Above and Beyond

Mini update: The zoo was good, but I got pooped on by a bird, to the delight of all the boys I was chaperoning. First Communion went well too, although the only pictures that came out were the ones of my son with cake on his face and in his teeth at the reception. The writing is good--believe it or not, I still have two pages to go. What can I say...it's an important scene. Oh, and my husband has started reading it and said the beginning moves too slowly. He plans to give me some tips... It remains to be seen whether or not I'll take them.

Thursday is our spring program at Mother's Day Out, and the theme is 'Safari'. The kids will be wearing green t-shirts, khaki shorts, white plastic pith helmets with plastic bugs glued on, and toilet tissue roll binoculars. Should be pretty cute. Our two/three year olds will do the ABC's, the numbers up to ten, the numbers in Spanish, a song about a worm and a butterfly and God, and the one that goes, 'Three little monkeys sitting in a tree...'. They will sit on the edge of the stage, and we will sit right below them, coaching them on the songs. I'm hoping no one has a meltdown when they see their parents.

When we were brainstorming the program and talking about all the animals and decorations, I suggested the director dress as a baboon and volunteered to make the mask. (Last year we did a Texas theme, and she hosted the whole show with a ridiculous Texas accent, a wad of spit trapped in the corner of her mouth.) She whole-heartedly agreed to wear the mask.

So I started searching Google for some ideas and stumbled across these images.
I liked the drama of the brown mask but wanted the coloring of the other. So I asked my mom and mother-in-law for ideas on materials. My mother-in-law said she had some ideas and would get back to me. A couple days later, I get this in my email.




I immediately made it clear that I hadn't actually expected her to make it, but she said she was having fun with it and would like to continue unless I wanted to do it myself. I told her to have at it. And she did.



This is the final mask, made of plaster and fur, and knitted yarn, and paint. Everyone who sees it is amazed. I think it might scare the kids a bit, but otherwise, it's gonna look awesome!