kaleidoscoping chaos...: puppets

A while back we saw a puppet show at Glen Echo (see our post here). I wasn't completely impressed by the show, but Vera liked it and Jonah was somewhat interested.

Toddlers are funny specimens though. Ever since that puppet show, Jonah has been making puppets out of socks?!?! and putting on shows?!?!?

It started literally the day after the show. Some mornings, when Vera is napping, Jonah comes up to my room with me - I fold the laundry and he "helps" - he loves to "help." The day after the puppet show, he took all the socks and an oven mitt from the clean laundry and put on an entire show - he called it "Jonah's puppet show with shadows..." - he was making shadows on the wall with the "puppets" while jumping around on my bed.

Maybe it was a good puppet show after all?!?! Since that time, every time we go up to my room to fold my laundry, Jonah gathers up all of Mama's socks and puts on a puppet show. It happened again yesterday morning. The "sock puppet" shows are getting better and funnier?!?!

Sometimes the things you think aren't cool, end up inspiring a regular routine of creative playtime... too funny I tell ya! On that note, I am revising my review on The Puppet Co. - you've inspired my little guy and that is cool by me! We'll have to try it again!

Puppets! Shadows! Ta da! (notice the prehaircut curls!)

hiding puppets

singing and dancing puppets

We were supposed to go strawberry picking. As my partner in crime, "R" reminded me today, May is strawberry month!!! We had a book for the day, a craft for the day, and even snacks and lunch themed out for the day... and then we got the weather report.

All the usual weather online sites predicted rain and thunderstorms for today. So we went the conservative route and picked another activity. R suggested the Science + You exhibit at Navy Yards - which I totally want to do with the kids, but I thought if it is rainy maybe we should see a show and I had been wanting to try out one of the tot puppet shows performed by The Puppet Company at Glen Echo Park. She liked that idea so we went with that.

First things first. Humpday Hijinks! R came up with the name! I LOVE IT!

We are going to take our kids (she has a son, J, who is a year older than Jonah), every Wednesday morning (aka "humpday") on an adventure with a theme. We are going to read a book on said theme, do the adventure, eat a related lunch and snack and do a related project. You get the idea. Like I've said before, I always have big plans!

The puppet show today was "Old McDonald" so we figured on a puppet/animal theme. We were going to have animal cracker snacks, read some animal books, and make sock animal puppets...

Here's what actually happened...

We met up at the theater at 10am. (I made it on time, because I told myself I had to be out of the house at 8:45, which meant I actually got out of the house at 9:20.). Getting there at 10am (showtime) was basically getting there late because the place was packed with kids/moms/groups... etc. You sit on the floor or on side benches and everyone is sort of squished in. Because it isn't really "stadium" seating (there is a slight incline), it isn't that easy to actually see the stage.

The show was ok. R and I were both kinda bored. J was definitely bored. Jonah was half paying attention. Vera loved it! and she loved the huge assortment of keys attached to the big leather purse of the mom in front of us... puppets, keys both are super cool.

The sound wasn't that great and there were a lot of other distractions in the room. It is billed for tots, so they leave the lights on and it is a relaxed atmosphere, but I think it had the opposite affect on Jonah, J, R and me. There were parts that Jonah did like - the frog and pig puppets. He kept calling them Kermit and Ms Piggy. It was a 30 minutes show but it felt longer.

I'd being willing to see another show and give it one more try but today was not a "hit it out of the park" performance. It may be that it is better for Vera. Or maybe we needed better seats. Not sure.

Then we went exploring Glen Echo park. The boys loved that part - and of course it was not raining - it was sunny and 80 degrees out. The park is in beautiful surroundings. We played on the playground for a while. That was fun for everyone. We planned on all riding the carousel, but at the last minute Jonah got freaked out... so R and J rode and we watched. Of course by the time the ride was over Jonah was ready to get on... but he lost his chance. He was partly "freaked" by the loud music not by the carousel, but hey he will have plenty of other chances to ride carousels in his life.

We tried to check on the "living" museum but it was closed. It is only open on weekends, but it does it look very cool.

Then we decided to go back to R and J's house for lunch, story time, craft time, and snack time. On the way back all three kids fell asleep in the 2 cars... R managed to get J into their house still sleeping and on to the couch. My 2 woke up in the transition. Then Vera had her lunch, Jonah had already eaten his on the car ride there. He just wanted to play with all of J's toys!!! We hung out for a while and J finally woke up. Vera was super crabby as she hadn't really napped yet and the boys were getting a bit rowdy (overtired and somewhat hungry). GASP... we actually turned on the TV and the kids watched a show - so R and I could have a little planning meeting. Then we packed up and came home.

I had a good time. My kids had a good time. I hope R and J had a good time. We are looking forward to many many more Humpday Hijinks, even if we end up playing with each others toys and drinking chocolate milk! It's still better than doing it alone... yes even if we resort to a TV show instead of the super cool craft idea from Pinterest. We are happy to have Humpday Hijinks and really good buddies to do it with!