Sesame Street Live

We, as parents try to be fair and provide equal opportunities for our children. We know that they don't read into everything the way we do yet we even out the Christmas presents, let them take turns choosing videos and music and try to give equal time. As a result of this parental need, we arranged for dinner and a show for just Mom, Dad and Anna. It was an easy sell for Hallie because she was too old for the show and would get the better end of the bargain by having her own one on one time with Grandma. Perfect!

Right. After about 5 seconds from pulling away from Grandma's house, for our careful planning and consideration, we were rewarded with tears. Anna began to cry and kept saying she wanted her sister. So, instead of a ride filled with excitement for the upcoming adventure, our time was spent convincing her that the show would be over soon and then we could go get Hallie. Really.... pretty much all the way to the performing arts center.

Everything was OK by the time we arrived at the venue. There were many distractions provided by the hoards of people arriving for the sold out show. Screaming fans, larger than life celebrities, A-list concert, right? Yes, but screaming because the fans are barely out of diapers, celebrities are larger than life because they are in fuzzy costumes with gigantic heads and feet and A-list....well, because this performance was brought to you by the letter 'A'. The show? Sesame Street Live!!!!

It's an interesting place, this world of tiny fans and their crazy wallet emptying parents. Programs, t-shirts and ticket stubs for souvenirs for sure but instead of Stairway to Heaven, it's Sing...sing a song... and instead of lighters raised to illuminate the event, it's those spinning lighted things that kids get wrapped into their hair. Typically one tries to get the seats closest to the stage when purchasing tickets to a concert but in here again lies a difference. You have to know if your kids can handle being that close. Parents do NOT, repeat do NOT buy tickets as yourself for a show like this. The big furry things with giant heads come off the stage and walk around so if your child doesn't like em at Disneyland and won't pose with Santa, don't waste your money!

But, for better or for worse, we had been to a couple shows before and knew the ropes. And, admittedly, it is a good show. Plenty of movement and singing, familiar friends, appropriate themes complete with lessons and splashy effects keep the kids riveted to there seats (or floor space) for at least 1 minute and a half. This experience really illustrated a big difference between our kids too. We couldn't pay Hallie to laugh or clap along or ANYTHING. She's always really into it all but doesn't join in. She leads. (like when she started her own "tastes great/less filling" team at Disneyland alongside the pre-parade entertainment-except it was Mickey Mouse/Donald Duck) Anna though, laughs hysterically, claps and sings so much so that we feel the need to install a volume knob. She announced every character as they appeared, yelled hello and waved her little hands off. She was ready for it to be over at the intermission as evidenced by the speed with which she hopped out of her seat but we assured her that she would LOVE the next part. We also told her that her 'Big Bird' really wanted to see the rest. She kept us entertained by making monster faces but when I pulled out the camera and asked her to 'show me the monster' she held up her cookie monster shirt in front of the lens. Smart girl - she did show me the monster! She loved the rest of the show and remembered enough to tell Hallie and Grandma that she saw Sesame Street and all the friends and they had to make a show. It was loud and she had to cover her eyes because it was so loud. Ahh, money well spent!

Midway Fun

See the sign? Exclusive preview - check us out! Obviously we don't ever win anything big (you'd know) but we did win tickets in a Disneyland drawing. Passholders were given a chance to enter to win preview passes to ride the new Toy Story Mania attraction at California Adventure. We had to pick the exact day and time we'd be available to go so we chose carefully and crossed our fingers. A couple days before the date we were notified that we got to go. WooHoo! Now, you may think big deal, but if we can avoid waiting in the obnoxious lines after a ride opens, we'll take it. True, our lives wouldn't crumble if we never went on, but hey, if it's handed to you.......... right?

We raced around after school, picked up Grandma (she was one of our winning tickets) and began the arduous journey down the 5. Luckily we had plenty of time in our 'ride window' so we arrived comfortably, checked in and made our way to the Pier section of the park where the ride is located. With comically serious security measures, we forged ahead and had to wait a whole, mmmmm, 10 minutes? Oh, but it was so worth it! It's clear that the attraction is geared toward the 'younger generation', and it's clear that Mom and Dad are WELL out of that category anymore but, we know how to play a video game (as long as it's got a joystick, a jump button and doesn't spin 360 degrees) We know that it's here because anything that isn't interactive is boring and that today's kids have SERIOUS attention problems (being teachers, we do have issues with that-not a discussion you want to have with us). However, the ride was so brilliantly designed and executed, it appeals to everyone. 'Gamers', yes but grandparents will enjoy it just as much.

The Toy Story premise, from the beginning, was supposed to appeal to kids and the adults who would bring them to the movie. By making it great, they wouldn't mind bringing them again and again. So with the 50's TV western and sci-fi themes covered for the 'grands', Disney name for the parents, animation for the kids and the devotion to the product of the Pixar people, it had to be a hit. The ride throws in the nostalgia of boardwalk carnival games and for free! What could be bad? Not much.

Other than being pretty jerky in between stops, it was pretty near perfect. Each carriage holds 8 people in sets of 2. Armed with string pull cannons, each player is assigned a color and, after a practice round, they're ready to go. Virtual projectiles are lobbed as fast as the player can release the string and scores are tallied. A brief countdown warns him that the game is about to end and off he goes to the next 'booth'. At the end, the riders stop at a virtual prize booth to see what stuffed animal they will take home - virtually, of course. (Pay no attention to the accuracy scores..one of us is 5 and one of us was taking pictures)



Last stop was, what else, the store you must use to exit. Hallie chose a t-shirt to wear to school the next day and Anna chose this hat. Yes, it still counts in our tally of theme park purchased hats. #86, I believe.

So Proud!

We have reason to celebrate! We always consider ourselves lucky to be part of such a great little family, but this month we celebrate two of those members. Hallie and Dad. They each have a new credit to their names and Anna and Mom wanted to spread the news!

After another wonderful session with a high school student/swim teacher, Hallie has learned to swim! Pretty remarkable too since she only gets in a pool for about 8 days once a year when the swim team holds their lessons/fundraiser. After just a couple days, her teacher Kyle had her paddling away and getting her feet off the bottom of the pool. We weren't sure exactly how much skill she would gain since she was pretty much vertical and paddling nowhere fast. But, patient, WONDERFUL Kyle really kept her going and kept her challenged. After a few more days she was calling out to me from the deep end where, for the first time, she was getting ready to push off from the wall to swim for her teacher's outstretched arms. He was so great about giving her a lead to follow without having to 'tease' her by pulling his hands away. She had every confidence in him and even performed a tandem jump into 'the 5'! On the last day, she called to me from the deep end and wanted me to watch her swim to the steps. So, other than 'pulling over' a few times due to circumstances beyond her control (ie; water up the nose) she paddled her way to the steps on her own and pretty quickly for a first timer. We are all so proud of her and can't wait to get her back into the pool for some more practice. (Of course, as previously mentioned in another posting, we have another thing for which we need to provide some follow through - "We can go to their house when you know how to swim..." sigh)

And.....da da da DAAAA! Receiving accolades from colleagues and students from the deck of the pool, Dad was humbly acknowledging their praise and congratulations for being named Teacher of the Year at the high school. Bottom line? He works HARD and he deserves it. Just ask us - we know what's piled up on the table every night and cluttering up the computer. Anyway, we weren't quite done busting our buttons just yet, and thought we'd share.


The History of Hallie in the pool (about 3 min)

Back to school

Wait...didn't we read about this already? Well, no, not exactly. Though planning ahead is a preference, I'm not that prepared - OR clairvoyant. Nope. This 'Back to School' belongs to April.

After what seemed like the longest month on record, and occurring nowhere NEAR Easter, Spring Break finally arrived. So, you may be thinking 'Big deal, most of us don't get a week off for Easter....or two weeks at Christmas AND the whole summer' and therefore, you offer no sympathy. Here's the thing. Unless you are a teacher or have at least ten children of your own, you don't get it. And that's fine....we've heard most of the arguments. The very nature of the arguments delineates the personality types that are drawn to or led away from the education field. We won't get into pay equivalency, jury duty, vacation time of your choosing, verbal abuse and harassment, workload (obviously NOT why we became teachers). Alas, the soapbox can be put away for another time (Open House, IEPs, Back-to-School-Night, state testing, parent conferences, the THOUSANDS of notices we have to try to get back from parents) Yes, put away. Does the break seem to be necessary yet? No bones.... it was. Just remember how glad you are when it's time for your break - when your kids go back!

Our plan was simple - to do and clean all those things we hadn't been able to get to since Winter Break. That's all that needs to be said about that. Before we knew it , it was Sunday night again and we were grudgingly preparing to go back.

This past week we all went back to our respective places of learning. In addition, we decided that we didn't have enough things to keep us from the aforementioned chores. So, Mom and Hallie have solved the problem. We'll just simply add more school.

Hallie has chosen to enroll in two new courses this year. For the next eight weeks, she will be enriching her life experience and feeding her very creative soul - first with dancing (Creative Dance and Movement) then, with drawing and painting. She is beyond excited and has already embraced the curriculum. She offered to show the dance teacher her 'moves' on the first day of dance class and, on art day, drew a picture "to show her how happy I am that we have art in our world and that I'm glad to have her as a teacher". It's no surprise that she came out of both as happy as she went in. So with the upcoming infusion of swimming into her schedule, she will definitely be a busy (social butterfly of a) little girl. Excuse me...BIG girl.

Now, given all the facts (and the strange idea that she can add hours to her day as needed), Mom concluded that there was no better way to pass the time during these various lessons than to focus on homework - her own! Not one to think that you can ever learn enough, she decided another Master's degree sounded like a good thing. No, it won't mean more money and-soap box again- if it seems logical that a business requiring "Highly Qualified" people would pay for the advanced specialization, the business of school is not that logical. So, over the course of about 15 years, we'll recoup the cost. In the mean time, Mom can feel like she's hanging on to the brain cells she's got and may even be creating a few new pathways with the added knowledge. The irony lies in the fact that the degree is in technology. So.... she can get better at using stuff that lets her avoid using her brain.? Hmmmm. Maybe it's time to rethink. We'll run the data and get back to you.

I guess we just can't stay away from school!

It Happens Every Spring

With the arrival of April comes new life, new promises and, a new season - baseball season, that is. So, not only do we think of birds and bunnies, flowers and flying kites, we think of blue, Dodger Dogs and Vin Scully. Is there any other way to herald in the spring? We of course can only seem to go when it's going to be over 100 degrees (and in this case, it must be our fault. I mean, come on...in April?) The best part is, she says with sarcasm, is that we sit in the cheap seats because we only stay for about half the game and THEY"RE IN THE SUN.(Well, not the CHEAP seats-been there, done that.) So we tried to make it to the 7th inning stretch but Dad and Anna were long gone on a walk around in the shade and every time Hallie moved, the part of the seat she wasn't covering got too hot for her to move back. Maybe it's just going in months that start with 'A' that are bad luck for us. Anyway, we found a much more pleasant alternative on a cooler day. No Dogs but fun, nonetheless!









Check out the video if you've got the time!