Mr. Popper's Penguins Musical

 
On Sunday morning, I decided to take the kids to Eugene and attend a show at the Hult Center. One of the books on my reading list for the kids is Mr. Popper’s Penguins. I enjoyed this book as a kid and was glad that there was a movie we could watch afterwards too. As a bonus, I came across a poster at a coffee shop during my traveling for work for the musical.

I thought that this could be a fantastic way to get Meli excited for the book. Plus, she had not attended a show yet. She has been begging me to take her to a ballet. This was a cheaper way to see how she would do during a show.

The kids and I got dressed up, grabbed our copy of the book, and headed out for a mom/kid date night. Meli took one of her penguin stuffies with her as well. I did not realize how many she had! It was hard to decide which one got to join her. 

I had a blast with the kids. It was fun to get dressed up and go on a mom date. Colin had been to a ballet there a few years ago. Meli  thought the balconies were so cool. I told her next time we would have to get tickets up there. Then Colin started thinking about earthquakes and how that would not be the best seat. I was wondering why he was randomly asking me the likelihood of earthquakes to occur in Oregon. Then I noticed that he was staring at the balconies. 

Meli did an excellent job! The only issue we had was some visibility for her and I due to the family in front of us and Meli crying when the penguins were sad.

She has a tendency to get really attached to animals in films. As a result of that she gets really emotional if they are sad or being mistreated. Similar to her reaction when watching Pete's Dragon. Thankfully she still ended up loving the show.

It normally takes a lot for me to get irritated at people, but the family in front of us did not need much time. I can understand the cuteness of matching hairdo’s (for a mom and two daughters)…well I do not exactly understand the attraction, but at least it is not normally something I would dwell on.

So, not only was one of her girls talking throughout the play (which I can understand, I have a talker myself - although I tell mine to be quiet), but all of the girls wanted to sit in an adult's lap. (Again, totally get it). So, the adult moved in front of Meli, then put her daughter in her lap. The three of them had these really big buns (or maybe it is a knot) on the tippy top of their heads. I am thinking there was something inside the buns to make them bigger, because the size of them was not natural for the girls' ages. It seriously added another 4 inches to their heads. Well, maybe 3. With her sitting in her lap that did not provide a lot of options for viewing with their heads next to each other. So, Meli got in my lap (I did check behind me to see if we would block anyone's view). It felt like the mom kept leaning over to her side. So, then we had to lean over. Not an ideal situation, but not the end of the world.

OK, sorry for the venting session. In spite of all of this it was still a very enjoyable show. It actually was fantastic! I was not sure how it was going to be with two people that were the puppet masters on stage. They did a wonderful job of being an extension of the puppet and not just another body on stage. It actually ended up being one of my favorite parts. Huge kudos to the crew. Amazing job!! The music was great, the penguins were awesome, and they even got crowd involvement at the end.

Until next time! Keep singing!

Love, Hugs & Kisses ~
 The B Family