IMAGINATION MOVERS!
I made a mistake, I told G waaaaaaaaay too soon that I we were going to be seeing the Movers. Each week on friday I start talking to G about what we're going to be doing that weekend just to get her primed for what's coming up. Imagine it, just about 2 mos of her responding "going to 'magination movers concert mommy?" To say she was looking forward to this event would be putting it mildly.

Bobby and I decided to go a bit early and get some dinner at LA Live. He'd happily spent several hours at ESPN Zone a few mos before while waiting for us to come out of the Yo Gabba concert so we headed back there. This is definitely a sports lover's paradise. If you're not interested in what's being shown on the giant movie theater screen sized tv, no fear. They have small flat screens mounted to each table! Oh my goodness! I'm not much of a sports watcher (a little Lakers maybe) but if I were Yowza!!

Anyway, G didn't care. She was just happy they had mac and cheese and crayons! :-)

Then we were off to the show. The opening act was Choo Choo Soul. For anyone whose kids watch Disney Jr you're probably familiar with them. Super energetic! Then out came the Movers. I have to admit, they're pretty good. I enjoy their music. Its happy, toddler friendly, includes positive messages and has a good beat.

For the first half of the show G was a smiling and enjoying herself but fairly calm. This was a huge difference from Yo Gabba where she was a jumping jelly bean. But, by the second half she moved into her stride and started dancing and waving her little arms in the air. So cute! She had a really good time and I, of course, just love to see her have fun. There was a short guest appearance by two members of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy which was kind of cool. I haven't seen them around in awhile but I guess they're doing some other disney stuff now.

We had the "Movers Package" which gained us access to an after party with the Movers and Nina. We were surprised and excited to see that Genevieve and DC of Choo Choo Soul were also on hand for pix. DC did some beat boxing and for a big guy he does some pretty impressive break dancing moves. Genevieve is never without that huge signature smile! The Movers handed out tambourines and other small instruments to the kids and played a few acoustic songs and let the kids keep beat and sing. Then they interacted with the kids, signed autographs and made sure everyone got their photos taken. It was cute!! All of them were very sweet and seemed to really care that the kids had a good time. Way to go Disney!!

G was exhausted but I think I was even more tired than she was. Hey, partying it up with rock stars is hard work ;-)

Bobby and G waiting to go into the theater. G loved her Movers outfit! We cheated a bit and borrowed a red Angels cap from a friend. Thx Johann!
Choo Choo Soul's Genevieve and DC... "Steam train, steam trian, take me where I wanta go. Steam train, steam train, with all my friends, looking out the window!"
Mommy and Mover

Voodoo Daddy

With Genevieve

and DC

I was pleasantly surprised to see that our group pic turned out pretty good! G with the Movers crew

I wanna ROCK!!!!
Tonight we saw Rock of Ages! I'd been looking forward to this show for awhile. I was a fan of hair bands back in the 80s. Yes, I'll admit it, I've not only seen Quiet Riot in concert but if I looked hard enough I could probably find a picture of my 18 yr old self wearing a black off the shoulder mini dress with fishnet stockings and super high heels!!! What can I say, I was young, cute, and into heavy metal. It was fun!

I was a bit nervous that the traffic might be bad driving in due to the Oscars going on at the Kodak but was happy to be proven wrong. My mom and I had dinner before the show at Katsuya. I'd always wanted to go there cuz I've seen it so many times on TV. Its one of those places that celebrities are always shown coming out of on the trashy tv shows I watch like TMZ, Access Hollywood and online sites like OMG.com. I know, I'm a complete and utter dork!

Anyway, no danger of running into a celebrity on a sunday... at 4:30... on the night of the oscars. Not that I really care too much at this point in my life ;-) But whatever, it was still fun and the food was really, really good.

After a yummy meal we were off to the show. I was initially a bit disappointed to see that the lead was going to be played by the understudy. Apparantly, Constantine Maroulis --formerly of American Idol although I hardly remember him from that --who normally plays the part was sick. But, it turned out to be no big deal at all. The actor was fantastic and had a very good voice. As far as the show goes, I LOVED it!!! The music was so fun and the story was campy and silly. The costumes were a riot... and a little racey. In my book, the show was an absolute 10!!

Awesome, super fun night with mom!

Theatre Season continues
We went this past friday. It was a replacement show for one we had to miss last year. It was raining and cold outside but I was still looking forward to the evening with my mom.

Overall, I'd give it a 5 out of 10. I know many people have just adored this show and I believe that Hal Holbrook won a Tony for his performance but, honestly, it just wasn't my cup of tea. Parts of it were entertaining but sometimes I had a bit of difficulty understanding his southern drawl and a lot of it was just boring. The most interesting part was that much of the commentary and criticism re: politics, religion and journalism are just as true today as they were when Twain lived 100 yrs ago. But, those morsels were just too far and few between for me.

So, while I enjoyed the evening with my mom and I'm glad to say that I experienced Holbrook's performance, I can't say that I would recommend it to others. Sorry Hal.

Year of the Rabbit
Ugh! behind again. Oh well, better late than never, right??

I love the way these turned out! So cute! She's actually holding the same parasol that she used last year. Its funny because she's grown so much that its a bit small this year but still worked out fine for our pix. I decided to go with a bit more casual CNY outfit this year which was nice and I think more comfy than the "traditional" rayon outfits. G wore it for the CNY stuff at Disney too so we got a couple wearings out of it which always makes me super happy.

G was a bit under the weather the day these were taken. She'd been up several times the night before suffering from tummy issues, poor girl. But, when she woke up she seemed pretty ok so we forged ahead with our CNY activities starting with our monthly pix.

This first one is probably my fav. G was having a really good time playing with the umbrella.
This is her shy girl pose I guess.

There was one more professional pic but I must not have scanned it right and now I'm on my lap top. Shoot, I'll post it later if I remember.

After a crummy little nap in the car, we arrived at our friend's house for the start of our adoption group's CNY celebration. We were late in celebrating because one of our members just returned from China with their beautiful new little girl. So cool!

We did a foam dragon craft, read some CNY books and took pix of the group. Then most of the kids stayed there for a night of fun and the adults went to enjoy a pleasant dinner. G came with the adults though. She's much happier with mommy and daddy. Food and company were wonderful! Overall, a great kick off to the Year of the Rabbit. Gung Hay Fat Choy!

This is G working very diligently on her foam dragon. She got really into sticking as many sequins as possible on hers!

G with the finished product. I tried to get her to look at me but she was way too distracted by all the people, kids and activity.
A US version of the red couch photo. From left to right: Sophie, Gracie, Becky, our little prince Ryan, Katie, Megan, Kailee, Georgie, Mia, and our newest member Finley!

Has...
winter finally arrived?? Dunno. Other than a week or so of super cold days last month (just for clarification, "super cold" in rancho cucamonga means in the high 40s-50s) its been very spring like here. The last week or two its been downright hot a few days. Even the plants are confused, all the flowers are starting to bloom. Weird. But, it seems to have finally happened, rain. Its still not cold --in the high 50s-60s --but I guess this is what we're going to call winter this year so we broke out the winer clothes: long sleeved tshirt and boots. Yeah, that'll do it!

Vday 2011
I'm running a few days behind, I know ;-) Valentine's Day was super nice this year. Bobby left me a fun little surprise on my dressing area counter. So cute!!!
As soon as I saw it I ran for my camera and kept saying "georgie, don't touch it, don't touch it". She really wanted to touch it as you can see:
I had to work that day but G was super excited about going to the sitter for their Valentine Party. OMG she was thrilled! We made simple valentines this year from blank red and white note cards. G got to put stickers on them and stamp "Happy Valentine's Day" on the inside. We made up little bags with bubbles and sweet hearts. G's super "particular" when she does little crafts. In this instance "particular" means slow :-) so we got started on them the week before. Each morning of that week before the party she'd walk by them and say "today's Valentine's Day mommy??" Needless to say, when the answer was finally yes, it was a GOOD day!

G wore this super cute set I picked up from Walmart of all places just after Christmas for like $4 each for the top and skirt. Just add leggings and Perfect! And yeah, it was still hot here so pink flip flops were in order.

That day, Bobby had a dozen beautiful red roses sent to my office. I know some people think flowers are silly and wasteful but I love them!!! They smell so good! Then that night, the three of us went to our current fav sushi place for dinner.

It was a great day!

"Run, run, as fast as you can...
you can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man." Interestingly enough, that line was not in the Gingerbread Man play. Odd, right?? This was G's second in the children's series at the local theater and was super well done. The set was this big two story thing--fantastic and really impressive I thought for the local children's theater.

The story all took place on a kitchen counter where Salt, Pepper, Mrs Tea Bag, and Cuckoo (as in the bird from the clock) tried to save the Gingerbread Man from being eaten by the evil Mr Squeak the mouse and recovering the cuckoo bird's "cuckoo". It was interactive occasionally asking the kids in audience for advice and encouraging the kids to scream "ahhh!!!" and say "shoo, shoo" to the mouse to frighten him back into the wall. Super cute show!

Unfortunately I'd forgotten my camera for G's first theatrical experience but didn't make that same mistake twice! I was so glad because G really wanted to get her pix taken with the cast and get autographs in her program.

This was in the afternoon of the dance class saturday so G is still in her tutu! Here she is getting ready for the show.
Afterward with the Gingerbread Man. This guy was incredibly agile. For the first part of the play he was supposed to be still warm from the oven and very flexible.
G getting her autographs.

Here's the cuckoo bird. He spoke with a german accent, too funny!

With Mr Squeak, the mouse. He was sort of a gangster mouse. G was actually a bit afraid of him during the show but didn't seem to mind once it was over.

With Salt. Sadly, I must have forgotten to get a pic of G with Pepper. I'm not sure why but Salt was kind of like Popeye.

This is G with Mrs Tea Bag who was mean because she had no friends. She yelled a lot in the show and this actually weirded G out quite a bit. She's not used to being around anyone yelling. Luckily Mrs Tea Bag got nice later and G decided she wasn't "bad" anymore. G is very sensitive to anyone mean or anything scary. I always call her my little fraidy cat.

Overall, really a fun outing. I love that we have the children's program in our town. So far the productions have been well done and, as a bonus, its only 5 mins from our house!!!

Dance class!
I've been thinking about signing G up for dance class for awhile. I finally found a place that seemed low key enough and has a class at 8am saturday mornings! Yes, I know, for most people that sounds like absolute hell but for me, it seems great! Get up early, get the class out of the way and move on with the rest of the day. I talked it up to G a little and she seemed pretty excited about the free trial class but I really had no idea if she'd participate or not. She's funny sometimes. But guess what? She really liked it. She stood in line, listened to the teacher (sort of) and made an attempt to do what she was shown. After the class was over we signed her up and went off to the dance supply store to purchase tap shoes, ballet shoes, two tutu/leotard sets and, of course, matching hair accessories! Oh yeah, G was happy!!

Hopefully she continues to enjoy it long enough to make our tutu investment worthwhile!

I think they're stretching or something here.
Standing on the line, listening to teacher.
I think she's supposed to be doing a falap here. I don't think she got the concept. Oh well, plenty of time for that.

I was glad to see the teacher grab her little foot and show her what she wanted her to do.

After class she showed me her "ballerina pose" ahhh, so cute!!!

G made the Disney blog!
We were there for the Lunar New Year edition of Disneyland's Family Fun Weekends last friday. At one point a disney videographer and photog came up and asked if they could shoot some footage of G interacting with the characters. They told me it might be on the Disney Blog and sure enough, I saw it today! Its just a second or two with Mulan and Mushu but still kind of fun! Press play, G's at about 29 secs between the shot of the little blonde girl and the brush painting:

Disney, again...
The weather is so nice and we've had nothing to do the last couple fridays so, heck, disneyland here we come! We get there at opening and move pretty quickly through the park. G wanted to start out with the fairies. It was too early for Tink but Silvermist was there and G was thrilled.
This is G in Minnie's house. A fridge filled with cheese! G can hang out in the Mickey and Minnie houses for a very LONG time.

I wish I had video here. G is saying "No pictures please" apparantly I was distracting her from holding the door open or looking at the cheese or something. The paparazzi can be so annoying.

They were doing a Lunar New Year thing. G was a bit tired and got into little snit but was still pretty excited about seeing Mulan and Mushu.

Mickey and Minnie in red silks

Checking in with Cruela on the way out of the park!

Night on the town
Last Sunday was the second in our Pantages series. This time it was a show called Traces. It wasn't actually at the Pantages either, it was at a theater around the corner called the Ricardo Montalban. Yeah, the Fantasy Island guy. Weird, I know.

Anyway, I found what sounded like a neat little place to do a pre-show dinner The Kung Pao Kitty. Cool name right. Yeah, closed. Bummer. It was getting kind of late so we thought we'd just drive over by the theater and find someplace there. On the way my mom noticed a place that said "crepes" and it looked crowded. Good sign, let's go. In true Hollyweird style, they had valet parking which cost us $2. It was the restaurants own parking lot and the "valet" drove our car exactly 20 feet. Ok, whatever. Anyway it was an odd little place called Solar de Cahuenga. I guess it was trendy??? Everybody there was in their 20s, drinking coffee and surfing the net on their Macs. Not a PC in sight, jus apple. There was even a little room in the back with cushions on the floor where people could just lay around... ummm, ok.

But the food was good!!! My mom had a crepe and I had a pannini. Yum!!! There was actually a pretty extensive menu. Even though I felt a little like an interloper from rural Wisconsin while there, I'd probably go back cuz the food was tasty.

The show was like an urban non-glitzy Cirque du Soleil. Seven performers that did dancing, acroabatics and music using unusual props like chairs, basketballs, skate boards, and a giant metal hoop. After each segment of the show I had the exact same thought "huh, that was odd." Don't get me wrong, the show was very enjoyable and the performers are obviously very talented individuals but who comes up with this stuff?

So between the funny little coffee flophouse and the very bizarre show it was a super odd night. Good but odd.