Sesame Street Live!!

I have been meaning to post this since December 6th, but have not had the time. I do now, so I guess I will. As mentioned in my profile, I am 30, married to a great woman, and have 3 awesome kids. Two boys, 10 and 11 and one girl, Lydia, who is almost 2 (21 months). As far as TV and her favorites, she loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny, The Doodlebops and most of the rest of the daily Disney lineup. For some reason, she is not too into any Nick shows at the moment - perhaps they are a little bit above her level at the moment.

In March '08, we took her (and the boys) to see Playhouse Disney live. This was right around her first birthday. Let me take an aside here and tell you a little something about me and shows. We do not go to many things like that due to time and money constraints; however, whenever we do go, I always do whatever I can and pay the extra money to get the best seats possible. I figure if I am going to spend that much money, I might as well spend 20% more to get to actually see and enjoy the show. Anyhow, we had pretty good seats for playhouse Disney. It was in an auditorium setting and we were in about the 7th row back, right on the end - closest to the middle aisle. Pretty darn good seats. This event was very expensive (cmon, I mean it is Disney, of course it was); however, it was quite a disappointment. Although, when Mickey Mouse came out on the stage, the look of utter amazement and astonishment on Lydia's face was worth every penny (even though she will not remember it - it was all about the moment). I suppose it was OK, but that was really all I could say. The story line was pretty lame and the songs and dances were pretty unenergetic as well.

Fast forward to October, I got the inside scoop that Sesame Street Live was coming in December. As many kids love the furry little red ball of kiddie crack, Lydia also loves Elmo. (Which is strange because we never ever really watch Sesame Street - in fact, I am not sure where she was ever introduced to him, but nonetheless, she loves her Melmo. (why do all kids add the extra M, it is funny!). So right when TicketMaster opened their internet gates I bought tickets, again opting for the best available seats. My early arrival to the website paid off, we got seats RIGHT next to the stage (this was in a civic center) and the seats were in a small group off to the side). The fact that it was at 10:30 AM on a Thursday did not matter to me really. One thing that I was pleased with is how much cheaper these much better seats were than the ones we got at Playhouse Disney.

I hate to admit it, but I had a blast. It was not only nostalgic (besides the realization that I was getting old because there was extra characters there that I had never seen or heard of before, like Grungetta and the little Hispanic-puppet, whatever her name was (I think it was Rosie) ), but was very entertaining. Lydia had fun and the best part about sitting so close is that the characters came down and interacted with Lydia and the rest of us sitting in that section. She thought that was so cool. The only one that did not come down though was ironically Elmo. I am sure she did not care - she was just so amazed that he was actually there! For almost the entire 2.5 hour show, she sat still and enjoyed the entire show. The story was really good and the songs and dances were enough to get this 30 year old metal head daddy to sing and dance right along with them (the things we do with our kids!). The finale song was a classic and entertaining climax filled with balloons, exploding cannons of confetti, and lots of colorful characters dancing right in front of us.

That being said, we plan on going again (they usually come once a year) because it will probably be a favorite with Lydia for years to come. One thing that was funny was that she was confused when we showed her that Telly was there (which by the way was the character who interacted with her the most). See, her oldest brothers name is Telle and she absolutely adores him and I think she thought that he was the one in the costume (which was probably emphasized by the fact that he kept coming over to her.

I am going to say that this show is a must for all parents and children if it is at all possible. The whole family will enjoy it and it is well worth the money. I wouldn't really recommend wasting the money on the Playhouse Disney Tour, but you do not have to take my word for it.
Now if the Wiggles and Doodlebops would just come somewhere reasonably close to here, that will be our next stops (though I am not sure those will be quite as fun for us, but Lydia will love them, and that is all that matters).