day in the life: a 2 show saturday

Welcome to performance day 1 of Lil Momma’s Elf Jr. the musical! We’ve had a wild few months; 7 days a week of activities, a messy start to school, tween girl dynamics challenges… it will be so nice to check this show off our list and get Friday nights and Saturday mornings back and find a better family rhythm. 

LM’s call time (the time she needs to be at the theater, which is the black box small theater in the building she takes lessons in) is 12pm and she has shows at 2pm and 5pm (and we have to do it all over tomorrow). The Mr and I are seeing both shows today (I’m seeing both tomorrow while he’s only seeing the 2pm - it’s a lot of Elf, yikes), so it’s been a long thinking about what she can eat between shows, what I can eat, can the Mr run home and feed the dog between and still find parking, etc  

6:45am: I woke up because my body doesn’t understand sleeping in and read for a bit. 

8;15am: LM wakes up so I wake the Mr up to wake Bella up. LM takes a shower while the Mr and I have breakfast and catch up. 

9:00am: LM finally makes it down from her shower and takes 30 minutes to cut up half an apple and mix up her oats. Oof, we are living on tween time. 

10:00am: I head down to the basement to try my Peloton bike with the ankle brace and not clipping in and no resistance for a 10 min low impact ride. It’s nice to do something other than seated arms and floor core. Hopefully I don’t pay a swelling price during all the show sitting. 

10:30am: LM has some chicken nuggets and continues hydrating while I get myself ready.

10.45am: We dry her hair and put together a makeup kit since she wants to do her “lewk” with the cast.

11:20am: After 3 failed hair attempts, a minor dry lips disaster, and remembering she’ll need clothes for dinner after the 2nd show, we hit the road.

11:35am: LM boots us after we say hi to the studio dog.  The Mr and I have a quick call with my aunt about my other aunt’s meds and then we land at home to feed Bella and watch this week’s Bake Off before we head back to fight for parking.

1:05pm: After feeling my Bake Off feels, having some lunch, and taking Bella out, we head back to the studio for show #1.

1:25pm: We find parking!!!! And then sit in our car for 10 minutes before heading up the street and stairs to pre-show socialize. The stairs are oof with this ankle brace, but I make it up there.   

2:00pm: It’s showtime! It really is so cute and funny. The kids look so excited to be doing it all - singing, dancing, acting, and even moving the sets and props - and the songs sound so beautiful. 

3:15pm: We make sure LM gets her (figurative, not literal) flowers and is all set for cast midshow dinner and the head home to take Bella out. 

3:45pm: I down a protein shake, we feed and take Bella out, check on my bird feeder cam (and see my favorite cardinal, Harold!), and sit in the quiet for a minute.

4:05: Head back out to park for show #2. 

4:25: We are parked and take 5 minutes to just sit in the car before doing this all again. 

4:30pm: We head in to be lobby parents and wait for LM’s dance teacher and her son who are joining us for this performance. 

 5:01pm: They have parking trouble! I get the curtain held and they make it to their seats.

6:30pm : Show #2 done! LM and the cast did so well. After some pictures and chat, we head to the Mexican restaurant across the street. 

6:50pm: We get seated and have a great catch up with our friends. 

8:20pm: The meal ends with churros, flan, fried ice cream, and random dance jumps in the parking lot. 

8:30pm: We get home! LM hits the shower. I take off this ankle brace and have bruises, oof. It must have been too tight? The Mr cleans out our vegetable holder because it smells musty and takes the trash and Bella outside.

8:50pm: We all sit down for an episode of Holiday Baking Championship and head to bed after to do it all over again tomorrow!

Thanks for spending the day with us and Elf! Here’s to slightly calmer weekends as this year finishes up!