Greg and I took two of our nieces to see the musical Wicked on the weekend. All four of us have birthdays across May and June so it was kind of a birthday extravaganza that ended in a slumber party at our house (with an additional niece coming for the sleep-over). It was great!

I’ve seen Wicked  before, with my sister-in-law in London many years ago, but the others had not seen it. Niece-the-younger observed that parts of it were very loud (it was), but that the costumes and dancing were cool. We talked about how it was a backstory for the Wizard of Oz (which they had both seen). We talk about difference and how to deal with it. Niece-the-elder was very thoughtful in her responses. We observed people. We saw bridal photos being posed for in the street. We caught the train.

We made pizzas, we danced and sang songs (including Defying Gravity and Popular from Wicked). We negotiated over who got to sleep where (not that much sleep was really had). We had pancakes for breakfast. They were loud! Especially niece-the-youngest, in a really joyous way. We were all in need of nana-naps by Sunday afternoon…