Spring Journey...

[bluecastle]

Here are a couple pictures from Saturday's townwide theatricalness... on this Journey, the kids started at the studio where the Queen introduced them to the story of the Frog Prince and then told them that the Prince was having a party in the park later that day, and would they help get ready for the party?

Then we sent them across town to the library to learn a riddle to tell the prince from Princess Margarita... including a few Spanish phrases from the bilingual Princess! The parents might not thank us for telling to kids to go wake their parents up on Sunday by shouting despierta! and bounding on their beds, tho.

Then they stopped off at the coffee shop and got name tags from Giselle -- a Princess in training and her fairy Godmother, and practiced introducing themselves (or their fictional selves, since they could choose any name they wanted).

Then they were off across the street to the toy store to Frog Prince himself (in frog form), and his jester as they taught them fanfares on their kazoos.

Then they went to the cafe next to the park to talk to Penelope the caterpillar who taught them a Mayday song to sing.

And lastly there were off to the park to learn a dance from Princess Fred, followed by crafts with Gertrude, Mistress of Handicrafts (ME).

The kids liked drawing on their little canvas banners, and we had them make plastic egg shakers to keep the beat with during the song, and then we had a dragon coloring page, and a sheet where they could design their own shields. Adorable, all the way around.

Then at 3 pm we put it all together for the Prince's Perfectly Particularly Preposterous Party.

The kids really liked the dancing ...



As the Fairy Godmother, the Queen, and the court musician looked on...

Lot's of fun, although being out in the sun nearly did me in. We had a tent for some shade, but it was bloody hot... we melted crayons in the sun it was so hot.

We decided at dinner afterwords that it's all too easy to forget that for some of these kids, this is the only live theater (or theatricalness) they will ever see ... and that the opportunity to interact with a grown up in a fancy costume cannot be overestimated.