While Scott and a gaggle of kids were at soccer practice and I was at ballet with my own gaggle, two lucky little girls (OK, medium-sized girls) were seeing The Lion King! We got two tickets and decided that it would be more fun for the girls to see it than for Scott and me to hog the tickets. Just to give us an outside chance of going, though, we challenged both Golda and Ruby to practice one hundred hours in order to earn their Lion King ticket. I think this was back in May or June. They both reached their goal, Ruby logging her final hour the morning of the show. I was really proud of them, not just at the completion of the goal, but every time I heard them begin their practicing without being asked, and every time I walked past Ruby's white board and saw her practicing total written there. We truly do live in an age of instant gratification. I can hardly stand to leave a phone message because texting is so much faster. I feel like I have to fabricate these goals to teach my kids that hard work comes before the reward. Now Ari is trying to pass off her beastly etude to earn this ceramic cat that I found next to the charity drop in the store parking lot. (Scott says I could have been prosecuted for stealing. Oops.) Hey, some rewards are bigger than others. Lion King vs. ceramic cat...but 100 hours vs. one etude. So it's fair. Right?
I have to say, I enjoyed waiting for the girls to get home and report on how much they loved their hard-earned reward just as much as I would have enjoyed the actual show. When they burst through the door, I knew it had been an amazing night. Thank-you to Ryan and Jennie for driving them, because waiting for them in the parking garage would have definitely taken away some of my enthusiasm! And thank-you to Grandma and Grandpa who graciously traded seats with the girls at intermission, thus spending the second act on the second-to-last row. That was so nice, and so appreciated by the girls. When Golda was a baby, we would dress her up in her denim dress and purple beret and take her out. Scott would hold her up above his head for everyone to admire, so we called her Simba. Now she's experiencing the world in her own way and has aspirations for Broadway. Circle of Life, indeed.
4 comments:
I am so jealous! I wanted to go. I am so glad they got to. What an awesome experience. I think it is so special that they wrote about it in their journal!
We loved having them with us. We joked all the way home about how much fun it was going to be for X and Iz to be "all grown up" like the girls. The older girls will want them to babysit and Iz will say, "No way, X is picking me up to go to the mall." It is all going by too fast. Pretty soon, the above scenario really will happen. Thanks for letting them come. It was fantastic!
SO glad they got to see Lion King and I love your reward system for practicing 100 hours. IT is good to have long-term goals in this world of instant gratification. (I saw Lion King in NY in 2005 and loved it! Hope they did as well)
Jason and I hogged the tickets we bought from Jennie, and loved it! Lily was also able to go with some friends from our ward (Todd & Sharla), and it was so fun to hear her going on and on about this scene and that scene.
I love that Golda has Broadway ambitions, and have no doubt we will see her there someday. :)
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