For Caleb’s third birthday, we had another puppet show party per our tradition. A big thanks to all those that joined us and helped celebrate our son’s birthday. With another bun in the oven, Tenille wanted to keep this birthday smaller than in the past and kept it mainly to family with kids Caleb’s age. I don’t think this memo got to my mother who prepared much of the food, as there was enough food for three times the crowd. This year we had a Korean food theme and served Pa-Jun (Scallion Pancakes), Kalbi Jjim (Beef Rib Stew), Mandoo (pot stickers), Bibimbap (Mixed Rice Bowl). Caleb had a blast with all the friends that came over and got to show off his acting skills in his first puppet show movie.
Before making this year’s puppet show, I took a look at last year’s puppet show for inspiration… It was clear that my creativity was regressing, and there was no way I could prepare something quite as elaborate. I thought that I should take it in a new direction and it would be fun perhaps to include Caleb and a few other kids. Upon thinking through this, the risk of 3 year olds performing a show seemed ludicrous. I thought it might be easier to film the whole thing and make it into a movie. After a few takes with Caleb, I realized that this idea was also ridiculous. And even though Caleb takes direction fairly well, it was difficult to play out a scene for more than 3-5 seconds. So with a few weeks left, we decided that it would have to be a narrated slide show. This way, we only needed to have Caleb "acting" for moments at a time (which was about his attention span). We also had our neighbor Kennedi cameo in the movie, and she really stole the show. She had just enough attitude and spunk to make the show into something better than just another overzealous dad making a movie of his son.
The show was a lot of fun to make and more effort than I anticipated. Likely, this will be Caleb’s last birthday party where we (his parents) are in charge of the invite list… And perhaps the last Birthday puppet show for Caleb. I can’t imagine doing two of these per year. And it wouldn’t be fair if Caleb’s little brother didn’t get a special show and party. Perhaps I’m throwing in the towel too early. Maybe I can somehow pull off two per year, and be that super-dad that I was always afraid I could never be….. We’ll all find out next August.
Here’s the link to the show: low-res
Hyun Family 