"Musical Madness"

Wednesday night, Ava and I had our date with the Wizard of Oz. She was so excited about going to see this show she couldn't stand it. She kept saying, "Not the movie theater, the musical theater."

The show didn't start until 8 o'clock, so we were in for a late night. I picked Ava up at lunch time from preschool so she could take a late, long nap. We left the house around 6:15 because we had to make a stop for snacks.

Here she is posing beside a waterfall outside of the theater. Her excitement level was at an all time high! I got a lot of interest and compliments about Ava's peasant dress. It you like it, you can check out my Aunt Judi's etsy shop.

I just wanted to throw in a picture of her hair from the back. We got a lot of comments that night about her hair. I usually do a french braid that wraps around her head to a side ponytail, but this time I tried a twist instead. It turned out really nice.

Ava looks really sad in this picture
because I had just told her she
couldn't get her face painted.

I changed my mind, and here we are standing in the face paint line. It just happened to be family night at the theater, so they had a booth of kid friendly things set up outside the theater. Everything was free for the kids to do while they waited.

The lady doing the face painting was super nice and accomodating. The children could pick who they wanted their face to be painted as. I thought Ava might say Dorothy(just some glitter, eyeshadow, and blush) or the fairy god-mother(glitter, swirly things, and blush), but NO. She told the lady she wanted to be the Wicked Witch(puke green face with black accents all over!) She did give Ava some gold glitter so she could get her glitter fix!

This is Ava's "wicked witch" face.

The show started right on time. Wonderful props and costumes. It was so cool how they made it look like Dorothy's house was twisting in the tornado. The effects and pyro-dynamics were impressive.

I kept Ava entertained during intermission with her snack of choice...jelly beans. I would give her a handful, and then we would try and figure out what flavor it was. She would then eat said jelly bean and confirm or deny our speculation. It was funny, because she was very adamant about the flavor she thought it was.

Ava was attentive to the show throughout. I think she laughed the most at the Cowardly Lion, Scarecrow coming in at a close second. Toto was a real dog, and he did a great job. When Glinda, the Goodwitch of the North came floating above the stage in her "magic" bubble, we were really impressed! At the end when the Wicked Witch is trying to catch Scarecrow on fire, Ava looked at me and said, "She almost got him!" I was just so proud of my girl.

After the show, it was raining outside. We had brought our umbrellas with us, because we knew that was a possibility. Ava was so proud to be walking along side me with her very own umbrella. I think she liked this as much as the show itself. After getting her face painted, she thought she had to make her "wicked" face for every picture!

The show ended at 10:30, and we were in the car driving home by 11:00. Ava was asleep within 10 minutes of pulling out of the parking lot. She had really outdone herself.