Harold and the Purple Crayon

Seattle Children's Theater has specially priced tickets for schools and homeschool groups, which I found out about through a friend who homeschools her kids. This season, there are a few fun plays/musicals for Z's age that they're doing, so I snagged tickets for all three shows. The first one was Harold and the Purple Crayon. Next up is A Year With Frog and Toad in November, then a bunch for older kids until The Hungry Caterpillar and Other Eric Carle Favorites in May.
Since the show started at 10:30, and she had her annual eye exam at 2, I figured we could eat lunch at the Seattle Centerhouse, or in the car, or outside (weather permitting.) I couldn't really figure out something to do with the Harold theme, short of custom cutting and drawing a sandwich - um, no thanks! I toyed with the idea of letting her loose with my purple food coloring pen, but the Wilton ones really don't write well - on anything. I also thought of including some purple cauliflower, but I knew she wouldn't eat it. And then I didn't end up making lunch the night before, so I had to toss something quick together that morning.

Top (her lunch): ham and cheese pita pockets, hummus, cheese
nibblets and CoJack scraps, peas w/carrots, grapes w/blueberries
Bottom (my lunch): bagel w/cream cheese, grapes w/blueberries,
Ranch, carrots and broccoli

The only thing I did to fancy up the lunch was to add a cute cocktail pick (from a vacu vin Snack Markers set.)

I chose this one because it looks like a
bunny - she loved it!

She'd never been to a play before. She's seen movies in the theater, and she's seen a few big shows, like Disney on Ice and Sesame Street Live! But no plays. My grandma used to get season tickets to SCT and ACT theaters and rotate which of my siblings and I got to go (based on age, interest, and whose turn it was to visit that particular weekend. I recall getting to go a LOT, but I was the oldest. And mostest awesomest. And I loved going.)
We got there after it had started (I know, I know. Big surprise - but it wasn't my fault this time!) The parking lot wouldn't take my debit card or credit card, and wouldn't take a $5. So after wasting precious minutes trying those a few times, I had to scrounge around for ten $1's. Gah! And then hand feed them in. One. By. One. That ate up the extra ten minutes I had planned to use to walk the few blocks (uphill! Huff puff!) to the theater. And then we came at the building from the wrong side and ended up walking 3/4ths of the way around before coming to the side door (the school performances entrance. Front door was locked.) Halfway up the first block my body started rebelling, since I'm not exactly in shape, and my pregnant body has the stamina of a yam.
So they let us in and take us up to seats in the very back. Z was upset that it had already started, and got super pissy when intermission started, thinking that it was all over. "I wanted to see ALL the parts!" She was mollified by getting to see more, and forgot all about getting there late.
It was interesting how they chose to do the whole thing. There was Harold (a big dude with a full head of hair,) and two 'narrators' who sang with him, moved and interacted with props, and did all the animal puppets.

Harold, with one narrator 'attacking' with the pirate,
and the other steering the boat.

I was worried that the ladies being there holding the props would be confusing for Z, but after asking me who they were when we initially got there (no clue, at that point!) she seemed to understand that they were kind of in the background. And that THIS Harold had hair!
To mimic the magic crayon, they had backgrounds that were screens and they projected the lines onto them as he drew. Sometimes the backdrops would have bits that unfolded or popped open to make the rest of a tree, say. Or a door. Or he would draw something and then pull out a 3-D version of it from behind the screen, or one of the narrators would bring it to life. It was really quite clever, and Z was totally convinced that he had a magic crayon.


After the show, she decided to go eat in the Center House ("What's a center house?") The tables were packed, from all the school groups, but we managed to find a place to eat.

Look at that freshly-washed hair!
Farrah Fawcett, eat your heart out!

She ate her carrots, grapes and sandwiches. And some of the cheese. She did end up eating one of the pea pods with surprisingly large peas inside, but had me eat the rest. And no hummus. I ate that too.

After the eye doctor, it was the perfect opportunity to read Harold and the Purple Crayon together. It's a fun story, but the Mommy in me just wants to tell that kid to GO TO BED already! :)