Kansas City Gig, No GPS and the bridges of Madison County.

Got into Kansas City close to 9:30pm because we made an unexpected detour to the beautiful bridges of Madison County on our way. I loved that book and the movie. I even got to play my guitar on the bridge. YAY! How it happened, that we got to see the bridges is we missed a travel/rest area stop and had to drive for miles and miles more til there was a little town. All farms and crops in this part of the country. We asked someone where we could find a restaurant and they said there was one 30 to 45 minutes away. I never thought we'd be relieved to see a McDonalds. LOL. On top of that, this McDonalds took an extra 30 minutes to make.....my salad. Really? Salad? They acting like they've never gotten that order before. Atleast I knew it was fresh. LOL

Sunday we hung out with Neel's cousin in Shawnee, KS and played with the kids at "Power Play Zone" near by before my gig. I left them there and on my own attempted to GPS the address of the Country Club where I was doing a kids show. Well, I am not kidding. I sat next to the 435 South and 435 North entrance ramp signs for 10 minutes waiting for the GPS signal to appear and it never did. So, I called the club and Neel and found my way there. I guess I need to rely on the old fashion way of doing things around here. So much for independent, fly by the seat of your pants!

The gig went fine and everyone had fun. It was a small and very attentative group of kids. Afterwards we had an ice-cream social and I sold some CDs while meeting the parents. That was weird, meeting the parents afterwards. Not that I don't talk with the parents....but usually they are with their kids, participating, taking pictures or whatever. Not this crowd. They just sent their kids to the ballroom dance floor, on their own, and watched the whole time. It was different, but worked out just fine. The kids probably listened even a little better, that their parents weren't directing them. hahahhaa.

Last night we met some of Neel's friends in Kansas City at the Plaza and had Jack's famous BBQ and brisket. We then walked around admiring the Spanish style architecture and took pictures near the beautiful fountains. There are lots of fountains every where. Kansas city has a lot to offer and is quite beautiful and peaceful at the same time. There's a skyline of buildings downtown and rolling hills close by.

Today we went to Deanna Rose Farmstead with the kids. FUN outside farm with poney rides, goats to feed, tents, bison and lots more.

Tonight we are being treated to a home cooked steak dinner and leave for Oklahoma tomorrow morning, or if we feel adventurous tonight. We'll see...

Two shows in Oklahoma and the last one is the Biggest, in a theatre that seats 488 people. Whoohoo! Can't wait!

Iowa gig, tornado warning and corn crops!

We arrived in North Liberty, Iowa last night at dinner time. All I could see for miles, on the ride in, were corn crops and hills. Also, I've been noticing the gigantic wind mills. How resourceful to use the wind mills for energy...and they are quite beautiful and peaceful to watch. The entire country should have more of them!

Went to bed pretty soon after a yummy taco dinner.

You forget that people are actually supposed to be working, during the week. It's only Wednesday, "Hump Day" as most employees call it. So, our friends were working most of the day while we lounged around their house.

All of a sudden a noise started to sound and lasted a long while. It was the tornado warning! Yikes! I've never been in a tornado, but would LOVE to see one. LOL The television said the warning was until 4:45pm. I was planning on going to set up for my gig at 5pm. Would it be cancelled?

Around 5pm the warning was diminished and the weather was actually nice and sunny. Neel helped me go to the North Liberty Library and set up the sound equipment. There was no one there 20 minutes before the show. I could tell the librarian was a little nervous. But just as all good parents do, everyone showed up at 6pm - show time! It was packed, in between book shelves and computer monitors. hahahaha! Lots of dancing and singing! At first everyone was a litle hesitant. They probably thought I was crazy! But by the end, the little ones didn't even pay attention to my strip of tape that sectioned off "My area". I had to say "Mom and Dad come get your little ones off my speakers and back them up before I bonk them in the head with my guitar". I'm kidding of course, but come on people! LOL ;)

My little girl, Emma was in the front row with our friend's daughter and her other 6 year old friends having a great time, participating, raising their hands and loving the show. On the other hand, our 4 year old boy, Sage is OVER the whole Mommy's show experience. He was sitting on the floor, in front of course, and just refusing to do anything, to make space for others to dance around him and all he wanted to do is suck his thumb. LOL So, I signaled for Neel to come get him and he was fine hanging with Daddy. He says he likes to "Roar like a lion and sing ABCs, but doesn't want to dance". I'm sure by now he's bored with the same ole songs...hhahahhahaha poor little guy. I can only understand. I guess I'll make more of an effort to give him the option to stay home. LOL He's a trooper.

The librarian asked me to do another show there whenever I'm back. Another audience person asked me if I lived in Iowa and was going to be doing music shows all summer long on Wednesdays. Too funny! Always nice to hear. ;)

Neel got some good pictures. I'll try to figure out how to post pictures on this blog.

Next gig is at the Iowa City Children's museum this Satuday at 2pm. It's my first show that is in the stadium/theatre seating style. I will have to edit my show and remove the square dance song. Other than that, I think children will be able to move around just fine in their seats. We'll see any way. Hahhahaaa. This one is special too because Neel will be playing drums with me. YAY! A real live sound.

Play day with the kids tomorrow. Water park, playground and fun. Then tomorrow night we are planning to go out with just the adults. What does that mean any way? It's been too long.
Til then....

2nd Illinois Gig for Private school.

The weekend in Chicago with my sister and both families was great! Everyone got along and laughed a lot! We went to all the touristy/famous places such as Giardano's pizza, House of Blues, Buckingham fountain, Willis a.k.a Sears tower, Millineum park, the Shedd aquarium and more. Good times!
Yesterday we said good bye and went our seperate ways. Hard to say good bye to family, but we now have a new outlet that will bring us together again. Soon I hope! :)

We had dinner with friends that Neel's known for over 20 years. Nice to have a yummy home cooked meal! It was the first time we met their daughter too. Good to see the kids playing together.

Later we drove on to Schaumburg, IL. Home to one of the world's largest malls. Ayi Dios Mio!

When we arrived at the hotel it was close to 10pm and it was just about to rain. Lightening and all. Yikes! As we started to roll our suitcases to the lobby the rain started. Sage was beyond tired and only wanted to be carried. Of course we couldn't because we all had suitcases in our hands and were trying to avoid getting soaked. He started crying more and more and...loudly. He worked himself up! We all made it into the lobby safely and Sage continued to cry. All of a sudden he started to motion as if he was going to throw up and before we could rush him into our room, three doors away, he...yes threw up in front of everyone, in the lobby. I rushed him to our room and he was fine. I didn't look back. Just thankful that Neel has so much patience. Ugh. LOL. Sage fell asleep asap. He was just exhausted. They don't call it the "witching hour" for nothing.
I woke up early this morning to get ready for my gig in Schaumburg at the prestigious Early Learning, private school called "The Goddard School". It was only a couple miles from our hotel. When I got there the Director asked if I could do two short shows, instead of one. That way they could have the younger students first and then the older group. It was a good thing she suggested this, because the young ones were ity bity! Barely walking. LOL. I went into Mommy and Me mode and got them all movin' and groovin' to old familiar tunes like "Wheels on the Bus and Where is thumbkin" and a couple fun originals. The Director said she's never seen them particpate so much. Yay! Then came the older kids up to 5 years old. There were about 60 kids. They were excellent listeners and we all had a great time! They asked me to come back as soon as possible.

I'd love to do this again in September! And there are atleast 7 Goddard Schools in the Chicago area. Hmmm ;)

We finished our Illinois trip with a visit to the super mall, of course. LOL. Now we're headed to Iowa where I have two kids shows. One will be with Neel playing drums! :o

Cincinnati TWIN show!

Yes! I said TWIN show! My twin sister Jen lives in Cincinnati and she too has two children ages 4 and 6 years old.

We arrived in Cincinnati Tuesday night June 15th, after making a tiny detour to the National Corvette Museum. Love me some Vettes! ;)

Wednesday morning Jen and I practiced our songs together. She and I have both inspired each other to write kids songs. We have raked up the phone bills for the past 8 months, singing our little songs to each other and being good critics and encouragers. She got her guitar out and we ran through each song we planned on singing for the kids show. It was hard to not get a little teary eyed when we started to sing in harmony...such a familiar sound and good feeling. We have sung together our whole lives since we were 3 years old. Since we had kids we haven't sung together. This was a real special moment.

We then, went to downtown Cincinnati and had lunch with Andre, my sister's husband at Skyline Restaurant. Later we hung out at the Cincinnati Children's museum and let our kids play for hours! What a great place and huge!

That night, after dinner Jen and I went downstairs to the basement and set up all of the sound equipment and did a couple run-throughs of the entire 45 minute show. We worked out the silly banter in between and the song transitions, to make sure our show would leave the kids exhausted and happy!

This morning I woke up, rested and ready to do the kids show. I put on my "twiny" shirt.....yes we bought matching shirts that were different colors. One was green and the other was pink. We both wore white pants. I know cheesy, but it was fun! LOL

We arrived at the Madeira library at 10am. I was surprised the space, where we were performing, was open to the rest of the library. I knew we would be LOUD! But no one else seemed to be worried about it. It was a rather large library. As my sister predicted a lot of people showed up. There were over 140 at the show!

We sang and danced and laughed and "roared like a lion" and had so much fun! My sister and I interacted like we've been doing kids shows our whole lives. Hahaha! Little did the audience know this was our first kid's show together. The kids were all ages and really participated with gusto for 45 minutes! Lots of CDs were sold too. Bonus!

We met up with my sisters friends at the Swain park afterwards. It's a beautiful place Cincinnati.