Center for Puppetry Arts Field Trip

On October 5th, I had the opportunity to accompany Elijah on his field trip. This year, the first grade gifted class went to the Center for Puppetry Arts. In this economic climate of few to no field trips I felt lucky to be able to tag along on such a fun day. Again, having these opportunities is one of my favorite parts of staying home. Although, honestly, there's very little I don't like about my job (well, maybe dishes...) Anyway, we took the bus into the city, which gave me and Elijah plenty of time to hang out. We talked, cuddled and then sang lots of verses of "100 Bottles of Milk on the Wall." We alternated verses of the song with mental math equations.

Once we got to the center and were seated in our seats, waiting for the show to start, I snapped a few pictures of Elijah with his friends Alex and Kieran. Unfortunately, the production of Sleeping Beauty was a little scary.  Elijah spent quite a bit of the show huddled next to me, even Alex, cuddled against me during some of the scary parts, which was unexpectedly sweet.

After the puppet show, the puppeteers came out of hiding and showed the audience how the puppets worked. That demonstration was the highlight of the show.  It was fascinating to sneak a peek behind the scenes.  After the demonstation we headed to the cafeteria to eat our lunch.  Before stopping to eat at our table, Elijah and Kieran posed as dinosaurs.

 

 

After lunch, the plan was to head to a puppet making workshop where we were signed up to make Owl Marionettes.  Unfortunately, stomach flu was going around, and once we got to the workshop Elijah started looking bad, felt feverish to the touch and thought he might get sick.  Elijah and I spent at least half of our time in the bathroom.  But, he was determined to make it through the workshop and finish his marionette. 

 

 

We even squeezed in enough time for Elijah to play with his marionette before we had to climb onto the bus.

 

 

Elijah spent the bus ride home cuddled against me, burning up with a fever (when we got home and took his temperature it was 102!)  I was so glad that I was there to offer a little comfort.  It's miserable feeling sick on a noisy, long bus ride.  Even though Elijah was feeling less than stellar he begged me to take a picture of his favorite round building that he wants to go visit someday.