.canoe americana?

early this morning maas and i loaded up the kids for a little day trip to wichita. we had one goal in mind: chicken little starring mark(us parkus) maasen. and it was worth it. i think maas and i laughed more than the kids, or anyone else for the matter. the jokes were bad, like when ducky lucky comes out and yells, "DUCK!" and the other characters all...duck. we laughed out loud. but nothing was funnier than when mark broke character on stage. the actors take liberty a bit with the script and ad-lib or change things around sometimes and he was having a hard time holding it in.

one of the highlights was the kids' excitement. we got to eat pizza before the show and while we were eating cassie asked probably a dozen times, "where's chicken little?" she has such a good ear too that when mark made an announcement with the microphone cassie knew is was him without being able to see him. she asked me, "was that mork?" wyatt's enthusiasm carried over to the end of the show when he got his picture taken with chicken little ("i'm not a chicken, i'm a chicken hawk") AND the king. unfamiliar people in weird costumes. notice the hand on mark's shoulder! he was stoked about the king because that's right up his playmobil alley. i think it was a real treat for him to meet a king. his joy, however, did not last long enough to have his photo taken with henny penny (totally hilarious character) and turkey lurkey. i think it was the animal costumes that started to weird him out but i'm proud just the same. cass, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with any of them. she clams up around strangers. if she's like her brother she'll probably outgrow it, slowly.
here's mark as goosey loosey with wolf disguised as a police officer and henny penny, who thinks the sky is falling. it's a different tale of chicken little, but rest assured, the sky doesn't fall on henny penny either. at one point goosey loosey and henny penny bump knuckles, which maas decided was ridiculous (but hilarious). she suggested maybe a claw bump. and not only does mark act (he was goosey loosey and chicken little), sing and dance but he also does set design. he did the set for this production, and it was pretty great. he's moving to kc in a few weeks and i know the tblake family is praying he'll get some great gigs here in town and that we'll get to see him perform again. bravo, mark!