Our Lucky Day

The day after Thanksgiving, our neighbor came knocking on our door at 8:00 telling us that his son was sick and wondering if we could use their tickets to The Backyardigans show. Steve who had just gotten home from work an hour earlier almost said, "no thank you" with some big excuse attached to it until I jumped in and stopped him! I said, "SURE!! Absolutely!" We thanked him and he went back to home to his sick child and almost immediately I regretted my enthusiasm! I knew I wasn't going to make Steve go because he was exhausted and I thought this would be good for us to get out of the house so he could sleep in peace. I started to think about the drive to the Nokia theater in LA. And the parking. And the million kids. And trying to get my two through the crowds. But... with tickets in hand, I sucked it up, hurried to get ready and were out the door in an hour.
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Turns out... it was the luckiest day ever. Every move we made turned out to be the right one and the most exciting.

First, they had given us a parking pass for one of the lots but I turned into the wrong one. You'd think that was bad but it wasn't. The parking attendant said that he would not only take my pass for the other lot but that I could valet for an extra $15. Score!!! Steve taught me well. Never turn down an opportunity to valet with two toddlers in the car and no other adult help. Noboby else was at valet so I was nervous that I was in the wrong place. When I asked how to get to the theater, the guy said, "Just go through that entrance right there" and pointed to like a back custodial entrance. Low and behold, me and the girls entered WITHIN the paparazzi ropes. All the fans were behind the ropes snapping photos of Tori Spelling and family and the Backyardigan characters and there were me and the girls... right there with them. Literally, it was like we were supposed to go up next for our paparazzi photo shoot and interview. If I had been a little more brave I really might have jumped up there with the girls and gave it a shot! LOL.

So obviously by our first few moments, it won't surprise you that we have stumbled into the VIP area with celebrities and gift bags and fancy free food. The girls got very plush gift bags and mommy got danishes and coffee. People that I didn't recognize but I'm sure others would have were getting interviewed with their kiddos in every corner of the room. I just kept laughing to myself at how lucky we were to have stumbled into this fun scene.

Plus we had great seats and when the girls got bored during intermission, they had their handy-dandy new gift bag toys to play with! Heaven for mommy!

After the show, we tried to scramble back down to valet thinking it was going to be packed with families. This is when I really realized how truly lucky we were. When I tried to go down the escalator, the attendant said, "I need to see your VIP pass to go down there." I said, "Uhhh, I don't have one those but that is where I parked. I have my valet ticket." Begrudgingly she said, "Fine" but I don't think she was all to happy about it. Anyway, I walked out to valet and NO ONE, I mean NO ONE was in line for valet. Millions of people upstairs trying to get out but NO ONE at the oh so secret valet! We zoomed out and were home in 30 minutes! Best and luckiest toddler show experience ever! The Gods were looking down us on that day!