a groupie is born

Here's an old one from the summer.  

Do you watch PBS kids shows?  If so, you know SteveSongs.  Inbetween the shows, to fill the 30 minutes, this guy named Steve, who always wears a red shirt, sings songs.  They're catchy and fun.  So when I saw that he was performing at Wolf Trap's Theater-in-the-woods, and there was another show - an African storyteller - before him, and the shows were two for the price of one, I decided we had to go.  

It was like 1000 degrees that day, and it's a theater in the woods.  We actually got there early and staked out a seat in the front row. 

 And when he walked out on stage, Elizabeth turned to me and said, hey, I know him from TV!  And insisted I take her picture with him in the background, and then snatched the camera and took 45 other pictures of him performing. 

 And she kept tugging at my arm and asking how we could talk to him, and how we could meet him, and how great he was.  He called a couple of kids on stage with him throughout the show, and then near the end sang a song and invited ALL the kids onto the stage.  Bliss.  There were so many kids I couldn't get a picture of Elizabeth up there.

And then they announced he'd be signing autographs and selling CDs and meeting fans after. 

 So of course we had to buy a CD. 

He was really great, and said he remembered her from the audience and he saw her in the front row.  He recognizes kids just freak out when they're in front of him, so he asks them to tell him a joke.  (she managed to choke out the interrupting cow, which he countered with the interrupting starfish)

Both Elizabeth and Andrew loved the entire experience.  But Elizabeth REALLY loved it, and turned out to develop an intense love of the song she sang on stage.  The song is called Shapes, but it's the chorus that is burned into my brain: line line circle circle square square square square triangle triangle. 

Elizabeth loves to listen to the CD on the CD player in the dining room.  We'll listen all the way to the shapes song, then she plays the shapes song over.  And over. And over. And over. And over.  And over. And over.  Until one of us snaps and makes her move on, which usually results in an argument.

We saw the show about a week and a half before we went on vacation and rented a small (very small -  like the smallest possible house ever) beach house with our long-time friends Chris and Tricia and family.  So they also were subjected.  I can't remember exactly what happened, but at some point late in the vacation we saw a band perform. I'm going to have to get Rich or Chris or Tricia to remind me of what exactly happened or what the band was, cause I am drawing a blank and can't even imagine when in the world we would have seen a band - Oh, got it, last day, Blueberry festival (where the blueberries are trucked in from NJ), also 1000 degrees outside and some poor Irish band (? Chincoteague is a weird place) playing under a tent, and the group of us sweating to death under a tree sucking on rapidly melting snocones.  Anyway, Chris leans over and says in his deadpan dry way, huh, I wonder if they know line line circle circle.  So yeah,  the CD made quite an impression.

But the songs are clever, and catchy, and he is a super nice guy.  As with anything with kids (or at least E and A) there's a cycle in interests and this week we've been listening to the CD a lot.  A knows all the words now and sings along enthusiastically, and E's desperate love of line line circle circle has lessened to a tolerable level. 

I saw he's performing at Jammin Java in February, so we might go.  $15 a ticket gets steep, but it would be worth it.

And Theater-in-the-woods?  We had a good time.  Steve was great, and so was the storyteller.  If they have the deal of two shows for the price of one (and that one is priced at $8), I'd totally go again.  Though, there were some stressful things.  We staked out this good seat in the front row, right?  But it was 1000 degrees and so not like we had anything on us except a snack bag and my bag.  Thankfully E did not have to go to the bathroom, because saving our seats would have stressed me out.  As it was, A was STARVING, and they only allow you to drink water in the actual "theater" part - step onto the path leading to the theater and you can eat whatever.  So I had to take A 20 feet onto the path, keep my eye on E who was tasked with saving our seats, and urge A to choke down his cheesestick as quickly as possible.  Stressful.   Also, let's just be honest, sitting in an amphitheater for two hours sweating is not entirely my idea of a great time.  There was a lot of downtime between the shows, and they didn't start on time.  But for the cost, it was great, and now we've got a little budding groupie on our hands.