A Busy Day and a Play!

Tuesday, August 3rd was probably my most over-scheduled day this summer. I insisted on taking the kids to the free movie at Edwards that morning because they were finally playing "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs". It was cute. I'd heard the song "Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows" was in it, so it had to be good. I love that song!
I left Oliver at my mom's because when we took him with us to see "Kung Fu Panda" (loved it!) the week before, he kept trying to run away. He's just not ready for watching entire movies, because, well, he'd rather be moving around!
After the movie I picked Ollie up and took the kids home for lunch. We had Jane's friend Bella with us, too. Oliver's naptime was fast approaching, but I hadn't made any preparations for Jane's birthday which was the next day! Not only am I a major procrastinator, I was also sick almost the entire week leading up to then, so I'd had no desire to be out shopping for presents. So I asked Bella's mom if Jane could play at their house while I ran (well, drove) to see what I could drum up for the birthday girl. I threw some chicken and stuff in the crockpot so we'd have something for dinner when I got home. I made sure Oliver was fast asleep before I dropped Jane and Bella off. Cora was playing games on the computer, so I left her home with the doors locked and told her to call me if Oliver woke up. I don't make a habit of leaving her, but it was a birthday emergency! (Cora's going to be 9 this week and is quite mature for her age. It's all good.)

Within 2-ish hours of store-hopping I'd found the perfect gift. Then I had to take it to my mom's house to hide it. Then I carefully rushed back to get Jane and then home to start getting Cora ready for ballet. She had to be ready to go by a few minutes after 5:00. That was right when Ryan was getting home from work. He was going to take her, but I could see that he was too tired to do that, judging by the way he flopped on the couch and closed his eyes. So I got the kids their chicken and rice and started wetting Cora's hair down and brushing it into a bun (teacher's orders). Her hair is just barely long enough for a bun.

So I loaded the kids up and drove downtown to drop Cora off, with the plan that Ryan and the kids would come pick her up afterward. We turned around and came back home so I could get ready to go to Maria's. Maria, Renee and I were trying to leave her house by 6:30 so we could make the drive up to Starlight Mountain Theater in Garden Valley before the 8:00 showtime. We were so excited to see "Thoroughly Modern Millie"! We're big fans of the movie, so we couldn't pass up the chance to go see a stage interpretation of it.

We went with the "help" of Maria's GPS, which speaks Norwegian. (Maria served her mission in Norway.) We got to the ticket office with more than 20 minutes to spare. We moseyed in and claimed our tickets before climbing back in the car. The GPS said we still had a short drive to the "actual" theater. We saw some quaint little eateries that would've been fun to dine at if only we'd planned enough time to do so. We drove for a good 5-6 minutes before we started to wonder why we hadn't seen any trace of the theater. Why wasn't there a sign telling us we were heading in the right direction??? The GPS said we still had .3 miles or something. We pulled off the road to deliberate. A tour bus passed and we speculated about where they were heading. They wouldn't be going to Silver Creek Plunge, would they? They had to be headed to the theater... right? Should we follow the bus or retrace our path? We decided to rebel against the GPS. It chastised us for turning around, but time was not on our side. It was after 8:oo and we... were... confused.

About 20 minutes after 8 we came up on the street we were supposed to be on and we saw the huge Starlight Mountain Theater sign. At last! We quickly realized it was just the dang ticket office again. But where was the theater? It was then that we noticed a dirt lot full of cars off to the right- a short distance from the ticket office. Boy, did we feel silly.

We parked, but from there we couldn't see the entrance for the theater. I can only imagine how helpful a couple of arrows pointing guests in the right direction would be! We walked past some people who turned out to be cast members. One of them commented on our tardiness. The guy we'd seen 40 minutes earlier at the ticket office helped us to our seats. He may have recognized us and wondered why in the world we'd taken so long to get from the ticket office to the theater, but we didn't give any details. For all he knew, we stopped off to look at the "neat stuff" at the store down the road. (There was a building with a stenciled sign stuck in the ground out front that said "Neat Stuff". Unfortunately I think it was closed for the evening.)

It turned out that we probably didn't miss much of the show. We feared we missed the tapioca dance from the movie. We kept waiting for that part, but it never came. After the show I saw someone I knew and asked her if they had done the dance. She said it didn't sound familiar. How could they do the show without it? The nerve! On second thought, maybe they were originally rehearsing it and then quickly realized it was out of the question considering the gal they picked to play Millie. Not to be rude, but she wasn't a very strong dancer. (Renee and Maria were separately wondering if one or both of her legs were prosthetic. ) And her singing was a little... um... not very... good. I know I couldn't do any better, but it was just too bad that Julie Andrews (who played Millie in the movie) couldn't be there to take the role that can only belong to her. She's kind of a tough act to follow.


Me, Maria and Renee. Looks like Renee's having an IBS flare-up.



Real cute.



During intermission. The actors came out to sell concessions. That's some emotion-inducing popcorn! Sheesh!

Maria dreaming of getting her chance onstage.


The final scene.

I wish I'd gotten a picture of Millie's "supposed-to-jump-into-Jimmy's-arms but hesitate and awkwardly lean on him instead" move at the end. It was the most entertaining part of the show!

The show was good, but I haven't seen the movie since high school - so I couldn't remember story details to adequately compare the play and the movie. I had to rent it from Netflix last week to refresh my memory. I almost forgot how fun the movie is! I highly recommend it. I hate to say it, but the Starlight people seemed to have left out all the quirky parts that made the movie so delightful. (yeah, yeah!)

This place was right across the street from the theater. Sounds like my kind of establishment!

What a fun night! The perfect end to a crazy busy day. I can always count on Renee and Maria for a laughing good time!