Once Upon a Mattress

Germantown Community Theatre did an all kids production of Once Upon a Mattress and performed it outside at the park in Germantown. I had planned on going Friday night, but the storms cancelled the perfomance, so we decided to go Saturday and it worked out that Matthew got home in time and got to go with us!

The kids got their faces painted,

won magic wands by going on a scavenger hunt

(although we had no luck finding a shell or a thistle),

and got to dance on stage before the play!

The play was very cute and we had a wondeful time. But, as soon as the play was over Kenna and Landon wanted to go play on the playgroud. So we went for a few minutes while the crowd cleared out a little.

It must have been an exhausting evening, all three slept past 8 this morning, and then wanted to lay around like "the pirates who don't do anything." :)

Broadway Baby

I have a Broadway baby! Kenna's dance recital was really awesome. For the ballet portion, they set up the stage like a dance studio and the performance was done like a class (which allowed the instructor to cue them visually and verbally). A darling idea! And it was really neat to see what a class looked like. The only problem was the Statler & Waldorf (ala The Muppet Show) critique from behind me. She was so disappointed that they were just "calling out" the positions and that when *she* did dance recitals they did little choreographed dances, not just skills individually. I wanted to say, "Ma'am, this is the choreography, the setting is a dance studio and the "play" is pretending they are in class." But since I'd already kindly told her that it was indeed a very good idea to take the group pictures as they came on stage since they would not be as cooperative after the show (not to mention the costume change) and well worth the little bit of extra time we had to wait between groups. The tap portion of the show was my favorite. The setting for it was the Broadway stage. The littlest ones were dressed in fancy little tutus with pillbox hats and there was a teacher dance partner for each little girl dressed in a 50s style suit with a hat. It was so incredibly cute...their song was "Stepping out with My Baby." All the tap dances were choreographed routines (I hope Statler/Waldorf behind me was happy) and except for the tots, the dance instructors weren't on stage with them. Although, they were apparently in the wings because all the girls were obviously watching them. ;-)

Kenna in her stage makeup. I had to wake her up from a nap to get her ready. I picked her up and held her to help her wake up and suddenly she got down from my lap and wandered away. I found her back in her bed, but when I told her I'd do her makeup, she perked up a little.

The tap routine. Don't you just love how all of them are doing something different? Just makes me laugh. I didn't manage to get a shot of the ballet routine, Kenna was toward the back.

Getting flowers after the show.

We had a wonderful backstage helper who did Kenna's hair and helped her get dressed. A million thanks to Miss Tiffany. I was going to make Kenna choose between dance and gymnastics this fall, but after seeing her dance (she had picked gymnastics) I'm rethinking that decision. ;-)