Welcome to the Jungle!

For the past two summers my friend Sharee has headed up a summer children’s music theater program. My kids were able to participate in last years show, “Davey Crockett,” and loved every minute of it. Because Sharee was expecting a baby at the end of June she was not going to do it this summer. After a conversation Sharee and I had at the park one day we somehow got the idea that if we worked together we could make it happen this summer after all. I love this kind of thing, and wanted to learn how Sharee made it all work.

I organized everything and took care of all the logistics and most of the set, and Sharee mostly ran the rehearsals. She has a music degree from BYU, and it was fun to see how she taught the kids the music and came up with the choreography. There was definitely enough work for both of us—I can’t believe she did it all by herself in years past!

Here's some of the set without the banners and flags.

We had 47 kids participate this year—more than other years and I was nervous, but they were such a good group. We rehearsed for three weeks and then held one performance. Our main play was “Welcome to the Jungle” based on Aesop’s fable The Lion and the Mouse. Since it was only twenty minutes long to beef it up we added two other Aesop’s fable skits and songs. The younger group (entering Kindergarten and 1st grade) did The Tortoise and the Hare and the older group (all others to 11 years old) did The Fox and the Grapes.

To simplify costuming since our cast were all to be jungle animals we ordered t-shirts in four different colors and face painted the kids different jungle animals for the final performance.

Jared was the Hare in The Tortoise and the Hare and had two lines taunting the Tortoise--he was hilarious and one of the best parts of the show if I do say so.  I didn't know he could be such a ham!

The day after the performance we left for Utah to help before Abby's wedding.  We flew Mom out to help me drive out since Scott couldn't miss work.  I was so glad she could see what I had been working on, and we put her talents to use as she helped face paint the kids.

Two of the parents in our group had performed in Cats on Broadway.  They organized the face painting, and I can't believe what a fabulous job all the parents did.  All the kids looked awesome!

Kaitlyn was the cutest hippo!  I LOVED her eyelashes.

Brynn made a darling Zebra too!

This banner in the front of the stage matched the front of our t-shirts.

I was really glad to be a part of this and had a blast.  I think it was such a good experience for my kids and all the kids involved.  It was a welcome change from the monotony of motherhood and a chance to use my talents in a different way, however it was nice to get back to a normal routine.