we had a great day. cool beans!

lilcee and i had been talking about taking the girls to see the fresh beat band together for months, but hadn't actually pulled the trigger on tickets.  of course, the two shows in l.a. were long sold out (go figure), but i've always had great luck finding tickets on ebay for things like this.  and usually i end up paying less than i would've had i gone the ticketbastard route, so it's a total win.

happily, ebay didn't let me down.  i managed to find a set of four tickets in the orchestra section that weren't too tremendously far away, and after conferring with lilcee, we secured our seats for the show.  i'm not sure why the seller felt the need to black out prices, but whatever.  they worked, and he included parking too, so it was all good.

i didn't tell the bean about it until just a few days before, and the first thing she said was "do i get to wear my kiki costume again?" followed closely by "can i take a picture with marina this time?"  d-oh.

so i went to the FBB website to see if tickets were available again for the afterparty and meet-and-greet.  i found nothing, so i called the number and was told that they weren't available at that time, but to keep checking.  and then i did a bit more google sleuthing and ended up finding the upgrades - to the tune of $90 apiece.  ack!  i knew the hub would shit a brick (especially since she's already met them twice), and i was pretty sure lilcee wasn't all about shelling the cash out either.  so i just told the bean that a lot of other kids were going to get the chance to meet the band this time, and just played up the idea of going with mini cee, her BFF.  because my kid is pretty pragmatic, she brushed it off and asked for a cookie.  yup.

a pre-concert snack - a peppermint brownie cake pop from starbucks.  is this my kid, or what?

happily, she hasn't grown out of the costume since february's show.

and i die a little every time i look at this.  kiki twins!  i'm not gonna lie, when i saw them together i was ready to fork out the cash for them to take a picture with the "real" kiki.

our view was pretty good.  the girls certainly appreciated it.

kiddie shows pretty much kick ass because 1. there's no opening act, 2. the shows don't last too long, and 3. they start on time because kids kind of demand it.  so right at 5:00 the band hit the stage to a scaled-down version of teenybopper cheering.

during one of the songs, "shout" jumped off the stage and ran up the aisle right towards us.  of course, he was instantly swarmed by parents and kids alike and we stayed right where we were.

intermission!

mini cee wasn't really having all of the noise and screaming and such.  she spent a few minutes curled up in her chair under a jacket, but she emerged and managed to have a good time anyway.  i die at the bean in the background, rocking out with all she had.

when the last song had been played and all four band members had waved their goodbyes, we made our way out of the arena and joined the fast-growing line for souvenirs.

i'm such a sucker.  she got a shirt, two bracelets, a fun cup with a twirly crazy straw, and this:

behind us was a giant christmas tree, plonked right down in the middle of the ice skating rink.  the girls loved watching the skaters.

for dinner, lilcee had made a reservation at the farm.  very kid friendly and consistently good.  while we waited to be seated, the girls made friends with fellow FBB fans.

silly girls.

and it turns out that our show was the very last one on this tour for the fresh beat band.  i can't even imagine - with only a couple of months off (during which they taped episodes of their tv show), they pretty much spent all of 2012 on a tour bus, performing at venues all across the country.  i found this, tweeted by tara perry, who plays "marina":

thanks for a great tour, indeed.

hip hop and pop

there are no words to describe the fun that the bean and i had when we saw the fresh beat band in concert last weekend.  seriously, we had such a blast and i hope she actually remembers it as she gets older.

but that's what this blog is for, right?  although i'm sure i'll be in some major trouble when she gets a gander at some of the pictures i've shared here.  heh.  oh, well.  that's okay.

anyway, i'd put off telling her about going to the concert until just a few days before - mostly so i wouldn't have to field "is it time to go see the fresh beat band YET?" queries every five minutes or so.  even though i was working on her kiki costume in bits and pieces over the last few weeks, she didn't really pick up on it.  but it dawned on her as she was twirling in joy over the news - "mommy!  i can wear my kick-ee (which is how she pronounces "kiki") costume. AND MY ROCK STAR JACKET TOO!"  hilarious.

a pre-show photo.  yes, she dug out that microphone and said she had to bring it along.  and i sure wasn't gonna argue with her.  she wasn't thrilled with that headband, though.  "it doesn't have holes in it like the one that kick-ee wears, mom.  it's not the same!"  oy vey.  she IS my kid. 

since club nokia is right by staples center, we got stuck in that inevitable downtown l.a. traffic.  ugh.  "mommy, the fresh beat band is far far away from our house!"  indeed.  but we finally arrived, found a parking spot in the garage right underneath the venue, and found the table to check in for the afterparty right at the top of the stairs.

yup, i said afterparty.  i'd stumbled upon the opportunity to upgrade our tickets to include a dance party after the show, healthy snacks, and a meet & greet with the fresh beats themselves.  and i couldn't pass it up - after all, she had to show kick-ee her awesome ensemble, right?  so i coughed up the last of my fun money i had stashed away (i'd planned on buying some cute shoes and maybe a couple of new pieces for my spring wardrobe, but this was more important) and did a twirl of my own in anticipation of the bean's reaction to it all.  yeah, she's met them once before - but now, two years later, she's actually a huge fan and knows all of the songs and stuff.  most excellent.

even though we'd left the house later than i'd wanted to, we still managed to get to our seats in plenty of time.  and happily, we were right in the center and had a pretty good view.  the venue is rather small anyway, so it seemed that any seat was a good one.

along with those lanyards, we'd been given posters of the band, wristbands for entry into the afterparty, and a note in the monkey's favorite font with more information on what to expect.

about ten minutes after we'd sat down, the lights went down and it was showtime.

the bean was so fun to watch.  she sang with gusto into that microphone, took off the rock star jacket when she worked up a sweat, and rushed to put it back on when it was time for that particular song.

i'm not gonna lie - i was having a great time too.  we'd bought the CD of their music the moment it came out and it'd been on continuous loop in the car for the last couple of weeks.

my friend kelley and i had bought our tickets together to take the kids, but she ended up being called away for business.  happily, her husband g was able to juggle his plans around and bring li'l d.

all too soon, it was over.

as we made our way out of the arena, we ran into someone familiar - patrick levis, the actor who plays "reed" on "the fresh beat band."  i never really paid attention before, but he's super cute in person.  he was really nice to the bean and chatted with us for a few minutes before we headed into the party.

the healthy snacks were in buckets on the bar - oat bran pretzels, apple chips, and water.

there were fun activities for the kids to keep them happy as they waited for their turn to meet the band.

we managed to get into the second group of folks for the meet & greet.

a couple of the backup dancers bounced out and showed the kids some of the choreography for one of the band's songs.  it was fun watching the bean follow along (and she did a pretty darn good job, too).

our turn to get in line for our photo op with the band came pretty quickly.  and as we waited, i took note of the rules:

the bean walked up shyly towards them and tara perry, who plays "marina," gave her a big grin and playfully told her "oh my goodness, i thought kiki was sitting over here!  you look just like her!" my girl beamed at her and gave her a big ol' hug, high-fived thomas hobson, who plays "shout," and then stood right in front of "kiki" herself, yvette gonzales-nacer.

aaaaand here's the money shot:

by the way - those rules?  so not enforced.  because i managed to snag this:

oh, that twist (otherwise known as jon beavers.  yeah, yeah, i know).  such a cutie.  and i'm totally not a creep, because i later found out that he's 30.

well, yeah.  there's the fact that i googled him when i got home to get that information.  huh.