Fresh Beat Band Concert & Marina Costume

We can probably thank Nick Jr. and their massive amounts of commercials about the Fresh Beat Band concert for the fact that we purchased our tickets..no joke...in May for the Dallas concert this past Friday. 

 Kinley loves all things performance and knows every FBB song so we literally counted down to this day for months. 

 We kept saying after Halloween...well, Halloween came and went and then the countdown was in full force. 

 Kinley also knew from day 1 that she wanted to dress as Marina. 

 Most other girls her age picked Kiki...but, she was set on Marina. I pushed off the Marina costume until "after Halloween" also but, Nov 1 Kinley was asking and asking for her costume. I looked for some bluish/turquoise dresses for ever and I just could not find them. I looked online for already made costumes..and there really aren't any. Some on Etsy for like $90....um...no. Then I was set on doing a long t-shirt and belting it and adding some Marina flare but, Kinley did not like the color of any of the t-shirts I picked...so we started from scratch. 

 She went with me and picked out the turquoise and purple fabrics and I just went for it. I have no idea how to make or read or follow a sewing pattern so I just winged it. I looked at some of Kinley's dresses and used her Minnie Mouse costume I made as a guide also and just tried to piece it together. About half way through I realized I didn't buy a zipper...but, luckily Marina's costume is a V-neck..ours is a little bigger than hers but, it works and we can get it on her in one piece! Do not look at it up close but, from a far it turned out ok. It may fray to nothing after our one night at the concert but, it was so worth it for that one night. She loved it.

Before I had even made the belt she wanted to bust it out for her own concert at home.

   

Got the belt done...

   

We bought our tickets separately but, the entire Bartel and Jacobs families were going to the concert too so we pre-partied with Pizza and Smoothies (just like on Fresh Beat Band) at the Bartels before leaving for the concert. 

 Leslie had all kinds of goodies set up for the kids with Fresh Beat Band print outs to color and personalized microphones for each person with their character printed out. Everyone showed up in costume and took some pics and Ty came for the pre-party too.  

Then, wearing my best KiKi colors, Kinley and I left for the show! 

 Girls night!

   

She was SO, SO excited... 

 

 but, I think the anticipation wore her out because 5 minutes later jamming to our FBB playlist I looked back and saw this. 

 

 Luckily she can rally like a champ and we were ready to party as soon as we arrived.

   

We quickly realized that the concert was not going to be sold out and there were more available seats than we expected. We ended up getting to sit with friends after all and super, super close to the stage!

   

Countdown from 10! 

 

We even jumped up after intermission and watched the rest of the concert standing right at the stage. 

 Kinley was a little apprehensive about being tight in the crowd but, was mesmerized seeing the FBB up close! Marina even reached out and touched her twice and pointed to her matching outfit and said she loved it! 

 Made.Kinley's.Night. 

 

Marina! (in outfit #2)

 

Ya'll this was seriously one of the most fun concerts.  I had just as much fun as Kinley.  We have been singing the songs for months so we knew every single one.  We will definitely go again if they come to Dallas again another year.  Maybe that time I will be up for making a Rockstar jacket :)

The Wizard of Oz singing

Ever since McDonalds celebrated the 75th Anniversary of the Wizard of Oz with some fabulous happy meal toys of each character, Kinley has been loving the Wizard of Oz!

We have watched it multiple times. 

 Watched you tube videos of the songs over and over. 

 Mom and Kinley play a game where they take turns saying a line from the movie and the other guesses which character said it. Like Kinley will say "I'll get you my pretty and your little dog too" and mom will guess the witch. It's hilarious to listen to. 

 Well a couple of weekends ago we spent a very entertaining Friday night at Alex & Mendy's. They cooked us dinner and played games with the kids. We stayed way late and kept them up past their bedtime because they were just having so much fun entertaining us. Kinley used Mendy's fireplace as her stage for her very own one-man-show of the Wizard of Oz. 

 It was too good not to video...so, for your viewing pleasure is a video below. 

 A few things to notice / listen for during the video: (and before we move on...yes, Mendy did hand-draw that pumpkin chalkboard over the fireplace...what the what?!...SO talented!!) 

- See how many McDonald's Wizard of Oz toys you can spot scattered around.

 - You will notice a costume change about half way through where Mendy gave Kinley a dress to borrow for dress up. We can't go long without a costume change. 

- I love how Ty would occasionally try to bust out a song or dance or just yell to be seen. - Uncle Alex's commentary is hilarious....so subtle and so funny....and wait till he joins the show as a munchkin :) 

- I tried to cut it down to just the songs but Kinley's thought process between songs is too cute not to capture. 

 Oh these moments. We all loved every second if the whole night and did.not.stop.laughing. 

 Fair warning...it's kind of a long video... if you stick through the whole thing...you are a trooper :)  

And some still pics for the memories.

Family fun

We are so so thankful to have most of our extended family living close. Here just a few fun things the kids have been doing over the past few weeks with family. Kinley and Ty have been doing SO many fun things with honey lately. In October she took them through a fantastic day of going to her church pumpkin patch, the park and chickfila. All these pics are from mom's phone that she sends me during the day.

   

perfect pic of kinley's "story-telling" attitude... 

 

teamwork!

   

 Then another week she took them to a wonderful luncheon honoring Momma Gay! It was a surprise lunch in her honor put on by the sweet ladies of her country club that she and Pepa just recently ended their decades old membership with. The ladies golf club just loves her because she was their treasurer for like 25 years or something. Mom took the kids and they had so much fun celebrating Momma Gay! 

 

They just love every minute with Honey...and who wouldn't!? She is so much fun. 

 

Uncle Bart and Aunt Olivia came in town for one of their high school reunions and they had fun playing pool with uncle Bart. This was a rare moment we bribed kinley away from Olivia. She just sticks to her like glue when she is around :)

   

 Ty and I had a fun mommy-son date at grapevine mills while kinley was in school one day. This kid loves a carousel ride!

   

 And these two are the best milkshake dates!

   

This selfie session just gets me. love! 

 

Family time is just my absolute favorite. 

 I love with the holidays coming up we are going to get to spend lots of time with our family and see more of our extended family. Hooray!