For the love of costumes

L. got a bee in her bonnet that it was show time again. As she gets older, what constitutes a show becomes more elaborate. When we put things away to have the third floor redone, the costumes were part of the things put into storage. Up until now, I have avoided getting out the three (!) bags, thinking that at age 7, we were heading out of the dress-up phase of life. 

I wasn't counting on genetics. My mother-in-law, who was the actress and loved (adored, lived, breathed) all things theater, kept a costume closet until the day she died. If something was good, having a costume for it made it all the better. Many of my children have inherited this love of costumes and theater, M. being the most notable, so when L. decided that she needed, really needed costumes for her latest production, I shouldn't have been surprised. I think I just have to resign myself to the fact that for my family, there is no such thing as growing out of costumes. (Can you tell that I do not seem to share this particular trait? I am pretty much the opposite. If a thing requires a costume, then pretty much that is not a thing I want to do.)

But back to today's show. Yesterday and Sunday were building days. Many small children busied themselves for a very long time hammering pieces of wood together in the basement. I had no idea what they were up to except that they were building 'set pieces' to use L.'s terminology. Yesterday was their rehearsal which involved carting all these 'set pieces' up from the basement. They then carted them all back down when they were finished. 

Today was the big day. It seems they only needed one 'set piece', a porch that they had built.


There was a funny line from L. when she was dressed as an old lady (complete with hat and bag, see below) where she points out her new porch to another character and complains that they "just used this old lumber instead of the nice wood she had ordered."


TM and I were particularly amused by this character of L.'s. She walked and talked as she perceived an old lady to walk and talk. It was pretty funny. As far as we could tell, the plot seemed to center around this character loosing her cell phone, looking for it, and then being chased by fierce creatures, all played very fiercely by Y.


R. was thrilled to be part of the show. She was a fire fighter. She is now in love with the fire fighter costume and has worn it for much of the day. Her role in the show seemed to be to walk on stage and say hello to everyone at random intervals. You can tell even this was slightly overwhelming for her based on her closing her eyes when asked to pose. This is a thing we deal with fairly constantly, though she is slowly getting better about it.


The bows afterward.

We need a barn. A barn where my children, big and small, can put on shows. Have you ever read Surviving the Applewhites? Go and do so, if you haven't. I feel some days we are coming closer and closer to not just surviving the Applewhites, but actually becoming them.

And then we need a second barn so I can have a horse. I'll join the others when it's time to play audience, a role I'm quite happy to play.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Lose, Lost, Losing. "Losing her cell phone". Think of "lost" having 1 "o". And, losing having 1 "o".

"Too big", as in "my pants are "too" big". They are "loose". Think of "too" having 2
o's and "loose" having 2.

With love from the grammar fairy, to the Mama of Many, who has lots of eyes that watch how you spell words. Hope you don't feel this comment is critical. It's not meant to be. Kinda like the kind girl in my 2nd grade class that the "s" in island is silent and is not pronounced is-land. <3

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