Off to see the wizard....

So here's a fun little tale of a full-day immersed in Oz with my sweet gal Josie.

 Yesterday we headed to McNicholas High School for their production of the Wizard of Oz.  (The hubs of one of Josie's teachers is a teacher at McNick and, knowing Josie's passion for all-things-Dorothy, she put this event on our radar! Thanks Donna!)  So, as if seeing Wizard of Oz live on the real stage wouldn't be enough to send Josie over the moon with excitement, we also got to have lunch with the cast.  For an extra $5 (yup, just 5 bucks) we had lunch, met the main characters, posed for photos and did crafts.  It made the actual show all the more special. When Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man & Lion came walking down the yellow brick road into the room, Josie really could.not.believe.her.eyes!  See for yourself. Clearly, the pure joy is dripping off of her!

Before we left the house we snapped a couple of photos, but everyone was way too excited to land the perfect shot.

With a little time to kill, we snapped some more photos in the car.

And, then...we arrived!  I didn't tell Josie about the cast brunch until we got there. She was SOOOO excited! Here she is walking down the yellow brick road to the cafeteria.

 It was SO cute. We went past lions & tigers & bears on the way down the hall, then through a field of poppies (of course singing the whole way). The room was decorated like an Emerald City with cute centerpieces like this one.

The cardboard cut-outs were a pretty big hit, but of course she had no idea what was coming up after we ate!

Glinda had left magic wands for everyone and Josie danced along the yellow brick road making wishes for Dorothy to hurry up ;)

It was so cute! They made flying monkey puppets and hearts for the Tin Man and had little coloring pages to keep them busy (not to mention yummy food).

And then she received word that Dorothy was coming soon...

And caught her first glimpse of her...

(And all the photos of her little jumping up & down are a blurry mess so we'll ignore those!)

And then she waited her turn and got to meet The.Real.Dorothy ("mama, the real one, I mean the actual real Dorothy!")

And the Cowardly Lion-

And Scarecrow & Tin Man -

Is her expression here not just adorable!! I mean, how excited is she?! :)

It was such a special day for Josie & I and nice to spend some time together - just the two of us.  Really, it was all perfect...oh - except when everyone around us starting chowing down on Reese Cups & Peanut M&Ms and I had to give Josie benadryl because she was complaining of itchiness and coughing...but really, it was all perfect.  And in case you are wondering, Lou and Bea spent the day together having their own little adventure. Although they set off to the mall to get Lou some new work threads, he came home with only a bag of socks for himself and new clothes for Josie and Bea. (What a dad!)