Charlie Brown & Dancing Blankets!

Most kids these days don't know much about Charlie Brown and the Peanuts Gang. Well, not our kids. Scott knows that Charlie Brown wears a yellow shirt with a black zig-zag stripe and likes a red-haired girl. He knows that Charlie Brown has a dog, but he really struggles to remember the name: "Shaggy? Snappy? What is it Dad?"



Through Katie's weekly preschool class (which is provided free in the community), we have been able to get some free tickets to various events lately. We took the kids to see hockey (Calgary Hitmen at the Saddledome) and volleyball (UofC Dinos), but then we really scored big -- tickets to the live musical production of "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" downtown at the Epcor Centre.



I am sure I would not have considered buying tickets to take the kids to this show, since Katie is so young and there's a high likelihood that we would end up in the foyer instead of watching the performance; however, I am so glad that we went. Katie struggled a little bit, but she stuck it out through the whole show and Scott just loved it. We had an extra ticket, so we brought our niece Alli along, and I think she really liked it too. How often do little kids get to go to the theatre?

The Martha Cohen Theatre is quite small, holding only 386 seats with two balconies that are very close to the stage. We got to sit on the front of the 2nd balcony and had a perfect, unobstructed view of everything.



The highlight was probably when Linus' blanket started to dance around the stage on its own, and is then joined by 5 more blankets in the colour of each character's shirt. How appropriate, given that Katie was holding her own little blankie the whole time.



After the show we were invited to meet the cast and have our programs autographed. Scott was hesitant at first, so I had to give his program to "Lucy". However, he loosened up and all three kids got colour-matching signatures from each of the characters.



I think Scott will remember Charlie brown for a long time to come. It's hard to say if Katie is old enough, but if she develops a love of theatre later in life, we will attribute it all to this experience.