May 2011

For years, when we would give Lily several cartoons to choose from on TV, she would always pick Spongebob if it was on. But one day when she was 5, she picked the teen show iCarly over Spongebob, and this became her new favorite show.

This month, the teenage cast of iCarly, plus the teenage cast of Victorious (another Nickelodeon show), came to Memphis to raise money for St. Jude. Luckily for us, Michelle's friend Melissa Weisman told us about it early enough that we could buy VIP tickets. We went to the Peabody Hotel to meet the actors, get their autographs and take lots of pictures.


We went to the top floor of the Peabody Hotel to the Skyway Ballroom. The lobby was filled with clear balloons and we waited for them to open the doors. The event organizers gave Lily a T-shirt with the actor's names on it to collect autographs.


The Skyway Ballroom was a cool-looking circular room with a dance floor in the middle.


The first iCarly actor we saw was Gibby (Noah Munck). He signed Lily's shirt and let us take a picture of him with Lily.


Next we saw Freddie (Nathan Kress) and got his autograph and a photo. For his autograph, I bought a poster of the iCarly cast (except it didn't have Gibby on it) and had FedEx Kinko's attach it to a foam board to make it easier for the actors to sign.


This is a movie of Freddie signing Lily's poster.


Then we saw Spencer (Jerry Trainor), who's a double star in our house because he's also the main character Dudley Puppy in the animated show T.U.F.F. Puppy that Lily likes. The girl on the left in the first picture is a cancer survivor from St. Jude that wanted to meet Spencer too.


Here's Spencer signing Lily's poster.


I asked Jerry to say something in Dudley Puppy's voice, and he said, "Hey everybody, this is Dudley Puppy! I'm chewing my butt!" (It makes more sense if you watch the show!)


Sam (Jennette McCurdy) is one of our favorite characters on iCarly. She's a tomboy, gets detention a lot and beats people up regularly. Although that doesn't make her sound like a great role model, she's very funny on the show! She has also raised a lot of money for St. Jude (before this fundraiser) by donating some of the money from her country music songs "Generation Love" and "Homeless Heart" to the hospital. When Lily had a chance to talk to her, Jennette was trying to get Lily to dance, but she wouldn't do it.


Here's Sam signing Lily's poster.


The main star of iCarly is Carly Shay (Miranda Cosgrove), and she was mobbed by people the whole evening, so it was hard for Lily to have any time with her. Miranda signed Lily's poster, but we didn't get a photo of her with Lily -- unless you count that unintentional last picture above!


The day of the party (Saturday, May 14th) also happened to be Miranda Cosgrove's 18th birthday. The event organizers made a nice cake for her, and they had all the kids sing happy birthday. Still, Michelle and I were sure this was not how she would have wanted to spend her 18th birthday!


There were hors d'oevres at the party, include spaghetti tacos, a delicacy eaten by the characters on the show. Michelle ate one and liked it.


Here's our poster after we got all the autographs from the iCarly cast.


Tori Vega (Victoria Justice) is the main character in the other show at this event, Victorious. She signed Lily's shirt. She let us take a picture of her with Lily, but unfortunately it came out blurry. In the second picture, the DJ started playing Avril Lavigne's "Sk8ter Boy", and she said "I love this song!", and started singing along to it while she was signing autographs.


Tori's love interest on the show is Beck (Avan Jogia), and Lily got his autograph too (and another blurry picture).


Cat Valentine (Ariana Grande) is a cute but dumb character on Victorious.


Here's Cat signing Lily's shirt (using the iCarly poster as a table).


Trina (Daniella Monet) is Tori's sister on the show.


Jade (Liz Gillies) is the bad girl on Victorious. Lily was looking the wrong way the first time I took the picture!


A recurring segment on the iCarly web show is called Random Dancing, where the show is interrupted by music suddenly and Carly and Sam just start dancing. So of course at this party they had some random dancing, and Lily and I participated.


Here's a movie of Lily's Random Dancing.


Jennette McCurdy started a dancing conga line, and lots of young girls (including Lily) got in line behind her.


There was a live auction selling tours of the iCarly and Victorious sets and walk-on parts, but that was well outside our budget (the bidding started at $10,000!). But there was a silent auction with items like this Spoon Hat that Spencer made in one episode. We bid on it a few times, but gave up when the cost went too high.


However, we did have the winning bid for a personalized video from the iCarly cast! I'm going to have them wish Lily a happy 7th birthday and play it for her in 9 months when she turns 7.


We also successfully bid for the "Basket of Cool Stuff", including (among other goodies shown in the first picture) a script signed by the cast, a signed poster (this one includes Gibby), and a Random Dancing Penny t-shirt (modeled by Lily in the last photo).