J's school is doing Willy Wonka Kids for the Spring Musical and J is in it as one of the Oompa Loompas and one of the Candy Man Kids (basically all the kindergarteners and 1st graders are the chorus). He is very excited, as this is his first experience with theater. The performances will be on May 30 and 31st, so please mark your calendars if you'd like to attend. In the meantime, ours is a small school with not too many resources, so I would like to put the word out to all my local friends that if you have access to any of the following items which are needed for the show - or know someone who could loan them to us - please let me know. Some of you have much bigger f-lists than I do -- if any of your friends (whether I also know them or not) might be able to help, please suggest away.

a bubble machine
one hand-held microphone (an "old-fashioned" type like Decca would be terrific)
and old radio (does not need to work)
a video camera or film camera...can be on a tripod (for the news station reporting scenes)
a length of television cable
a small wooden stool
one old wooden chair
four rolling office chairs that can will be converted into a "bed" for the grandparents
small portable old television (does not need to work)
a trellis or portable archway (the entrance to the chocolate factory)
tubing, dryer hoses, large clean trash cans or bins, washtubs, metal or plastic chutes... anything that would work for the chocolate factory look
a push cart on wheels to serve as the Candy Man's cart
a Willy Wonka suit/hat/cane (Gene Wilder look)
black goggles (5)
old beach balls, basket balls, softballs (will be altered)
an old messenger bag for Charlie
any large scale candy props/large nut props for the squirrels/wallpaper or wrapping paper with candy print, artificial flowers and large scale mushrooms
a punch fountain or chocolate fountain
extention cords (on loan)
background of an old town, brick or stone look which could be paper or cardboard foamboard

We also need to construct a large scale television frame for the Mike Teavee disappearing scene (free-standing) and some small ramps.
 

Many thanks for any and all help! 

And now for today:  Throwing a birthday party with 20 or so schoolchildren and their parents is an expensive proposition, no matter how you do it.

Tomorrow we're throwing J a belated birthday party with all of his school friends. After a month of research, it seemed that doing it at a "venue" where they do all the work for you and you just show up would be too expensive. As it turns out, if you do much of the work yourself, you still end up spending just as much money, but also lots more time. After six hours of shopping today for food, decorations, favors, crafts, etc. we are now up at close to midnight, getting everything ready. On the plus side, we don't have to get the house ready since we're having it at a park, on the minus side we have to haul everything to the park. On the plus side, the entertainment will come to us in the form of a reptile show (school-age kids only, so sorry we didn't invite younger friends), on the minus side, finding reptile/jungle-themed stuff is not all that easy. *A* decorated a store-bought cake, which looks *amazing*. I wish I wasn't a total clutz at crafts...