Peter and the Wolf

Marina and I had tickets to see Peter and the Wolf at the Colorado Symphony this afternoon. Marina always wants to dress up when we go out, so she decided to wear her Red Riding Hood costume. After all, her story contains a wolf as well.

We arrived with enough time to get drinks and find our seats before the concert began. We laughed when the conductor, Christopher Dragon, came out. He had crazy mad scientist hair. And throughout the concert he had funny facial expressions and body movements. That kept Marina entertained through some of the less familiar music.

She did seem to recognize parts of The William Tell Overture. When they started Peter and the Wolf, a narrator came out to tell the story. That helped Marina to recognize the musical themes throughout.

After the concert she reluctantly let me take a few pictures before we went home.

Tea and Valentines

Today a tea room near our house advertised a Gummy Heart Festival. I thought it sounded like fun. I also scheduled for us to have high tea there as well. Marina dressed in pink and red for the occasion.

When we arrived, there was one girl already trying out some of the crafts. Her grandparents own the tea shop. Marina worked on several Valentine crafts alongside her, until it was time for us to sit down for our tea.

We started with soup and salad. Marina had the salad but she enjoyed some of my potato leek soup. The starter was followed up with a huge tray of sandwiches and sausage rolls. As we were eating. the girl Marina befriended came by with her lunch. We invited her to sit down and shared some of our sandwiches as well.

By the time our scones arrived we were pretty full. So Marina went to do more crafts. They ended up making Valentines for each other. Before we left, Marina gave her new friend her phone number so they could keep in touch.

As we left we ran into two more of our friends. They were hoping to join us. Marina was ready to go home, so they went in and had lunch together.

Moana Sing Along

Marina has wanted to see Moana again. The new “Sing Along” version was released this weekend and since Marina sings with the soundtrack in the shower almost every night, this seemed like a fun way to see it. The sing along version wasn’t showing at many theaters, so we had to drive a little way to get there. We arrived in time to get popcorn and settle into our seats.

In this version during the songs the words appeared at the bottom of the screen to sing along with. Marina happily sang loudly with each one. We stayed through the end credits to watch the short at the end.

Be Our Guest

We had plans to see Beauty and the Beast this afternoon. But before it began, we had reservations for the Be Our Guest package for before the show. Marina and I were both looking forward to the day.

Marina had a tough time choosing what to wear. She was torn between her yellow Belle dress and Enchanted Christmas costume. She finally decided on the yellow ball gown. She used her Belle palette for makeup and I put a rose in her hair.

We arrived and went into “the Beast’s Castle” for the pre-show activities. The activities started with s local librarian telling the story of Sleeping Beauty. We had lunch and Marina visited the craft tables. She made a Belle bookmark and a red flower. We took a shield home for her to decorate as well.

After lunch, many of the cast members joined us. Marina had her picture taken with Belle, the Beast, Lumiere, Cogsworth, Babette, Mrs. Potts and Chip. After the meet and greet was over, Belle told a story to all the children. Then everyone had the chance to take a group photo with the cast.

We left the “castle” and went to the theater to get ready for the show. When we arrived at our seats we found that most of the girls in our row were dressed as Belle! Marina fit right in! She was excited as the lights dimmed at the start of the show. We both really enjoyed it. After it was over, we went into the lobby to get more pictures with the cast. This time Belle was in her yellow gown with her Prince. And we also got to meet Gaston.

Once our photos were taken, we went back into the theater for a backstage tour. Marina participated in the question and answer part. Then we got to go on the stage and look at the set. It was a fun experience!

Rodeo Princess

We had tickets for the stock show rodeo this afternoon. Marina put on her Jessie costume shirt, jeans and pink cowgirl hat.

Fortunately, the roads were fairly clear when we went out. It didn’t take us too long to get there. But we had a chilly walk to pick up our tickets. We got through the will call line quickly.

We started on the third floor of the main building. Marina headed immediately for the AG Adventure. Before we went in she stopped at the Colorado State University booth and talked with the students there. She still wants to attend CSU and study to be a veterinarian. She picked up information about that. Then we went into the AG Adventure. We learned about where our food comes from, saw a small hive of bees and Marina even participated in a giant Jenga game.

We stopped for lunch, then went over to the Events Center to see the baby animals, we met a few rodeo queens and walked through the stables where many horses were resting. Then we decided to go over to the Coliseum for the rodeo.

We were a bit early, so we settled into our seats and had a snack. We had a great view of the rodeo floor. Marina was excited when the show started. First up were the Westerniers – a group of precision horse riders. Then the rodeo started with bareback bronc riding. Then we watched calf roping, followed by saddle bronc riding. We also watched steer wrestling, barrel racing and bull riding. Marina’s favorite was the mutton busting.

After the rodeo was over, we went to the car. By this time the sun was out and the sun was melting the snow. We had to drive through a huge puddle in the parking lot!

Off To See The Wiz

This afternoon we had tickets to see The Wiz. Marina wore her Dorothy costume. I told her that in this show the slippers are silver, but since her silver shoes are at her father’s house, she wore her red ones.

We arrived at the theater early. Once the show started, she was very excited. She liked Dorothy, of course, but she was also enthralled with the Cowardly Lion. And during his first song, he came out into the audience and told her “Great shoes!” She was thrilled!

After the show, many of the cast members came out in their costumes. We got photos with Dorothy, the Wiz, the Scarecrow and the Wicked Witch. We waited a bit to meet the Lion. He was very nice to her. After meeting all the characters she wanted, we went home.

Sing and Shop Saturday

Marina and I didn’t have any set plans today. She wanted to use some of the gift cards she got for Christmas. She decided she wanted to treat me to lunch and a movie.

We started off by having lunch. Marina was very excited to use her gift card to pay for it. After we ate, we went to the movie theater to see the movie Sing! Marina has wanted to see it for a while, so she was pleased to finally go. She not only bought our tickets, she got the popcorn as well. We both enjoyed the movie, Marina particularly liked all the music in the show.

After the movie, we went shopping so Marina could use a gift card. She wanted a game for her laptop. They didn’t carry a card for that game, but the sales person suggested she use her card to get credit at an online store.

The game took four hours to download. She was pretty disappointed by that. She will
have to wait until tomorrow.