We started the day at one of my favorite events of the year: the Book Swap! Free books! I had turned 60-something books in to Carmen's school and those were combined with 20,000 other people brought. We got there a half hour after it started, but we still found some good stuff: board books for P-Lo, chapter books for Carmen, picture books & easy readers for Gabe, and a few for me for school.

Next, we ate at "Jason's Jelly", remarking on our way out at what a BEAUTIFUL day it was--the sky such a deep shade of turquoise.

After lunch, I suggested to David (in code) that I wanted to look into the possibility of going to see a show.

I got home and looked on eBay and Ticketmaster to see if we could get tickets to see Elmo Makes Music/ Sesame Street Live.

See, the thing was, a few weeks ago, the kids heard an advertisement (during the news--they usually don't see commercials otherwise) for Elmo Makes Music-- and the commercial said, Enter to win tickets! Their interest piqued, I looked it up and there was a color-to-win (in a drawing) contest. I printed out 5 of the entry forms and the kids colored theirs very carefully, Carmen believing the contest would be won by the person who colored the best. David, the overachiever, colored his in Photoshop.

I filled out the envelopes and got stamps the same day the kids colored theirs. But I think that was on Presidents' Day. So the mail wasn't going out. So I put them in the napkin holder on the kitchen table. Where they stayed until past the contest drawing date.

Doh!

Meanwhile, the kids would occasionally mention something about the Elmo show. So I felt responsible for us not winning tickets.

Anyway, after seeing the fees on Ticketmaster, and after finding out we couldn't get 5 of the "cheapest" seats ($16 to start, but $25 each with the fees) together, we decided to go straight to Nokia Live and try the box office instead.

On the way to Nokia, David got a call from the airport informing him that there was a ground stop going on because of the wind.






When we got to Nokia about 40 minutes before the show, David got us 4 seats (even though the web site said 1 year olds required a ticket, the box office said otherwise once we got there, maybe because there weren't five together). The walk from the car to the building was ridiculous; the wind was so strong, I could hardly hold on to the kids as we walked. Gabe cried about the sand in his eyes. But the sky was still blue.

Once we were inside, Carmen & Gabe were interested in the Beaches all-inclusive vacation packages. They sponsored the show. I looked that up when I got home and confirmed that we won't be able to do one of those anytime soon, even though the kids would enjoy the Sesame Street-themed characters and activities. (We had been thinking about going to Sesame Place in Pennsylvania this summer--along with Hershey & the Crayola factory--but now we're looking at other options that would not require airfare or a rental car since we used all of David's miles on our L.A. trip.)


Paloma did not want to pose with them in this picture, and I failed to get a good one of her there. ): Oh well, it's the experience that counts, right? She was mesmerized and delighted by the show! They did a nice job making a stage show and incorporating good ol' muppet standards along with adaptations of songs adults could enjoy, too.

We actually had pretty good seats, in the middle at the front of the first balcony.

During the show, David started getting more calls about the wind and had to go out to the foyer.

By the time we came out of the show, it looked like this:



The wind was so bad that flights were cancelled until 7 PM, so David ended up having to work after the show; he even had to go in and was on TV again.

But all in all, it was a good day (except for all the people trying to fly anywhere).