Thursday Field Trip: Puppet Show

My friend Rebecca puts together "Thursday Field Trips" for a bunch of Mom friends. It's actually every other Thursday, with a big break over the winter holidays, but we just started up again, and with a bang. On March 5 we all drove downtown, actually found street parking (I keep thinking it's going to be as bad as New York but the few times I've gone haven't been), and gathered in the Smithsonian Discovery Theater for Bob Brown's Penguin Playground. Bob Brown has been doing marionette shows for years, and I even remember seeing him perform at Wolf Trap when I was little.The theater was a small room, about the size of two living rooms, with chairs around the edges for grown-ups, a taped aisle down the middle, and kids sitting on the floor. There was no photography allowed during the show. It was a cute performance - Bob came out in all black and had a number of penguin puppets he brought out for short skits like walking a tight rope, juggling, ice skating, etc., all set to upbeat charleston-style music. Most of the numbers also involved him talking to the puppets and them somehow disobeying or slightly disrespecting him so that the kids roared with laughter. In fact, I watched Hazel and she was absolutely undone with belly laughing, the kind that warms a mother to the heart. Ginger liked it too but wasn't catching everything Hazel was.

After the show we hung out by a wishing well in the hall before bundling back up for the trek to the car. It was so much fun, the kind of thing that might take me years to learn about and actually get around to doing on my own. So thank goodness for Thursday Field Trips!

In front of a spider sculpture outside the Hirschhorn (modern art) museum on the way back to the car.