We Will, We Will, Rock You

Has anyone out there ever noticed how many kids' band shows there are out there. For the little ones, you've got your Doodlebops, Wiggles, Imagination Movers and don't forget that loveable, nausea-inducing purple dinosaur, Barney! Then for the older breed, there's Hannah Montana (don't pretend like you don't like a song or two!) and more recently, the Jonas brothers; and as if thirty minutes of cheezy/punk songs weren't enough, there are commercial "mini-bands" if you will, like Choo-Choo Soul, Steve Songs and Happy Monster Band (kind of a techno/beatles Japanese cartoon art kind of a thing.) I remember loving 'The Monkeys' when I was little. Sing it with me, "Hey, hey we're the Monkeys! People say we're monkeyin' around.....but we're too busy singin', to put anybody down!" (or something like that, I never did get that last line right.)

My point is that either the children's television networks understand how much kids like music, or they are trying to brain wash a generation of younger ones into becoming rock stars. With my kids, I'm thinking it's the latter.

Last week after doing a bit of homework, I came downstairs to find that my front room had been transformed into a concert arena. (BTW, I've noticed that in the week Logan has been home from school, it's been a lot harder to keep the house clean, but then we'll save that for another post.) Logan had everything set up from microphones and guitars, to drumsets and audience seating. It was pretty impressive and Ellie and I were able to enjoy a fifteen minute, original songs concert, put on by "The Kanigan Boys" as Logan called them.

Logan sang songs about school, family and being a rock star, throwing in the word "baybeh" every chance he could. Oh, and he sang a few High School Musical songs too. We don't even own that movie! Wierd. Linc sang about Star Wars and Owen sang "I am a Child of God." Sweet boy. Anyway, I had to show the concert to the world, so here they are...rock on!

The Shadow pictures!

The Concert!

Oh, and this weekend I got to go with a great friend to Nashville for a photography workshop. We had a lot of fun, and I got to take some pictures downtown. I'll post all about that on my photoblog, but here is one you should all be impressed by. Why? Because I set my camera up on a slab about twenty yards away, framed the picture, ran like the wind, scaled that slab and got into place in ten seconds and it only took me two tries! I won't show you the first, it isn't pleasant. Impressed now? Good. :)

Chalk

I recognized from an early age in Logan, and then of course in the other boys followed his lead, that he didn't play with toys in a "normal" way. "Normal" being a very fluid word of course.

The first time I brought home a package of flash cards, excited for some one on one learning time, he opened the package and instead of eargerly soaking up the words and pictures as I had pictured, he began to launch the cards into the air exclaiming, "Look Mommy, snow!"

Play dough was the same way. When I was little, I remember molding my play dough into hamburgers, flowers or snakes. I was careful to keep the green dough in one pile, and the pink and red in their own piles. I don't know why, but I excpected my boys would be the same. Oh, no. They open the play dough and instead of keeping the colors pretty and separate, they mash the dough together to make one massive grey blob. It used to drive me crazy; but now, I figure, if that's how they play, and they're happy, then alright.

We've had a lot of other lets say, 'creative' moments. Crayons used as cannons, markers as body paint, blankets and bed sheets as parachutes and forts, toilet paper as body wraps, hand soap as teddy bear body wash....and....you get the idea. So really I wasn't too surprised yesterday when I broke out the sidewalk chalk and they boys colored on everything but the sidewalk! At least they were creative OUTSIDE, with something WASHABLE. This was much better than Owen's artistic 'peanut butter paint' on my brand new couch!

And what was Ellie doing the entire time?

She was thinking the same thing as me. What's wrong with you boys? :)

My Sister's Trip

Last week was busy but very fun. My sister and my niece came to visit. I picked them up with the three youngest kids in Nashville and our new GPS (I'm still getting used to!) brought us home some back hills route. It was twisty, but beautiful and we got to pass the most confederate looking house I've ever seen! It had flags hanging from evey window, and two guys on the front porch with rifles (well, mabe I'm embellishing a bit on the rifles) stared at us as we passed by. It was pretty funny.

We spent the rest of the week visting the boys baseball games, shopping and making bows for our little babies. (a first for me...Kirs were much cuter than mine.) She had twin girls in January, so she made double. I didn't do much homework while she was here, so Dan drove them back on Saturday with all the kids so I could study. I've survived two weeks of school so far....I think I'll keep it up and go for three!

My niece Starly played with her little cousins a lot. She's almost thirteen, and I was impressed by how patient she was with them. The boys keep asking me when she is coming back! :)

Today Dan and I are trying to get a few things done around the house. I still have a lot of homework to catch up on too.....so I better run. Oh, I forgot to mention that Logan has four loose teeth, Owen isn't screaming as much lately (he talks a lot!), Lincoln is a sweetheart, and Ellie is really close to crawling! She ate a waffle today too. She's breaking four more teeth so she's chewing on everything! Well, in my usual fashion I've taken a ton of pics, so here they are! Oh, and I added even more on my photoblog of course! :)

My little thrill seeker!

Humoring me.


Pretty girl!

Starly and Ellie!

Had to try some barbeque while they were here.

Logans end of the year kindergarten show. They sang some cute songs and got some candybar awards. Logan got the 'Mr. Goodbar Award' for being such a good friend to the boys and especially the girls, his teacher said. :)

His class. :( It was kind of sad to see his first year of school end. I think he didn't realize that his class wouldn't be the same next year and now he's a little sad about it.

Linc's game. I loved this picture and added the big version of it on my photo blog!

First real game. It was more like football than baseball. hee hee hee.

Kir with Ellie.

More Starly and Ellie.

A few attempts at a picture of us girls. This was the best we could do! I have to take the blame because I never know what to do infront of the camera. I feel like an idiot just staring at it. Ah well!

Still Smiling

Well, this week was insane, but we all survived it and I was able to catch all of my kids in a good mood at the SAME TIME this afternoon, so I decided to take a few quick pics of them while I could. I have been doing a lot of home work, and Dan has taken over like a champion for me. I'm really liking my classes and the kids are going to have fun learning sign language with me. I think from the 'Signing Time' shows we have they already know more than I do. I don't have much else to say. We had a fun dinner at some friends of ours tonight. Thanks Jessica, oh and my sister and niece are coming to visit this week...yay! So hopefully sometime I will post some pictures of them. K, bye!

The "toys of choice" picture. Oh, Owen.

Personalities.

The mug shot pose. :)

Yesterday and today have been very busy. I've been getting school stuff organized and yesterday I got to take some cute maternity pictures for a friend of mine. My friend Diana gave me an idea to using letter blocks to spell out the word 'baby' in front of her tummy so we tried it, and I loved how they came out. :) I posted a lot of the maternity pics on my photoblog. Since it looked so cute with her tummy, I thought I'd play around and try it with my baby too, so I took a quick picture of Ellie with the blocks. I love my little girl. She's such a mix of sweetie pie and drama queen! Well, lots to do....talk to you all later.