better than watching television

Lately Sam and Caleb have been putting on entertaining little "shows" for the rest of the family. They whisper and giggle in their room, choosing clothes and props and making up lines together. After seating Mom, Dad and Josiah in the living room, the show begins. No surprise, these dramas are always comedies. Dr. Psycho is my favorite. Sam plays the ignorant, ineffectual doctor using chainsaws and power ranger swords as tools, refusing to wipe the old blood off and cheerfully using "no anny-setic". When the patient, Caleb, fearfully questions this decison Dr. Psycho leans in close and shrieks in fury "please don't antagonize the Doctor!". When the patient dies (with choking and sighing and extended drama) because the Dr chose to amputate a leg to deal with his hangnail, the nonchalant Doctor comments "oh well. I guess that was not one of my best surgeries."

The photo above is from a little play they put on called "Homeschool Bullies" It's based on the character "Mo", that stocky and dull student who bullies Calvin in the Calvin and Hobbes comic. Having no experience with this situation they take all their lines from the book, but adapt it to their reality. (The only person you can try to bully in their school is brother #1 or brother #2) Since both actors wanted to be "Mo" they shoved bed pillow up their shirts, put their hats on backwards, which is as close as they can come to looking like little punks. Lowering their voices a few octaves, talking slowly, they attempted sounding dim-witted, and taunted their audience:
"hey twinkie. give me your money."
"is that your nose? or did you inhale a cantaloupe?"
"hey calvin. give me a quarter." Why should I?
it's for the save calvin's life fund. Hmmm. Sounds like a worthy cause.