. It happens. In fact, two of my three told me just the other day they needed to bring in food for a certain school project and my heart jumped. Thankfully, though, they were both giving me a two-week warning! But it's happened that they left it until the night before and it's not pretty. I've also heard, "Mom, we have a band concert tonight at 7:00 pm and I have to be there by 6:00 (this at 4:45 pm)!!" :lol:

It sounds as if you pulled it together just fine, though, Amy!!

 

NOT looking forward to that! And, I know how my girls are, so I am positive that will happen to us in the near future, lol.

 

You too? My 11 & 12 year olds told me yesterday that they needed white shirts for band pictures today. I don't keep white shirts on hand, as my children like to ruin the white ones so I try to get colored shirts. They seem to last longer. The instructor had sent a note home on Monday, and my 12 year old had been sick with the flu. But my 11 year old had it in her folder. OOPS! I could have kicked her down the street for that. So, before I could go to work, I had to find white shirts. Fortunately for me, I vented to a friend at work, (before I went) and she had a couple her boys had out grown. That saved my son, but my hubby had to stop at the store on his way home from work to pick her one up. He didn't get home and have dinner until after 8. (He works 1 hour away) I was not a happy mom yesterday! :wacko: My 14 year old is bad about that too!

 

Oh my goodness, I see I'm not the only one!! Usually, Jackson's really good about telling me stuff about school, so this was a real shocker.

The Feast was wonderful. Moms were there at 8 am to start decorating and preparing. We had it offsite at an old ethnic hall (lovely room!), and the tables had cornucopias and all sorts of decorations, and we even had a table with a real pig's head and piles of gourds and apples and stuff. And all the windows were covered with "stained glass" decorations the kids had made.

The kids paraded a couple blocks to get there, and they were in awe of the room when they arrived. After eating, they sang and did folk dances, and one little girl played an awesome violin solo. I felt like I spent all day there, but it was worth it!

 

Amy, I had seen the title of this post yesterday, chuckled and didn't read it (basically because I don't have any kids in this age group). Then I was talking to my sister. Her 8 year old son told her yesterday morning, that he needed pictures of himself from each year since he was born for a timeline at school, and oh, could she bring them when she came to his school that afternoon? I immediately thought of your post.

Glad you had a good time!

 

That sounds like a great time Amy!! Glad it all worked out!

 

QUOTE
Her 8 year old son told her yesterday morning, that he needed pictures of himself from each year since he was born for a timeline at school, and oh, could she bring them when she came to his school that afternoon?


:icon_eek: :laughing:

 

This happens to us all the time, but it's not my child, it's the school! School got out at 5:30pm and the parents meeting started at 5:45pm, with no kids allowed. We got a list of (no joke) 40 things our kids needed by the next day (such as notebooks, math equipment, hand towel, art smock, watercolors, blah blah) the one that got me was the ball made out of old socks I had to sew by the next day for his gym class. By the way, all the shops around here shut by 7pm. Fortunately I was already nervous about not having what he needed (or any idea what it was) so I went to the shop the week before and bought some of everything on offer. We were mostly covered.
The other thing they don't tell about it in advance are days off. I have the school calendar and there was nothing on it about time of in Nov, then one thursday they announce there is no school the next day or Monday!! It would have been nice to use the 4 day weekend to visit my Mum in England.
The school system is definitely not designed for people without "grandma backup", and it must be doubly tough for single parents.