Pete and Robin Hood

You're probably wondering what in the world these two ornaments could possibly have in common.  It's a Charlie Brown thing.  You might remember from an earlier post that I played Lucy last winter in a community theater production of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.  It was pretty unanimous that our favorite song was The Book Report.  The kids have been tasked with writing a 100-word book report about Peter Rabbit and they're all toiling away in their own unique ways.  Charlie Brown can't think of anything to say . . . Lucy is counting words . . . Linus is too academic . . . and Schroeder likens Peter Rabbit to Robin Hood and gets lost in a fantasy.  It was the hardest song in the show and also the most fun to sing.  

At one point, Lucy is talking about Mr. MacGregor's garden and, in an effort to add as many words as possible, lists all the vegetables he grows.  I, in turn, had to sing that list every night.  I don't think I'll ever forget it:

carrots

spinach

onions

lettuce

turnips

parsley

okra

cabbage

string beans

parsnips

tomatoes

potatoes

asparagus

cauliflower

rhubarb

chives

And when I ended the list, "chives" was to be sung in a big, operatic way.  Spontaneously bursting into CHIIIIVES just became a running gag among the cast.  When it came time for Schroeder/Tyler's birthday, I knew just what to do:

If you have the DeAngelis patterns, that's Robin Hood and Pete.  I made a couple of changes to Robin Hood.  For starters, I gave him arms.  The original pattern has none.

I knew I wanted him to hold the notebook and you can't do that without any arms!  For this song, we all had giant composition notebooks and pencils:

  

I gave him a feather on his hat instead of an arrow and moved the arrow to his other hand.  I made a minor change to Pete, too.  I gave him overalls instead of a full jumper.  And instead of a carrot, I gave him CHIIIIIVES!!!!

Both these patterns worked up quickly and were simple to do.  And Schroeder wept when he got them.  Because he's a big sap.