curtain call

Growing up we had a charming doorway puppet theater that my mom had created. The three of us older kids spent many hours rehearsing and performing puppet shows and little skits for our parents. When we got together with our cousins the creative juices really started flowing. Scenes from the Marx Brothers were a favorite, but we also came up with our own scripts - the two person exercise program comes to mind. And then there was our infamous version of Cinderella (complete with a ripped dress when we tried to transform my cousin Russell into one of the step-sisters). We performed before a spellbound audience consisting of parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents and younger cousins.  Sometimes unwitting passers-by would be drawn into the crowd.

My kids are a little too young to grasp the concept of hiding themselves behind a curtain and making a coherent story line with puppets. That didn't stop me from making them a doorway puppet theater this summer. With #4 on the way I figure that the more craft projects I can complete now the better. You can only divvy up daylight hours in so many ways.

I followed this diy guide for making the curtain. I had to modify the dimensions to fit our doorway and in the process I somehow didn't make the curtains quite as long as they should have been. This is (one of the many reasons) why I am not a professional seamstress. I also added another dowel pocket at the bottom of the curtain, just to keep it hanging nice and straight.

 Margaret is enthralled with the idea of it, and I expect that once Wilhelm is old enough to join in the game we will have puppet shows galore. And I can't wait to see what happens when the cousins come over.