Another Fresh Beat Concert?? YEP!

The first two concerts were far out of town, so we made mini vacations out of the trips- but this one was local so we didn't need a hotel! We headed down to the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles last weekend to see our THIRD Fresh Beat Band concert! Yep we are official groupies!

We totally lucked out because the VIP tickets were sold out for this one (I didn't purchase them before they went on sale to the public)... so we expected to have to come home right after the concert... but as we walked past the VIP backstage area- sure enough a staff member remembered us and came right over and offered us to upgrade our tickets-- Woop Woop!
They are just finishing up their tour of 170 shows (all this year) for half million people-- don't ask me how they all can remember us??  Lucky!

Funny you would think that after going to 3 concerts and 3 backstage parties each would seem the same-- but surprisingly- NOT at all! At each one there were special STAND OUT memories that are so priceless to me and we are blessed to have photos of those moments and I know the kids will NEVER forget them either!!

The Fresh Beat Band knows how to throw a party! Although each concert is for thousands of people- they really keep the VIP extremely small so that it is personal. They kick off the party by teaching a choreographed dance- which is really fun! For anyone curious, the dance they teach is basically the "Great Day" dance (with just a few moves changed). They make the party lots of fun for the lucky little ones! They have a DJ playing Fresh Beat music- tents and tunnels to crawl through, hula hoops, instruments, and toys all over the place!! The kids get to mingle with the band, and run around and play- what is better than that?? They also have great snacks and refreshments too!

Maletch even joined in a backstage baseball game where they used a huge inflatable microphone as the bat and an inflatable ball. It was fun watching him pitch and bat!

A Cute Story:
Maletch has a HUGE crush on Marina. He asked me if he could give her a kiss. So I told him, "Well you can ask her." Well I was talking to Twist's wife and I told her about this conversation and she just melted. Well as we were getting ready to leave the party, she realized that he had forgot to ask her. She told Marina and as we were leaving Marina came up to Maletch and asked, "Is there something you wanted to ask me?" Maletch, wasn't sure what she meant, so she asked, "Something about a kiss?" OMGOSH- she is so sweet! She knelt down and we got this shot! Needless to say, he is a very happy boy!!

Sariah:
This was the first time that I actually explained to Sariah where we were and who we were with! I think she thought the first two concerts were just some people wearing clothes like ours and dancing to Fresh Beat songs- which she was super into-- BUT this time it clicked! When I pointed to the stage and said that is Twist and Shout (her favorites) her eyes got HUGE and she froze for a second taking it all in- then she was talking and singing and bouncing and screaming a little- hehe! This time at the party instead of being nervous around strangers- she was wanting to bum-rush the band- cuz she KNEW who they were! Pure awesomeness!
Funny there was an area where people could pose with the band for pics and they had a small curtain around the area- just to keep people from accidentally walking in front of the cameras. Well the curtains were VERY low- everyone could just see right over it-- but not Sariah. She wanted to get a look at what they were doing and she found a split between curtain panels and she opened the curtains and stood there looking through- so stinking cute!!

 

Before we left, they kindly (and discreetly) gave us a few autographed cards (again in spite of the VERY strict no-autograph policy at their parties which allow for more time mingling with their VIP guests)- and that just put the cherry on top of the night! We will frame their autographed cards and put them next to their autographed poster! Neat that they have such cool momentos and stories already!

We are already looking forward to the 2013 tour! We will definitely plan another out-of-town one because making vacations out of them- sure made them more exciting and memorable! We didn't have to go straight home to regular life for 5 days- so we had more of a chance to suck it all in!
As we were getting ready to leave, Maletch was asking if we could go see Hearst Castle again- and he also brought up the beach, the hotel. and even his favorite pizza place! I thought it was so cute how much of the vacation he loved and wanted to relive! It is the same for John and I- kind of like butterfly in the belly memories of our last trip- I'm so glad the kids loved it as much as we did!