Arthur the Fire Elemental

Arthur was invited to join Destination Imagination. His friend from school, Lucy, a 1st grader wanted him to join and he did. Erin and I were hesitant, because we think that at that young age, a kid should be as free from obligations as possible, and free to just play with his imagination; and after a long day of school, to add another 2 hours, two nights a week is a long day for a 6 year old. But he wanted to, so we let him. His team devised their own skit and props. They wrote it, no denying that, as it was at their level. Arthur was a fire elemental type character, and I think each of them were trying to get at having super powers. Him and Lucy were the villains, starting in jail and Arthur used his fire power to get out of jail. The good guys chased them around and used their powers. The moral of the story was that him and Lucy just wanted to be together, as friends, and that was their motive all along. They ended up winning their regionals, which was held in Algoma high school, so this past weekend we went to the next level in Sun Prairie West high school. We went Friday night so that he could swim in the hotel with his friends. I was still sick with a cold, so it kept me a little under the weather. On Saturday morning they performed early, and Arthur was cute in his little fire costume he built himself. Early in the season we went to St. Vincent de Paul and he picked out a bunch of red and orange garments. The only thing we bought extra were red suspenders to hold up the men’s basketball shorts that looked like huge loose pants on him. The red ski mask was a nice touch. All his ideas. For all the troubles they had in the beginning of the season, goofing off and not knowing their lines, they did very very well, and they got third place. During the closing ceremony when they got their award, my favorite part was when they jumped up and down with excitement, maybe from watching all the older kids before them doing the same. They were sitting close to the stage, but being 6 and 7 years old, they decided to go the long way all the way around the back of the kids sitting down, and the coordinators and crowd laughed at this. Arthur, being the youngest in the group lollygagged in the rear and they took longer than any other group to reach the front. I thought it was cute. Algoma, as our DI group, decided that only 2nd place would go to Globals, which was fine with Erin and I because we were pretty sure we weren’t going to Kansas City either way at this age. I just think this little event or milestone for little Arthur was a nice moment in his life, one of many to come that I will get to see him participate in.