Joseph- singing "Toad looks funny in a bathing suit. You know where a rutabaga comes from don't yah? From a rutabaga root! Two thing you can not dispute rutabaga comes from a rutabaga root and Toad looks funny in a bathing suit"
Evelyn- singing "Merry almost Christmas, Happy that your here...(asking me) Mom, how many more days till Christmas?"
Mom-sighing "Just a few less then last time you asked"
Alayna- singing "We flew south for the winter, south for the winter, every spring we pack our things and go"
Do we live in a musical? Well, actually since you asked, Yes yes we do. Right now and for about the last month we have eat and breathed "A Year with Frog and Toad" the kids version.
You see, last spring my friend told me about a free program for grades 3-6. They go to a camp from 10-4 every weekday for three weeks. They learn about lights, sound, theatre history, sets, make their own props and costumes, play games, practice singing and supporting. All sorts of fun things. The only problem was that they are about 1/2 hour drive. That translates into 2 hours in the car for mom and younger kids everyday. 1 hour round trip to drop them off and 1 hour round trip to pick them up. So I decided that we would sign up and then only stay in it if we could find someone to carpool. We found someone and life was good. Then the first day of classes she told me something had come up. One of their friends that had signed up with them with the understanding that she could ride with them had actually made it in even though she thought she hadn't and there was no longer room in the car. At this point if I pulled out, no one else would be able to take our spot, so we toughed it out for three weeks.
The kids loved it. All of them. Noah knows most of the lines and songs by heart. As does Evey and of course Alayna and Joseph know the exact versions. (: Joseph got the part of Toad which is the comic relief. He did great. He was very funny (quite a ham actually) and remembered all of his lines. Alayna got the part of a Bird, which was exactly what she wanted. She did great too. She was full of life and expression and confidence. She looked straight out at the audience and sang loud. She had a couple of short solos and you could hear her great.
The younger kids hummed along from their seats and insisted on reenacting it at home. Noah wanted to play Toad and Evelyn was a Bird. (:
So it was time and money (think gas and tickets to all three performances for mom and dad) well spent IMHO. And we get reprises for who knows how long??
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