A puppet show

On Wednesday of last week I took the girls to church for a black light puppet show.  It was awesome. The girls were completely in awe of what they were seeing, but when the lights came on the performers ruined the magic.  The began displaying their puppets and explaining how each one was  constructed.

 

After the puppet show there was a workshop where all the kids were encouraged to make their own puppets. The supplies were endless. You name it and I bet it was there. Everything from leis to lipstick. 

I was one of the adult helpers at the workshop and helped lots of kids get their creative juices flowing. Each adult helper was in charge of 5 of 6 kids and responsible for helping them design a specific character from a bible story.  Our story was the story of Moses floating down the river in a basket. Sophia got the part of "reeds".  You know, the kind that grow beside rivers and streams.  She made the coolest puppet reeds that I've ever seen.  She used 3 or 4 green pipe cleaners, wrapped them with green streamer tissue paper, bent them a little so they weren't all clumped together pointing straight up and then put a few green jewels on the top of her reeds. You can see Sophia holding up her green reeds in the back row on the left side. You can kind of see her face too.

For fun Sophia chose to make a sock puppet and turned it into a dog with floppy brown ears. I can't remember what she named it though. She has a name for each and every single one of her stuffed animals and she remembers how she acquired each one too.

Lilly chose not to make a puppet, but to be my assistant. She was my runner. Any time I needed a glue stick or fabric or scissors she was there to handle the job. She didn't want to make a puppet because she was "scared".  Of what, I'm not entirely sure. She's been on a kick lately.

The older she gets the more shy she is becoming.  Over the weekend she attended two birthday parties of girls from her class last year and once again clung to me because she didn't want to participate.  The first party was a princess tea party at a place called Tea Par Tea. Clever, right?  Our group was in the Alice and Wonderland room.  They also have a Lego room, butterfly room and a walk in the woods room which was quite dark except for the twinkling lights in the trees.

Even though this wasn't a drop off party and I was going to be there the whole time Lilly still didn't participate until half an hour into the party. Sophia used to do the same thing, but (knock on wood) has grown out of it.   

The second party was at her friend's house. It was scheduled to be a three hour party and it was a drop off. Sophia came with me to drop Lilly off at Olivia's house and when we got there she tricked me.  She immediately took off her shoes like the other girls and seemed like she was going to run and play with them, but instead she hid behind me and wouldn't let go of my arm. I eventually broke free and Sophia and I hightailed it for the car. Olivia's mom invited Sophia to stay, but Sophia told me later that she didn't want to hang out with a bunch of 4 and 5 year olds. I guess I don't blame her. Lilly ended up having a great time as I knew she would and came home with a small stuffed animal and a huge bag of candy (which always makes her smile).  And to think, I just threw out all the 4th of July parade candy because the girls kept leaving their wrappers all over the house: on the floor, on the couch, on the stairs, in their bedrooms and it drives me insane.