A Busy "Beauty And The Beast" Birthday For Celeste

Coming as it does just before Christmas, Celeste's birthday celebrations are often rushed, stressful affairs that are hard not to overlook. It takes careful planning to make sure her birthday doesn't get overshadowed by other holiday preparations. This is especially going to be a problem in 2015, when she turns eight years old and will be preparing for her baptism. This year's birthday was a slightly more subdued celebration, with one major exception...

...we took the family to see a Broadway show in Tucson! Now that I'm writing it down, that doesn't sound "subdued" at all, but we saw this outing as both a birthday present for Celeste, and an early Christmas present for the rest of us.

Way back in May of this year, I'd heard that Disney's Beauty And The Beast would be coming to Tucson for a one-weekend engagement in December. I had seen Beauty And The Beast on Broadway many years ago, when I took a whirlwind weekend trip to New York City as a college student. The movie is one of my favorite Disney animated films, and I really enjoyed the musical as well. It adds depth to several of the characters (particularly the Beast, who really needed some depth!), and it contains a handful of new songs, some of which are really charming.

As soon as I heard the show was coming to Tucson, I started dreaming about taking Celeste to seeing it. The showtimes were actually on her birthday, after all! Then we found out our charter school, Great Expectations Academy, would be performing Beauty And The Beast as their school play in the 2014-15 school year. Then Lorelai got a part in that play, and her interest in the show increased as well. So we went back and forth for a while on who would go to the show, and how many tickets we would buy, etc. At first, it was going to be just Celeste and me...then just Celeste and Nathan...then Lorelai, Celeste, and Nathan.

In the fall, the play directors at GEA (Diana and Cindy) announced we would be going to the professional show as a school group. The tickets would thus be available at a reduced group rate. That decided it; Nathan and I would take our two older girls to the show! We debated for a while whether we should take Aurora or not, but ultimately decided against it. My beautiful youngest daughter is still so active and energetic that sitting still for that long would have been too hard for her, and she would have made our viewing experience miserable (not to mention the viewing experience of those sitting near us). Happily, Aurora was invited to a play date and a birthday party that day, so she ended up having a lot of fun without us.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves a little bit; first, it was time to get the birthday girl her other presents...

 

Our family tradition is that the first presents under our Christmas tree every year are Celeste's birthday presents. For one day only, the tree becomes a "birthday" tree. So on Saturday morning, the 13th, this is what Celeste woke up to see:

The bike was a gift we had been promising to Celeste for a long time. Now that she can ride without training wheels, she has been overdue for a larger, "big kids'" bike; she has just about outgrown the kid's bike that she's had for the last year and a half. I kept searching for a good bike at the local White Elephant (second-hand) store, and also at local yard sales. I finally hit pay-dirt last month, after a few false starts, and now my two oldest girls both have bikes that will hopefully last them for many years to come!

Buddy the Elf, anyone?

As usual, our beautiful gal was all aglow over the presents. She also got a new dress (for our girly girl, this has also become a tradition), a wallet (now she can carry around her own money and her library card!), and some art kits and books. She was pretty pleased with it all.

The crown she is wearing was bestowed upon her at school the previous day; she was the "birthday princess" for the day! She demonstrated her regal benevolence by sharing mini-brownies with her class.

Not long after opening the birthday presents, though, it was time to "suit up" and head to the play!

As luck would have it, Celeste's birthday was a cold, rainy Saturday. Even with sweaters, and driving in a heated car, we felt the chill! Once we arrived in Tucson, I also had difficulties navigating through the flooded streets and potholes surrounding the University of Arizona (which is where the play was showing). Long story short, I miscalculated my time (again...sigh), and we missed the opening number of the show! Boo! And the opening song is "Belle," the song in which Lorelai has a solo line for the school's production. I felt terrible and the girls were near tears. If (when?) we ever take the girls to a play again, I will have to plan my time better.

Luckily, as soon as that number ended, we were allowed inside. After some difficulty finding our seats (apparently, the theater double-booked some chairs?? Way to go, University of Arizona!), we were able to settle in and enjoy the rest of the show. As expected, the girls enjoyed it quite a lot! "Be Our Guest," in particular, had them in awe...at the end of the song, the stage exploded in glitter and streamers, many of which shot out into the audience. Nathan's favorite number was "Gaston." It included a precisely choreographed sequence involving actors dancing with beer mugs in each hand, clanking them against both their own and other dancers' mugs. It created a kinetic and exciting "tap dance" of sorts.

Towards the end, our newest seven year old was obviously getting a case of the wiggles; she bounced up and down in her chair more often, and kept leaning over and whispering to me and to Nathan, asking us questions. I had wondered if her attention span (not to mention her tiny Barrett bladder!) would be able to withstand a two-and-a-half-hour play. It seems that sitting through a theatrical production pushed her attention span to its limit, but thankfully didn't cross the line. In the end, Celeste made it through the whole play with no major issues, and she and Lorelai both enjoyed it quite a bit.

We hope to take our girls to other theatrical productions in the future. Nathan and I were blessed to grow up in the Denver metropolitan area, which has a large and well-regarded performing arts center. We saw many plays in our childhood and teenage years, and even if Tucson doesn't have as large or thriving a theater program as Denver, we still hope to share several plays with them as they grow up.

After the play, our family separated...Celeste and Daddy went out to dinner for her birthday date. They went to Rocco's Little Chicago Pizza, which they both enjoyed. They ordered a Chicago-style deep-dish pizza topped with pepperoni and bacon. After dinner, they went to a nearby BevMo, where they selected several boutique sodas, which we would all taste-test the following night when Grandma came over to visit.

Lorelai and myself did a little Christmas shopping, followed by a quick dinner at In N Out, and then we headed back to Sahuarita, where we picked up Aurora and headed home.

The next night (Sunday the 14th), Grandma Barrett came over to celebrate Celeste's birthday. We ate cake and ice cream, blew out candles, and taste-tested a bunch of fancy sodas. Grandma even brought some shot glasses to enhance the taste-testing experience! The "winner," surprisingly, was the strawberries & cream flavor; it ended up being a lot more flavorful than we expected, and not sickly sweet. The black lemonade and Christmas mint flavors were well-liked, too. The pumpkin pie soda was universally derided; yuck.

Celeste is getting bigger, smarter, and more beautiful by the day. She is definitely more "light-hearted" than her more sober older sister, but I can still see her maturing each day into a thoughtful, faithful, prayerful young lady. I am so grateful for her sweetness and enthusiasm; it makes each day more positive. I love you Celeste and I can't wait to see what your eighth year brings!