The Gruffalo's Child

On Saturday we took the girls to see the stage production of The Gruffalo's Child. Our girls love the Gruffalo books and Elly especially loves monsters (or so she tells us!), so we thought this would be super fun! Well, she started out all smiles as we arrived at the Seymour Centre;

It's behind you, Nick! (He was in search of his morning coffee, we found a great little cafe 1 block down)

But then we stepped inside and Elly saw the stage, ie The Deep.... Dark.... Wood;

She became frozen with fear! She buried her face in Nick's chest and wouldn't look for half the performance. She even feigned needing to go to the toilet, just so she could leave the theatre!

Livvie, on the other hand, was captivated by the whole show. It was upbeat, suspenseful, musical (she loved the songs) and included lots of audience participation. While none of us could agree which animal we liked the best (Owl, Mouse or Fox, they were all so good!)... we all agreed that The Gruffalo's Child (Chandel Brandmarti) was tops! Here is a rave review with pictures and details about the show. We highly recommend going to see it.

And about half-way through, Elly took a peep and was eventually sitting on the edge of her seat, yelling out lines of the rhyming story on cue and bopping along to all the songs.

We should have left on this high, but were enticed by our excited children to have a play at the park across the road. Nick and I always wonder, when will we learn?!?!?! One outing is usually enough with little ones and trying to do two things in a day can very quickly unravel into chaos! Especially when there is one of these;

It looked like a lot of fun... until all the other kids dropped into the middle and squashed the girls! If you ever see one of these spinning discs, tell your child to hold onto the edge as it goes around. Sitting in the middle is suicide!

Anyway, we came home soon after and I discovered the Gruffalo Website, which has a fantastic page of Activities (with Gruffalo Masks, Spot-The-Difference, Colouring Pages, Snap and a Gruffalo Party Pack!).

That afternoon, we made Gruffalo Masks, but Elly was disappointed. Apparently, she had wanted to make a Gruffalo costume!

While the girls were at Preschool today, in between getting my hair done and cleaning the house, I made them a little surprise;

'He has terrible tusks... and terrible claws... and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws.

He has knobbly knees.... and turned out toes.... and a poisonous wart at the end of his nose!

His eyes are orange... his tongue is black...he has purple prickles all over his back....'

A Gruffalo cake!

(My favourite part is the horns on top, made out of Banana, which you can hardly see)

Not my best ever, but reasonable for 15 minutes of icing and decorating a store-bought sponge!

Once again, Elly was disappointed. She wanted to know why I hadn't made the Gruffalo's Child as well!!!! Gee, kids these days! I told her she didn't HAVE to eat any, if she didn't like the cake....but she very quickly perked up and enjoyed this special treat.

The Gruffalo's Child. Go see the show... just don't ever mention that name in this house again!