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Tuesday, May 29, 2007 - (see all news for this day)
play school concert - 02:29 PM
(filed under 'smiley')
smiley & i went to see a play school concert today. play school has been on tv for forty years & their very successful & popular format has been taken around the world to many different countries. smiley's always enjoyed seeing play school on tv & i loved it as a kid, too. when i saw they were doing a tour as a live concert & i bought the tickets, i was much more excited about it than smiley was!
this was a live presentation of play school. it ran for just half an hour (it's aimed at two to five year olds, so any more than that would have been pushing the limits of the kids' attention spans) & was really enjoyable. smiley had a great time with the songs, the stories & the dancing & i loved the bits & pieces of humour aimed at the adults (such as the 'prince' doing a few elvis moves & a 'cow' who was crying & crying being told to stop 'milking it').
after the show had finished, they came out just one more time very quickly & then disappeared back stage. before they left the second time, smiley said he wanted to give play school a present & put his hand in his pocket & pulled out an imaginary something-or-other to give to them. he ran up to the stage from our midpoint in the audience, dodging around everyone in his way with suprising agility. unfortunately, he reached the stage just after they left.
i could see him standing there, the top of the stage above his head, with his open hand help up high to give them their presents. i knew in my heart that he was going to be really disappointed so i caught up to him as quickly as i could. he was very disappointed. his little face fell & his whole demeanor changed. i picked him up & asked if he was sad because he wasn't able to to give them the present. he nodded & even had tears in his eyes. he hugged me like he only ever does when he's genuinely sad & it broke my heart.
i spotted a gift shop set up at the back of the hall, so i took him over there & asked if he'd like a play school toy. he was so sad that he didn't even want one. i really wanted to get something to remember seeing them, so i stood there for a bit trying to ascertain what he might like. as we were waiting, the two presenters, angela (that's a very old picture of her) & teo, turned up at the gift shop to sign things!
i told smiley, but he wasn't convinced at first, because they'd changed their t-shirts. he finally took me at my word & i asked him if he wanted to give them their presents now. he did & handed them across, one for each. they took their invisible presents with much delight & teo asked what it was. when smiley told him it was a rainbow phone, he started to dial & said, "can i call you?" smiley replied, "no! i'm right here!" lol!! of course. 
so teo said he'd call him later, instead.
we bought a t-shirt & a big ted toy & had teo & angela sign each of them. they were really lovely & took the time to chat & have photographs taken with whoever wanted them.
i really wanted a t-shirt as well & would have had mine signed, but they only had kid's sizes. bummer. lol!
i took a self portait with them in it & they smiled & posed for us. not the most brilliant picture, photographically-speaking, but it's a lovely record of seeing play school live. if they come around again, we'll be sure to return. 
what a great story. got to meet some of them, interact withsmiley and the autographs. great story! something you'll both remember for a long time.
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how cool that smiley got to meet them - we went to the concert on monday & eliana said out really loud "not here playschool on tv" she was a bit overwhelmed by it all!