"Best Birthday Ever"
So age nearly-9 is the perfect age to go to the ballet, as it turns out.
Kate had a wonderful time and declared this the best birthday present ever. Hooray!
Our good fortune started with the bus ride downtown. It was a direct ride, no changing buses or anything. We stopped at Larry's market so I could get a coffee on the short walk to the theater and the streets were crawling with families and little girls dressed to the nines. Kate spent her own $2 on six Lindor white chocolate balls: she's turning into a white chocolate fiend. "I've been yearning for the taste of white chocolate!" she enthused.
The ballet was fantastic and we had excellent seats. Jenny and John were very sweet with Kate, took her down to view the orchestra pit during intermission, brought some old opera glasses for her to try out. After the show, Kate bought herself a pink, frilly ballerina tree ornament as a memento. We'd suggested going to Buca for dinner, which would have been fine with me, but Kate piped up "I'd been hoping we could have sushi," so plans were made to go to Ohana in Belltown instead, where we were joined by Ray and Christine (who came bearing gifts) and we enjoyed various sushi items and Hawaiian-themed mixed drinks. Kate collected fruity paper umbrellas to her heart's content.
A candle-lit, fruit-topped creme brulee was brought out for the princess, who scowled that a perfectly good creme brulee had been ruined with fruit juice (making the crisp-sugar top "best part" soggy) but made a good dent in it anyway before she finished off the last of her chocolates and then complained of a stomach ache as we were leaving. "Could it be the giant Shirley Temple, the chocolates and the creme brulee?" I asked. "I think you're right," she admitted. She IS growing up!
Today Chris returns from GenCon SoCal and we'll decorate the tree. Why am I awake at 5:00am? Hell if I know...
Kate had a wonderful time and declared this the best birthday present ever. Hooray!
Our good fortune started with the bus ride downtown. It was a direct ride, no changing buses or anything. We stopped at Larry's market so I could get a coffee on the short walk to the theater and the streets were crawling with families and little girls dressed to the nines. Kate spent her own $2 on six Lindor white chocolate balls: she's turning into a white chocolate fiend. "I've been yearning for the taste of white chocolate!" she enthused.
The ballet was fantastic and we had excellent seats. Jenny and John were very sweet with Kate, took her down to view the orchestra pit during intermission, brought some old opera glasses for her to try out. After the show, Kate bought herself a pink, frilly ballerina tree ornament as a memento. We'd suggested going to Buca for dinner, which would have been fine with me, but Kate piped up "I'd been hoping we could have sushi," so plans were made to go to Ohana in Belltown instead, where we were joined by Ray and Christine (who came bearing gifts) and we enjoyed various sushi items and Hawaiian-themed mixed drinks. Kate collected fruity paper umbrellas to her heart's content.
A candle-lit, fruit-topped creme brulee was brought out for the princess, who scowled that a perfectly good creme brulee had been ruined with fruit juice (making the crisp-sugar top "best part" soggy) but made a good dent in it anyway before she finished off the last of her chocolates and then complained of a stomach ache as we were leaving. "Could it be the giant Shirley Temple, the chocolates and the creme brulee?" I asked. "I think you're right," she admitted. She IS growing up!
Today Chris returns from GenCon SoCal and we'll decorate the tree. Why am I awake at 5:00am? Hell if I know...
Mary took Miranda to her first ballet earlier in the year, Ballet Trocadero de Monte Carlo, an all-male drag ballet troupe.