It was a Good Knight!

 For the last few years Noah has told me he wanted to be a Knight when he grows up.  Being the supportive mom that I am, I have refused to tell him that it will be difficult to get a job like that these days.  A few weeks before school let out, Noah came home and asked me what a VET was.  He said his teacher asked everyone what they wanted to be when they grew up and when Noah said "A Knight", his teacher told him he couldn't be that and had to pick a "real" job.  One of his friends wants to be a VET so Noah told me he picked that as well.  Although the teacher is 100% right that Noah can't really be a knight, i was pretty upset that she crushed his dream.  I mean come on, he will learn soon enough that he can't really be a Knight, so why not just let a 1st grader have his dream.  Now, don't get me wrong, i really like his teacher but come one.  I am a dreamer myself, still deciding what I want to be when I grow up, and firmly believe we need to let the kids keep their dreams and imaginations alive!  I am still kind of holding out on the dream that Brad Pitt will show up at my door and ask me to star in a movie with him one day.  Anyway, every year around Noah's birthday, some of my family asks when Noah wants.  The LAST thing this child needs is another toy so I try to pick one event or place and ask family members to donate to that.  Last year we got season passes to lake Lanier Water Park, the year before that a family membership to the zoo.  I think an "adventure" is a much better gift than another toy.  So this year I was wondering what adventure we should do and then, there it was...I was driving down Holcomb Bridge and saw the billboard for Medieval Times!  That was it!!!  I forgot all about that place.  I had been when i was kid and remembered I loved it!  And I didn't want to be a Knight so i imagined that Noah would go crazy over that place.  So I told family about the place and several people gave money so we could take Noah.  I waited for a weekend when tickets would go on sale and when i saw tickets were half off the week of July 4th, I jumped on it.  We had enough money for all of us to go and extra money to shower Noah with overpriced swords and shields in the gift shop!  We didn't tell Noah where we were going but this morning when he woke up, told him we had a special birthday surprise.  We told him all the people who gave money so he could go.  He still had no idea where we were going.  We drove all the way there with him asking questions and us giving some clues.  He was pretty sure we were going to see a movie.    You should have seen the look on his face when we pulled up and he saw the Castle.  He still didn't know what to expect but he knew we were not seeing a movie and that where there are castles, there are Knights!  When we walked in and he saw the arena and we explained what was going to happen, I honestly think he thought he had died and gone to Heaven.  Since the tickets were half off, we upgraded our seats so we were in the front row and got special cheering banners and stuff.  I must admit, the whole thing is pretty darn amazing!!  It really was the best gift!  There is no way Noah's teacher (or anyone for that matter) will ever be able to convince him that Knights aren't still riding into battle to protect Kings and Queens.  And that is fine with me!  Let the kids dream big!!!

Thank you so much to our family and friends that gave Noah an "adventure" he will never forget!