975 Days/14w1d

Tuesday afternoon we went to a special showing of Sesame Street Live on base! The girls aren't really huge into Sesame Street, but the tickets were free and it was an opportunity to get out of the house. The show started at 4:30pm and we arrived at 3:30pm because I was hoping to get front row seats. Unfortunately, everybody else had the same idea and we weren't the first to arrive. We still got great seats, but I was kind of bummed that the girls weren't in the front row to interact with the characters when they came down off of the stage.

Before the show. They played a message from Michelle Obama on the television thanking all service members and their families for the sacrifices that they make for the country.

They handed out USO flags which all of the kids turned into capes and bandanas and hats to keep themselves entertained.





Elmo doing the Elmo Slide!



 A character named Rosita (who I had to look up because I only know the names of all of the old school characters), Grover and Elmo!



COOKIE MONSTER!


Cookie, character I don't know, Katie (a military child who is moving away from Sesame Street), Elmo, and Rosita.



After the show she asked me to take a picture of her in front of the car with the toys that they got.

All in all, the show was good! At first I was disappointed to learn that it was only 30 minutes long, but after it ended I was incredibly grateful that it was that short. I thought that a 4:30pm show would still be early enough for the kids to be in good moods, but they were both a little bit out of sorts. I later found out what Ari's deal was (more on that in a minute), but I think Lucy was just downright tired. There are no pictures of her because she was on my lap nursing for probably 20 minutes of the 30 minute show and then she finally got into the music and danced (on my lap) at the very end. Another reason I wish we would have gotten front row, she would have had more fun being able to stand on the ground and dance while still being able to see the characters. 

As for Ari, she told me as we were leaving that she liked the show and liked seeing Elmo and Grover dance. Then she got teary and said that she missed Aubry and Noelani and I realized why she had been so down. The storyline for the show was about a military child named Katie who was getting ready to move to a new base in a new state and having to say goodbye to all of her friends on Sesame Street. Ari has had two classmates as well as a few other friends outside of school move away this year. She's had to say goodbye before, but she was always the one leaving and I can understand how she feels. I didn't really have a hard time saying goodbye to our friends in AZ or NC when we moved (even though I do love them all dearly and miss them) when I was the one leaving, but when two friends out here moved away it was a lot harder and there was more of a sense of sadness. I'm not really sure why that is. Maybe when we're the ones leaving, we're so focused on packing, going to a new place, and starting a new adventure that we don't really focus so much on the goodbyes, but when we're the ones being left behind, it's harder to ignore? I'm not sure what makes it so different, but I gave her a big hug and told her that I completely understood how she felt and that I miss my friends too. I promised her that, while I don't know when, we WILL be able to visit Noelani in Hawaii someday and that in the meantime we can send mail and talk on the phone. I also told her that I was very sorry that I wasn't able to get Aubry's new address, but that hopefully we'll cross paths again someday and that I'm sure Aubry won't forget her.

I guess my oldest little girl is finally at an age where we'll be faced with some of the harder aspects of being a military child. I know she'll miss her friends, but I also hope that this will lead to her ending up with friends and connections all over the world who she can keep in contact with forever :)