Beauty and the Beast

Tonight we went to the play Beauty and the Beast at Putnam with the three big kids. They found the little post card ad last week up on our dresser and asked what it was for because they recognized it from the movie. That is when Jer let them in on the plan, and as things usually go when you tell our kids something exciting too early, we didn't hear much of anything else but 'how many days till the play Beauty and the Beast' all week long. So when they woke up today and Payden saw her special shirt I got her (just a new shirt from the clearance rack at Target that I said she could wear) she was bursting at the seams with excitement ready to tell anyone who would listen.

So tonight was the night. We met Lindsay, Addy, Fran and Lori for pizza and then enjoyed the show. Payden got scared right when we walked in because there was some faint background music playing and she thought the Beast was somewhere in the room and she just couldn't see him. I assured her that the lights would get dark first and then the show would start...but she still wanted to sit in my lap.

There were so many funny moments in how they responded. Our favorite was this: when the old lady set the spell, the characters all froze in their place and one of them said 'I'm frozen, I  can't move' and Lincoln stretched his arms out in a big circle and said quite loudly "I'm not frozen". He was so captivated by the whole thing that he had to test out whether or not he was under the same spell, it got a good chuckle out of the people in our section. And when it was all over Lindsay asked Hailey if she liked it, she said "it was good but it was kind of bad too", so funny. Hailey was kind of confused about the clapping at the end and the actors all coming together and smiling and waving at us. So much of her communication happens in her facial expressions, but she had a hard time seeing them as actors and not the characters. Then came the fun of walking out and seeing them up close or taking pictures with them. Hailey wanted to find Beauty and have their picture taken together, but Payden and Lincoln just wanted to see everyone.

After we made the rounds Payden firmly tugged my arm and said in an urgent whisper 'I don't want to take my picture with anyone but I want to go around and look at them all some more' she was fascinated and didn't want the night to be over. She is so my child. We were one of the last few people to leave and she looked and me with faint tears in her eyes and said 'mom I want to go the other nights and see it again, I don't want to be done', she was so sad it was over, and then I got so sad because that is so me! She had been looking forward to this for a week and enjoyed it so much and just didn't want it to be the end. It was fun and we have to find more of this kind of thing to enjoy together. It was great outing.