Yo Gabba Gabba, The Pre-Party!

MUNO! He's tall and friendly! FOOFA! She's pink and happy!

Figured it out yet? I've mentioned it before - Liv's love of the NickJr. TV show, Yo Gabba Gabba! She knows all the character's names, sings the theme song, recognizes and dances to the others songs. There's not an episode we haven't seen or DVRed. She had a birthday party centering around this theme. Are you picking up what I'm putting down? Have you solved the mystery of where I might possibly be going with this?

The next three posts (this one included) will be a 3-part homage to the Yo Gabba Gabba Live! There's a Party in My City Tour. And, might I add, the expensive, all kids over the age of 1 need a ticket, tour. Olivia, when you are old enough to read this, do know that Mommy and Daddy love you very much and thoroughly enjoyed themselves, and I'm sure you can't even remember that we didn't buy groceries that week...

The Pre-Party, as I'm calling it, occurred a couple of weeks before the tour and involved Muno and Foofa making an appearance at the Please Touch Museum (seriously, get a membership so I can stop talking about how fantastic that place is). Frank and I figured this would be a test run helping us determine if taking her to the show was really a good idea. Let's be honest, not many 16 month olds can sit through a live show.

Mobbed doesn't even explain the main atrium of the PTM. I stood there with Liv and Mom Mom questioning, really questioning, my decision-making abilities. Then, we saw Muno in all his cardboard cut-out glory. Had I a better camera, I may have had more pictures of Olivia and the joy she exuded standing next to him. Unfortunately, most of the shots taken by my low-tech behemoth were blurry because who in their right mind tries to ask a 16 month old to stand still during a dance party with her heroes. Oh, right, me.

Luckily my camera has a video mode. Girl's got mad skills.

And then, they appeared. In my mind, it occurred in slow motion. Although, in actuality, that might not be far from the truth, considering their "handlers" had to push through what felt like thousands (or hundreds) of small children, not-so-small children, and their not-at-all small but equally as excited adults. This was Olivia's face (thank you, Camera Gods, for getting the focus right).

Foofa. She really is pink and happy, folks. Totally true. Believe me, I've seen it.

After the dance party madness, we stood in line for a photo op with the Pink Goddess herself. While in line, I maaaay have prepped Olivia on what to expect. However, she did answer the questions on her own without me feeding her lines. Scouts honor.

Olivia meets her idol. Mommy unsuccessfully hides her excitement at being in the presence of greatness.

It was at that point that Frank and I knew we had to figure out a way to scrape up the money for tickets (sell the cats? the car?). Check back frequently for parts 2 and 3 or Dance Party and Post-Party as I refer to them.