BIEBER!!

For a few hours last week, I was the greatest mother EVER according to my daughters (Princess M - 7 and Princess K - 4).  This had nothing to do with how wonderful I care for them or how great my cooking is (which it isn't) but in that I took them to the Carly Rae Jepsen / Justin Bieber show.  Five months ago when the tickets went on sale, I had the brilliant idea to take the girls (along with my boyfriend and his daughter - Princess A (9).  the tickets were disgustingly expensive for not fantastic seats, but my girls had never been to a concert and the LOVED Justin Bieber like I love Duran Duran still to this day.  So we went for it, deciding that the surprise angle was the best route to take.



After purchasing the tickets, I started to have second through about taking my youngest (who was just 3 at the time).  Was I insane?  Princess K struggles with loud noises and processing things when she is overstimulated.  What was I thinking, taking her to a concert??  Out of the three girls, she was the biggest Bieber fan of all.  I just didn't feel right about leaving her behind.  So I resigned myself to the idea that I would have an hyper, over-tired, and basically strung out 4 year old wandering the halls outside of the show with me or sitting in my lap in tears and we would make the best of it.




As the show date got closer, my sweetie and I decided that we needed to get our girls shirts ahead of time.  Three girls x $35 for concert shirts = broke parents.  We scored adorable shirts in the right sizes from a clearance rack at a local mall store for a total of $20, and added purple glow stick necklaces and we were ready to go.  On the night of the show, we told the girls that we were headed out for a surprise.  Dressed in shorts, regular t-shirts and tanks on underneath (for quick change in the car) we headed off the the Rosemont Horizon (ok it's the Allstate whatever now, but I'm old school).  The girls were perplexed as to where we were headed on a school night when it was dark outside, happily sat in the back seat of the car singing away (to what else - Bieber!)

Princess K & Princess M
(with Princess A, who's camera shy)

We parked across the street from the arena in the car wash parking lot (highly recommended - cheap and easy out) and the girls still had no idea why were we there.  It wasn't until we got them out of the car, opened the back and handed them their t-shirts did they put all of the puzzle pieces together.  I wish I could tell you that I took video of the screaming and crying that happened once they figured it out but I didn't.  I just enjoyed the hugs, kisses, and surprised looks on their faces.  It was fantastic!  We did manage to grab a few pictures before heading inside.

The best picture I got - which is still pretty horrible

We managed to find our seats (again, not fantastic for what we paid) and we caught the last three songs from Carly Rae Jepsen (two of which are the big hits - "Good Time" and "Call Me Maybe") and then had 40 minutes to kill before Mr. Bieber graced us with his presence.  The girls held on pretty well - two bathroom breaks plus food, drinks, and souvenir swag with Justin's name on it ($30 for 3 total).  Finally, JB started his set and the screaming was DEAFENING!  Thank you to whomever invented the play-doh like ear covers that cover your whole ear socket because they worked GREAT for little ears.  Justin danced, sang, had lasers and all sorts of stuff that the girls thought was very cool!

We sang . . . we danced . . . we jumped up and down and were silly.  Yes, I participated and I will proudly admit that I knew about 75% of the songs performed and sang right along with my girls.  He did all of our favorites - "Somebody To Love", "Never Say Never" and the new one "Boyfriend", which made us very happy.  Everyone was still in good spirits by the time "Baby" was the closing song.  Still excited, they bounced out of the arena and through the parking lot to the car, despite being hours past their bedtimes.  I heard a lot of "Thank you" and "I love you, Mommy" that night - which they freely say anyway.   But to see the extra sparkle in their eyes and experience the excitement of their first concert with them was completely amazing.  I am really blessed to be their mother!