Steve opened the ‘communication book’ from school and groaned. The school was planning a Father’s Day concert – that bit was OK – and the teachers would appreciate the parents supplying costumes for the event, which was in around two weeks’ time (both intervening weekends of which we would be away). Lara had chosen to be a clown and Rhea, a lion. Parents were requested to provide costumes as similar as possible to the enclosed drawings so that the groups of lions, ballerinas, clowns etc would be somewhat uniform.
I think I have mentioned that I used to attend the preschool that the girls attend. We may have some 36-year old photos of Maggie and I on stage wearing elaborate crêpe papered costumes in which 25-or-so similarly crêpe-papered children were choreographed into impressive performances, including singing and dancing. I certainly heard about Duncan’s preschool performance twelve years later, though I’m not sure I was there myself. These days the preschool entertains on a smaller scale, in classrooms, and sensibly they have outsourced costume creation/purchase to parents. Depending on how you look at it, we have economies of scale or a raw deal being responsible for two.
We could have taken the easy option and bought something online; lion suits are available in size 4 and a surplus one was offered to me by another parent for $50. But I did like the idea of making our own costumes and having something authentic. It occurred to me that Lara could just wear a size 1-3 yellow set of waterproof top and trousers that we already had. Rhea could wear brown and I could make her a crêpe paper mane and a stocking-filled tail.
As it turned out, I managed to scrounge a spongy red nose just by lamenting to colleagues at work of my need for one (it was produced in minutes: sometimes you do just have to ask); a friend happened to have a handmade brown corduroy teddy suit in size 5 that was recently found by her mother from when she was little; and I made a felt bow tie in the required green with black spots from some scraps that we already had for Lara, as well as the mane out of orange and brown crêpe paper for Rhea. I was quite pleased with both outfits and the girls seemed happy to wear them, with Rhea’s complaints that she now wanted to be a clown like Lara diminishing in frequency as the big day approached.
As you might have guessed, the performance was a circus show. The teachers had written a script whereby the circus manager directed small groups of performers, including ballerinas jumping and one doing a summersault, clowns hopping over a hoola hoop, tightrope walkers walking along a straight piece of string along the ground, and one clown riding on the back of a tricycle ridden by another, peppered with interludes of singing. In between their performances, the children sat patiently on a long bench, with just the odd cry of ‘I’m hungry!’ and one little boy’s overwhelmed, persistent sobbing.
I had not quite got the mane right and ribbons of different lengths of orange and brown crêpe paper obscured Rhea’s vision. Lara’s red clown nose was meant to be inserted over her own nose but it was a bit too big, and kept falling off, so in her hoola hoop scene, she shuffled across a couple of metres to pick it up, taking with her the clown who was sharing the hoola hoop with her.
I had originally not intended to attend the Father’s Day concert, intending to leave it to Steve (and mum, dad and Di, who also came), but I’m glad I did. These events are precious, and it’s heartwarming to see the children all working hard to achieve something and showing us that achievement with satisfaction and pride. I hope the girls have lots of opportunities to share in events like this as they get older, especially ones that combine creativity, hard work and fun like this one.
