With a Little Bit of Fairy Dust...

There are some things, well many things really, that we are able to do because we live in London that we wouldn't have been able to do a year ago. This weekend we experienced on of them: we took our children to the Stratford Festival.

I've always wanted to see a play at Stratford, and this summer I had heard wonderful reviews (both published and spoken) of this year's production of Peter Pan. Chris and I started talking about it on the way home from NB, after we picked up a brochure at a tourist info centre just inside the Ontario border.  Stratford is only an hour from our home, so it would certainly be easy to take the kids to an afternoon or evening performance. That night I started looking online for tickets, and was able to get us some fairly good seats for the Sunday matinee. We decided not to tell the kids for a while, but I was convinced they would be excited.

Just a few weeks ago, one of the neighborhood boys told Connor and Janelle that he was going to see a play about Peter Pan. Connor came in and excitedly told me all about it. Connor and I had read Peter Pan and Wendy together a few years ago, and both of the kids have seen the movie Hook, so they are familiar with the story. It really is a story with something for everyone. Boys love the pirates and the lost boys, and girls are fascinated by Wendy and the mermaids and the fairies (although Mariana will be happy to know that both of my kids remind me often that Tinkerbell is a bad fairy!) Connor and Janelle immediately started asking if they could go see the play, too. I didn't tell them the good news until just a few days before we went. I couldn't contain my excitement any longer!

We weren't disappointed. Everything about the play was magical, and watching my children's faces as they took it all in was the best part! When Peter first taught Wendy, John and Michael to fly, I could tell that Janelle wanted to join them and fly right off to Neverland. An in the second act, when the pirate ship appeared out of the mist and seemed like it would keep floating right out into the audience, I thought Connor would turn inside out. Chris and I both love professional theatre productions, and we enjoyed it as much as the kids did. It was worth every penny of the ticket price.

It truly was a magical day.