Puppet Master

Today we went to the Atlanta Center for Puppetry Arts, which is a mouthful to say, I suspect certainly even moreso if you were a puppet or a ventriloquist. It was a wonderful visit, that is, until a giant twenty-five foot tall Pinocchio crashed through the ceiling and starting tromping towards us. Here's a photo of Daddy and Madison running in terror.

Things calmed down a whole lot after that though, so on the whole, I'd say it was a great visit. We were there to see a performance, "The Old Man and the Monkeys," which I need to go ahead and point out now did not feature Davy Jones.

This performance was Chinese, which was one of the reasons we really wanted to go. Madison enjoyed it - there were five stories told over the course of the production, each one using different puppets. The performers themselves were from the distant land of Oregon. But before that, they came from Beijing. It was a really nice show. The music was great, as were the puppets themselves. Madison enjoyed the whole thing, especially the turtle vs. crane story at the very beginning. The monkeys were cute too, actually. We would have driven down to Atlanta just for this show, but the neat thing about today was that there was an exhibit at the center too - a whole lot of Jim Henson puppets - and muppets. Yes, there was Kermit, and Daddy's favorite: Rowlf the Dog. The Swedish Chef was there too, along with quite a few others. But also there was a legend in puppets: that's right, I'm talking about Emmett Otter.

Doesn't that just put you in the Christmas spirit something fierce? Emmett Otter is a favorite of Mommy and Daddy's, so it was pretty cool to run into this scene down at the museum. But they had other ones too - lots of Fraggles, for instance. And puppets from the movie "Labyrinth." Which Mommy has never seen. And Daddy can never spell right without spellcheck. When it was time to go, Madison made faces at us. Literally:

You see, there was a station where you could design your

very own muppet.

And that's where we were actually going off to: we were heading upstairs to make our own monkey puppet! Madison, Mommy and Daddy sat down for a craft session, making our own puppet for Madison. She even got to try it out behind a curtain, pretending to be a real puppeteer! It was a great experience for Madison this morning - for one, there was some more exposure to her Asian cultural roots. For another, there was learning and experience with puppetry - which was great for all three of us. Finally, it was just plain fun. Here's Madison with her naughty monkey puppet. Watch your hat, or it might steal it!

Afterwards, we came home by way of the Mall of Georgia for a bit. We had to do some shopping for an upcoming series - at the Disney Store. This is always a chore. Just kidding. Madison had a great time - almost as good a time as Daddy. We got some winter clothing there, and saved a lot (but I won't go into the details about reward points and all that). On our way out, we ate at the food court, where Madison had a sample - yes, this is a FIRST moment. She tried a California Roll. It was a sample, and we were delighted that Madison enjoyed her first sushi! Yay!

Okay, so it really isn't that big of a deal.

ANYWAY, ballet practice was next, so as you can see it was a pretty big day! We left pretty early, and returned home to the house much later, quite exhausted from a very full - but very fun - day.

"At this time, I would like to present my rendition of one of the great songs of our time. That ever-popular classic: 'You And I And George.' But why you ask as well you should have I never heard this great song of our times. Fact is nobody has ever heard of this ever popular classic. In its only recording, 'You And I And George' sold two copies. I bought one and George bought one. Where were you?"

- Rowlf the Dog