I did promise Peter Pan pictures...

And before the pictures, a note of apology. I did not take these pictures. Miss Debbie, the preschool teacher took them. She did not use a flash so as not to blind the children. She did not allow anyone else to take pictures, so as not to blind the children. She gave me a CD with over 100 pictures on it. I sorted it down to about 30 but I did not further edit the photos.

Ben was very nervous before the play. I had to stay with him while the kids all sat bored as the adults scurried to get costumes and sets and places arranged. I asked Mr. Howie, the drama teacher, if he had a costume for Ben or if I needed to get one. I warned Mr. Howie that Ben was a large kid. He assured me that he had a perfect costume. On the day of the play, he handed me a size "small" green sweat pants. Or, about a 3T. Ben wears a 6 in pants.

They didn't fit. Luckily, Mr. Howie liked Ben's pants well enough (or he didn't have anything else appropriate) and decided Ben should just wear his own pants.

The play follows very closely the old traditional Disney version of Peter Pan...

Father looks for his fancy shirt. Ben, er Peter, lurks outside the window waiting for his chance to sneak in and steal back his shadow. Peter should be much more hidden than he is right now...

Peter and Tinker Bell sneak into the nursery, looking for Peter's shadow

Peter has found his shadow! (The long black thing by his side). He has a bar of soap!

Peter has rubbed the soap all over his butt and tried to stick his shadow back on.

Wendy wakes up. Peter, soap won't work, she says.

Let me sew it on for you! (While Peter says something along the lines of "Girls talk too much!")

Here Peter looks to Mr. Howie (he's holding the curtain in front of himself offstage; you can see where the curtain is bunched up). What am I supposed to say next?

The boys are waking up! Let's all go to Never Land! Or something. Tinker Bell played with her ponytail the entire play. She often didn't say her lines, or didn't say them loudly enough for anyone else to hear. Mr. Howie would fill in, complete with falsetto, where necessary.

More talk about Never Land. Kids are remembering their lines now.

I cannot remember what Ben said here. I'm not sure he said anything or if he was just waiting for Wendy to say her lines and got bored. I do remember everyone laughed at this face he made!

Ben, er Peter, flies into Never Land. Right near Hook's pirate ship. (I am choosing not to show you any pictures without Ben, even tho there was a whole Hook and pirate ship scene before Be--Peter shows up)

Peter is calling the lost children "Blockheads." They've just shot down Wendy, their new mother, after Tinker Bell called her an "ugly Wendy bird."

I dunno know what's happening here, but see how Peter looks offstage for direction... There was a LOT of finger flicking. Mr. Howie, who writes and produces his own plays as well as preschool plays, taught the kids a finger-flicking sign to remind them to turn and face the audience. Mostly, we, the audience, saw LOTS of finger waving and LOTS of confused glances from the kids as they stared at Mr. Howie trying to figure out just what he wanted them to do.

Peter takes Wendy to see the Mermaids. Before Peter came on stage, they sang:

"I don't know when/I don't know how/But I know something/Starting right now/Oops! Wrong play!"

(For those of you not up on your Disney movies, that was from he Little Mermaid)

Remember the finger flicking? Ben got a lot of it during this scene.

The Mermaids get jealous of Wendy. They try to drown her...

And here is Hook (as played by Mr. Howie)! Peter is pretending to be a girly-girl (he's on the right with a red scarf over his head) to distract Hook for his nefarious plans.

Wendy and Tiger Lily talk about who knows what. I believe we've just rescued Tiger Lily from Hook the first time. Ben appears to be falling asleep... The play started right at his bedtime.

The "natives" sang "Ugga Wugga Wug/Ugga Wugga Wu/Ugga Wugga Hot Dog/Ugga Wugga Macaroni"

More singing with the natives, Lost Boys and Mermaids in the left corner. Lots of talking. Lots of pauses. Tiger Lily was falling asleep during the entire play.

More singing. Seriously. I have no idea now what these kids are saying. I didn't have any idea at the time. I suggest you watch the movie if you want to know what happens...

More singing. This probably all took a few minutes but we have lots of pictures of this scene.

See here's Tiger Lily falling asleep. Or something...

It's getting late. Ben can barely keep his eyes open. Wendy's just repeating her lines with no emotion whatsoever.

Peter is crying because Wendy left him and took all the Lost Boys with her

Tinker Bell returns to give Peter "medicine" that is actually poison given to her by Hook.

Tinker Bell drank the poison to prove to Peter that it really was poison. Now she's dead. Peter has just asked the audience to clap if they believe in fairies to bring her back.

Tinker Bell refuses to get up, despite all the clapping. Peter looks to Mr. Howie for guidance.

And the big conclusion! A thrilling sword fight!

Ben is in the back right in this picture. You can just see his green hat. He could not/would not fight his way thru all the Lost Boys, Mermaids, and Natives in front of him to take his bow.

And that's Peter Pan!