Carnival of the Animals

Last Tuesday the 1st graders at Meadow Lane Elementary put on the musical presentation of Carnival of the Animals which features the music of Camille Saint-Saens.The kids practiced a ton and poured their hearts into memorizing their individual lines. Each child was responsible for their own costumes with a choice of about a dozen different animals. We were blown away with some of the creativity the parents put into their children's costumes. Blown away! Gabrielle had decided she wanted to be a donkey. Really? A donkey. We went to Party City in hot pursuit of a donkey costume, or something that would closely resemble a donkey (mind you we went out at the 12th hour). Putting it very matter of fact, I was in no creative mindset so when nothing caught our eye we did a little persuading of Gabi to pick another animal. She contemplated a lion, an elephant, but decided on a swan. She choose white and silver glitter angel wings, a silver sequined eye mask and paired them with a white tee & silver pettiskirt she had received from a classmate for her birthday. We were a tad surprised when she came home from dress rehearsal the following day stating several other girls were also wearing the identical wings and pettiskirts or tutus. I'm glad I wasn't the only parent who pulled out the easy card.

Gabrielle was the only girl who wore a face mask. We were in amazement that she wore it the entire performance without fidgeting with it once. I laughed out loud when my friend Christian shared these photos with me. Gabrielle's friend Bam (upper right hand corner) is hysterical. Poor guy must have been miserable by the look on his face.

Off with the lion mane. Apparently Bam wasn't the only being bothered by their costume. Just take a look at the differences between these two images.

The beautiful swans.

I was busy wrangling Little Miss a good portion of the musical. At one point she made her way to the very front of center stage squealing with delight wanting to join in the festivities. I made a bee line behind her in embarrassment. Cute yes no.

We were so proud of the kids hard work and terrific performance.