Shakespeare, Imps and Fireflies

We took the imps to see Shakespeare performed in a local park last night.

We were a little concerned about how the evening would turn out. Me, because the imps did not nap during the day (thus foiling my plans of having relaxed, non-cranky children) and the Boss was worried how I would behave (knowing I am not a fan of hanging out in large crowds. At least those crowds not painted in Scarlet and Gray chanting O-H-I-O!!)

However, this particular play has been raved about by my Better1/2's boss for a couple of years now. It seems her children love this play and they are only a year or so older than our imps.

Now before you start wondering about our sanity, taking children to see Shakespeare. I would like to state, that they were doing all of the Bard's plays in one sitting. A few program notes were also noted:
a) Large sections of text were deleted. 'Romeo and Juliet' was completed in just under 4 minutes!!
b) The acting style was just short of improvisation (yet seemed utterly unplanned)

All-in-all, very very funny. Even the imps were captivated by the antics on stage.

Until Intermission.

That's when the fireflies came out to play. And seeing that we were in a park we let the imps run.

Within minutes g.imp returned with her fists clenched tight. For being such a small girl, it really was amazing how many fireflies she could hold in each hand. I think she dropped close to twenty on our blanket on her first go.

If you have never seen fireflies crawling en masse in a contained area, think roaches with flashlights! Daddy had to pinch himself to verify he was not seeing some nightmarish vision from his college days!

Around this time b.imp got into the act. He caught his own firefly (note - b.imp was perfectly happy with catching the bugs 1 at a time!). He then decided he loved his firefly and announced, to the crowd's enjoyment, that he was going to kiss the bug. Apparently the bug was not as affectionate and not feeling the love returned, b.imp upped his affection quotient and popped the whole bug in his mouth!!

Thinking that this was a good time to distract the b.imp, my Better1/2 offered him a bottle of water. The boy loves to drink water like the grownups and forgot about the bug (which was retrieved unharmed).

For a boy who still thinks it is funny to grab his dirty diapers in mid-change, our b.imp can be quite fussy about his clothes. Like, if he spills his drink on his clothes he must change them or, at least, take off the wet duds! I remembered this little personality quirk when the crowd around us began chuckling. However a quick check revealed that the actors had not returned to the stage.

No, b.imp was chasing after his sister with his pants down around his ankles...