Days with the Dorans

A month or so ago, I got an email from a former parent letting me know that her daughter, Bianca, had the lead in the upcoming musical, Cinderella! She said that one of the first things she said that was Mrs. Doran and Mrs. Aaronson (music) would be so excited for her! And we were! I put out an all-call to our staff to see if anyone else wanted to see the show with us. I was so excited that we had a little fan club that went.  Before the show we had dinner and Benstein Grille and it was just so nice getting together and catching up. Work gets so crazy and busy and I am very guilty of not making time to catch up with people. It was so much fun. The show was great and Bianca sounded so good with the male lead (Diego who Z kind of new of from swimming). I was really impressed with him because boys aren't usually as strong as the girls and they were equally matched and he acted well too! Bianca is only a junior too so we'll get to do this all again next year too! YAY!!! And~ I ran ...

I had therapy on Monday and I was telling her that I was in a good place and thankfully all the fam seemed in good places. I mentioned that Jeff and I were going to see Hamilton next month and she said, Oh my gosh! You need to go to Suffs! And use student rush! I think there are seats for tomorrow! Now I knew NOTHING about Suffs but I heard that for Student Rush~ what you do is go to the box office when it opens (or as soon as you can in our case) and try to get seats. With a HS or college ID, you can get two tickets for jusst $30! We figured even if we couldn't get the seats (I REALLY wanted to go) if we didn't get them, we could at least eat in the D or something... Well! We got tickets! THREE of them in row N for just $90! After we got the tickets we had some time to kill so we walked to a place called Zo's where I had a yummy chicken wrap and the boys had milkshakes (they ate before we left). Then it was time for the show. Our seats were AMAZING and it was absolutely on...

I give Tina credit! She was bound and determined to make a way for the kids to continue to do a musical! It wasn't live, instead it was taped and then shown "live." I am really proud of Zach for doing it. It was kind of hard to watch and follow but I did manage to find him in parts. He played Weaselton and was the comic relief and then I think a troll guy (I don't know their official name). To be honest it was hard to watch at times because of the audio and such but I managed to get THESE clips of the Goose. Ali also joined the team in the Frozen stuff... She did the choreography for some of the dancers (not the "regular" kids- the legit dancers). To teach the kids she zoomed with them and then also made this video (slow and regular speed) to help them. I just wanted to put it here to remember this time. HERE is the video. 

We have had quite a bit of theatre in our lives  lately (which is a great thing). We were SO excited to score tickets to Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in Detroit!! We were able to get five tickets for FREE from friends who weren't able to use their tickets and then we bought one for Jeff (who sat two rows behind us).  I would go to the theatre all the time if we could afford it!! Roald Dahl is probably my favorite children's author having loved him when I was little and now he is a staple read-aloud in my classroom! I also was a fan of the movie (the original more so just because it reminded me of my childhood even though it didn't follow the book as much). The show was SOOO good! It was much better than I could have imagined and Jeff said it may be his all-time favorite (which is saying something because we've seen some amazing shows). It was so clever how they did everything. I would highly recommend it and the kids loved it to...

We so loved treating Grandma to a trip to the theatre last year that we thought we'd make it an annual thing. There weren't a lot of shows to choose from that worked into our schedule so we went to the Blue Man Group which was certainly different than anything that I had seen before and I didn't know quite what to expect. The Bigs had seen them in Disney so pretty much knew what was going to happen though there were some parts of the show that were different. We were glad we went and got to see it. Above all we loved spending time with Grandma and being together.

 For Christmas this year for the grandparents, we decided to give "experiences" instead of things (I know... It's also a gift for us that way but giving gifts can feel that way too). For Grandma, we got tickets to "The Sound of Music" at a theater in Midland.  The theater was so nice and it was good to know that for next time there's not a bad seat in the place! The scene changes were fun and I wanted to sing along (but didn't). Sean wasn't thrilled about this show but he perked up (he's hiding behind Grandma in the first picture).  After the show, we went out to dinner and then back to Grandma's. I'm happy to report that they really weren't on their screens the whole time. They actually got out some old games and had fun playing them together. So glad to have kids that get along so well (most of the time).

 So just like our gift to Grandma was an experience, we wanted to give an experience to Nana and Papa too, so they got a trip to the D to see Aladdin with all of us Dorans. I asked Danny if they wanted to join us, but they were out this year. Maybe next year... In the morning, Nana came over to get 2 tickets since it was cold and we weren't driving together and that's when I realized I PURCHASED THE WRONG NUMBER OF TICKETS!! I have no idea how I did not realize this, but thank God she came over. I quickly hopped on line and got two more tickets. That was a close one! With two seats not with the pack- Jeff and I almost felt like we were on a date (I'd like to go on more dates like this). We could see the others and they weren't far. There were some kids in front of us who were bouncing and switching seats which was super annoying. Amazingly, there were two open seats with our crew (what are the chances??) so we headed over there for the second act. The sho...

 So Ali and I have wanted to see Wicked since it was the theme for her dance recital and I read the book (well tried to- I'm kind of ashamed to say I abandoned it...). Jeff is ALWAYS in for a good show so we knew we had to get tickets. Joe cool was not as excited. This is odd since he is the one in all the musicals (so far). I am proud to say that I saw him laughing, smiling, clapping and thoroughly enjoying himself which is awesome for a "Joe Cool" teen! This pic was snapped when we told him to put his phone away (stop texting the friends already!) which thankfully he did (and he didn't die)! We had a yummy dinner and then were off to the show. I got a GREAT deal with the 3+me. We were on the main floor on the side and the seats were good. I got them for under $100 bucks each which was a steal! We saw that Aladin is coming and if I can land another good deal like that we may have to have the Littles come! The show was phenomenal. I laughed and cried an...