Yellow Submarine

Here is Mommy's display case - looks really good, doesn't it?  This is the one she made for our series, "Under the Sea," and it uses a lot of stuff she got at Goodwill last week.  It does look outstanding though - very colorful.  She, Madison and Daddy worked all day today - and Daddy is in fact here at about 1:20 am right now, making up the soundtrack for tomorrow.  It's a bit interesting for our lobby music, as we're going with some ocean sound effects and whale songs, which Daddy is listening to right now.  As far as actual tunes go, we had to dig a bit deeper, but we have a few songs to choose from.  We decided to go with some Caribbean sounds as well, which make me naturally think of coral reefs and scuba diving.

Our set is still being worked on a bit, but you can see Madison here holding her breath 'under the water'  on stage.  There are a lot of pieces of coral on stage, in all kinds of color, but as you can imagine, the dominant color is blue for the set.  Also a part of the set:  inflatable, remote controlled fish that swim back and forth.  We ordered those last week.  Currently, there is a large shark lurking on stage, hovering across the platform, just waiting for a kid-sized snack to walk in.  

We've got a lot of great videos.  We'll have a lot of references to the sea, Aquaman, Spongebob, Finding Nemo, the Little Mermaid and more.  Of course, these are all tied to the Bible, some being more serious and some being a lot of silly fun.  Take for example tomorrow's submarine voyage bit with characters who go to the bottom of the sea.  They're paper bag puppets, something we've been wanting to do for a while:

Daddy is the one on the left, a paper bag puppet with a whole lot of swagger.  This was a fun skit with a lot of bad jokes in it - you might as well read it now.  There's a bit of Dr. Bob in this one, along with a bit of the Skipper from Madagascar's Penguins.

VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA

Cut to exterior shot, where Yellow Submarine (that we just bought from Goodwill), slowly passes by.

NARRATOR:  "And now, the continuing voyage of Captain Cousteau and his intrepid mariners in their VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA!"

CUE TITLE SCREEN:  "VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA"

Submarine plops into screen, hitting bottom.

FIRST OFFICER NEPTO's VOICE:  "Well, I think we're here."

Comic pause.

CUT TO INTERIOR SHOT OF SUBMARINE

CAPTAIN COUSTEAU:  "What's our depth, Science Officer Nepto?"

NEPTO:  "10,916 meters, sir."

ANNETTE:  "Captain Cousteau sir!"

COUSTEAU: "What's going on, Dr. Annette?"

ANNETTE:  "Can you believe there are actually fish down here this deep?"

NEPTO:  "Where do they all come from?"

COUSTEAU:  "Probably ... FIN-land."

ALL LAUGH

ANNETTE:  "It's odd, because fish usually don't like me."

COUSTEAU:  "Why's that?"

ANNETTE: "My name is A-NET!"

ALL LAUGH

NEPTO: " That's hard to... fathom!"

ALL LAUGH

COUSTEAU:  "Sweet mother of pearl!  Look out to the port side window - there's even a swordfish.  Its nose is at least eleven inches long."

ANNETTE:  "Why is a swordfish's nose eleven inches long?"

COUSTEAU: "If it were twelve inches long, it'd be a foot!"

ALL LAUGH

NEPTO:  "Sir!  What's that over there - deep in the underwater crevice?"

COUSTEAU: "It is a sunken ship - and it appears to be shaking!"

ANNETTE:  "I know why.  It's probably because it's ... a nervous wreck!"

ALL LAUGH

ANNETTE:  "Captain, there are so many fish down here - it's amazing!  That one there looks like a cross between a shark and a cow!  What's it called?"

NEPTO:  "I don't know, but I wouldn't want to milk it!"

ALL LAUGH

COUSTEAU: "Okay then - well, it's official.  We're at the bottom of the sea.  It's dark, cold, and there's a ton of pressure down here."

NEPTO:  "But there's one thing I don't see down here, Captain."

COUSTEAU: "What's that?"

NEPTO:  "Sins.  Bad deeds."

ANNETTE:  "Yes, according to our records, there should be a WHOLE lot of sins piled up down here.  Let me show you on the scanner."

CUE SLIDE:  SCANNER with MICAH 7:19 NIrV

COMPUTER VOICE:  "Once again You will show loving concern for us...  You will throw all of our sins into the bottom of the sea."

CUT BACK TO PUPPETS

NEPTO:  "What gives, Captain?  According to the Bible, there should be a huge pile of sins down here."

COUSTEAU:  "Friends, you're an awful lot like this deep part of the sea."

NEPTO and ANNETTE:  "What do you mean?"

COUSTEAU: "You're not that bright!"

ALL LAUGH

COUSTEAU:  "You see, God isn't literally throwing our sins to the bottom of the sea in that scripture.  If that were the case, the ocean waters would rise quite a bit.  No, what it means is that when you repent, and ask forgiveness, God will forget it ever happened."

ANNETTE: "It'll be just like He threw them to the bottom of the sea!"

NEPTO:  "And that's something worth celebrating!  Let's have a party!"

COUSTEAU: "We'll need games - what should we play?"

NEPTO:  "Go fish?"

ALL LAUGH

ANNETTE: "How about... Name that Tuna!"

ALL LAUGH

COUSTEAU:  "Or what about WHALE of fortune?"

ALL LAUGH as scene transitions to external shot of YELLOW SUBMARINE

NARRATOR:  "And so, just like the crew, we discover all sorts of amazing things at the bottom of the sea - but NOT our sins.  Those are completely wiped away!  So join us next time aboard the Sinking Feeling when you'll hear Captain Cousteau say..."

CUT BACK TO COUSTEAU

COUSTEAU:  "Look at that sea horse there - how does it move so fast?"

ANNETTE: "It ...scallops!"

ALL LAUGH

FADE CAMERA

________________________

The best part of course is that we're using paper bag puppets.  And the submarine that is being animated is actually the one that Mommy put in the display case.  We snapped pictures of it, and have it floating at the bottom of the sea in some easy bits of animation.

Tomorrow, we'll also have an ocean trivia challenge, where adults will team up against kids to see who can get the most answers right.  This is partly inspired by all the interesting trivia we read while down in SeaWorld.  In fact, SeaWorld has inspired a few ideas with this skit - as have our Disney Cruise experiences.  Here's one of the slides Daddy created for tomorrow's event:

Once you know the answer, you'll be creeped out.  We have a lot of questions, some we remember from our trip, and others just recently found on the internet (ones we had to double check too).  The thing that we're doing that came from the Disney Cruise is this:

On the screen, these little silver moonfish will appear, one small group at a time.  Kids will try and guess what the shape is that they will be making as more and more arrive.  The above shape is a simple sea turtle, mate.  But Daddy spent a while pasting those small fish down in the shape of a sail boat, a jellyfish, a swordfish, and then a school bus.  Yes, tomorrow's message is back to school - and is all about "staying with the school."  More on that later, probably tomorrow.  It's a simple message about schools of fish, and about brain coral.

Madison spent the day helping out where she could, but also having a lot of playtime with her friend Matthew, who also spent the day at the office.  The two were watching movies, playing make-up games, eating, and doing a lot of running around and screaming.  It was actually a fun day for her.  During one game she announced something funny:  she is the Captain of Goodness, Cheer and Nature. I'm not entirely sure what imaginative game required her to have such a rank, but it was still a great title nevertheless.

As for now, it's back to work.  It's late, late, late.  Madison and Mommy got to bed pretty late too, after a full day here getting things set up.  Nana and Ba-Ba left earlier this morning, and got back home without incident, which is great of course.  I guess you could say things are moving along swimmingly.