1-2-3-4 HI-5!!
I wasn’t alive when the Beatles first came to America but for the 4 year old set, this has to be what it was like. Okay, for my 4 year old anyway. Yesterday, we went to see Hi-5 in concert at UCLA. The kids were SO excited. We’ve been listening to the CD for weeks and they know all the words by heart and sing them at the top of their lungs. I will admit, that I know most of the tunes by heard myself an d have had a few of them stuck in my head.
The concert turned out to be a lot of fun. C was up on her feet for a lot of it. Doing the moves, singing the songs. I’m truly disappointed that they won’t be appearing in Vegas for the Telethon. We couldn’t work out the transportation to get them there in time so they’ll be performing at the Chicago local and will do a cut in to the national show. Hopefully, that director won’t butcher them the way they did on “Live with Regis and Kelly”. Anyway, the concert was terrific. And because of our Telethon connections, G was able to talk to their road manager and get us VIP backstage passes.
Okay, what’s a backstage pass to a kids group you may ask? No, it’s not M&M’s without the brown ones (Van Halen) It’s not water, iced at 72 degrees. It’s not assorted deli meats or certain brands of alcohol. It’s much better than that. It’s a meet and greet session with Hi-5 themselves!! About 30 minutes after the concert, we, along with other select kids (I’d say about 30 in all) were ushered into a room). The 5 of them came out and sat at a table and they let each group of kids (we were three kids) come up to the table, meet them, chat with them, get an autographed photo and take a picture with them. OMG! it was so stinking cute. Kimmy commented on Cs green nail polish and asked if she should get the same color. They asked if they enjoyed the concert. Did they dance? Did they sing? C, C and J are all so enamored by Jen they didn’t know what to do. C had put on her Hi-5 t-shirt and they commented on how great it looked. Oh, and all the kids in this VIP thing got a little goodie bag. They got 2 Hi-5 DVD's, a sticker and another group photo. Very generous and way cool. They were all really nice, as they should be, and I know the kids were so excited and thrilled. I’m telling you, the FAB 5 ROCK!
No, this is not C's first concert t-shirt.
Considering how far back we were sitting, I'm really happy how these pictures came out with my little camera.
The "famous" Jen!
Stand by confetti cannons. I've got confetti in my purse to prove it.
My little VIP
Meet and Greet
And the piece de resistance.... can't wait to scrap this event!
Labels: Hi-5, The Beatles, UCLA
Some Kind Of Wonderful
So C is a big fan of
Hi-5. We discovered them about 6 months ago and have been watching and taping the show ever since. We went to see them at the
LA Times Festival of Books and we're going to see them in concert next month. We're all very excited. So they performed on
"Regis and Kelly" this morning and of course, I Tivo'd it. We crawl into bed tonight and I pop it on.
They first sang "Some Kind of Wonderful" and it was perhaps the worst directed performance I've ever seen on TV, but I digress. Anyway, C sits there and sings all the lyrics. She's telling me who is who in the group. There's a commercial break and they sing "Superhero" which, again, she sings every word. C also tells me that this is one of the songs that Hi-5 sang when we went to see them at the book fair. You could've knocked me over not that she remembered seeing them but that the saw them at the book fair. Impressive.
So she wants to watch it again. I rewind the
Tivo and she says she wants to dance. So C proceeds to stand up on the bed, sing the songs and do all the dance moves. She was having a great time. It was so darn cute and so darn special. She's truly growing up and it's so much fun to see her really understand and enjoy things in life.
This version of "Some Kind of Wonderful" is on
youtube. Someone posted it from some concert and honestly, it's better camera work than I saw this morning. I hoping Hi-5 can be booked for the Telethon. I know a 4 year old that would implode on the spot. Hope you enjoy this video. C certainly did when she saw it.
Labels: Festival of Books, Hi-5, Regis and Kelly, Tivo, youtube
Wow! What a busy, busy day!
Today was one of the busiest and most fun days I can remember. We did A LOT and I’m sure we’ll all sleep very soundly tonight.
Our day started off leaving the house before 9AM. We swung by and picked up our friend Char and her mom and we went to the
Los Angeles Times’ Festival of Books.
None of us had never been before and it was great. Wish we could’ve stayed longer. We really went to see C’s favorite group
Hi-5. They’re performing twice today and twice tomorrow. I just happened to open up the paper last week and saw the schedule of events for kids and there they were. I knew we had to go. We’ve taken C to a lot of theater (Elmo, Wiggles, Dora, etc) and she gets into them but it was nothing like this. Every time Hi-5 started a song, she walked out to the aisle so she could do the dances. It was so cute to see her face and have to respond to their songs. They’re coming in August for a real concert so you know where we’ll be going. Here are a few shots of C’s favorite performers.
Jen is C's favorite.
We also stayed for the next two author readings. The first was
Todd Parr who writes and illustrates these very cute books. I hadn’t heard of him before but Elizabeth had read them with her son. I need to get some of these books. They’re terrific. A few of the titles are
"Otto has a Birthday Party",
"Underwear Do's and Don'ts" and
"It's Okay to be Different".
And he ends each book with saying "The End. Love, Todd" Loved the books and loved him! And after that was Katharine Holabird who writes the beloved
“Angelina Ballerina” books. She read two of her stories AND Angelina was there to act them out. The girls LOVED this.
We had to go after Angelina but Henry Winkler (we're talking THE FONZ!) was up next on the children’s stage to read his books. I would’ve like to have stayed and checked out some of the other children’s book stuff plus get a signed copy of something. Later in the day, the
Laura Numeroff who writes the
“If You Give a Mouse A Cookie” stories was appearing as well as
Julie Andrews Edwards. Yes that Julie Andrews of “The Sound of Music” and “Mary Poppins” fame is a children’s author. Her very first book
“Mandy” is one of my all-time favor
ites. I would’ve loved to have seen her too but too much to do. Gotta run. Hey, maybe we’ll try to go back again tomorrow and see Hi-5 again (since they’re the closing act) and go early to check out some of the other things. This is a HUGE book event and it’s all free (except for parking at
UCLA)
Okay, so we’re on the move. We head to the valley, have a very quick bite to eat and head over to
Theater West to see their current show
“Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” staring Lee Meriweather. Yes,
Miss America 19__ (as it’s stated in the program) is starring as the The Queen. A four person show, very interactive and very cute. Lloyd Schwartz (son of Sherwood who created such classics as “Gilligan’s Island” and “The Brady Bunch”) is the director and creative director of the theater. They do tons of children’s programs throughout the year and I’m glad we kind of found this by accident. They doing “Cinderella” in the fall so you know we’ll be back. Anyway, when I went to the box office to pick up the tickets (gotta love
Goldstar Events for discounted tickets), Lloyd gave me my tickets and asked about my last name and I knew “so and so G”. I didn’t but explained my husband might. He asked if we worked in “the business” to which I replied “yes, both of us do.” He said he’d come talk to us later. At intermission, he came to find us and Lloyd and G had a nice conversation. Hey, G had just worked with him when Lloyd and “The Brady Bunch” cast accepted an award on last week’s “TV Land Awards”. So they started yakking away. Very small world. Anyway, the show was really cute. The girls even went up on stage when they needed volunteers. Very brave of them.
The cast comes out afterwards to take photos and give autographs. Char was a little more brave than C but they both did it. Here are some photos with the stars. It was so cute.
With Snow White...
With the Prince...
And with the Queen. They don't even realize they were with a REAL celebrity.
From Universal City, we jumped back in the car, dropped off Elizabeth and Char and headed towards Malibu where we met Alli to take some photos with C and Ever on the beach. The girls really enjoyed that, even if it was a little bit breezy and chilly. Hopefully, we’ll get some good shots overall. I’m sure we will. Carly really enjoyed running in the water and trying to beat the waves catching her feet. I don’t think she had been to the beach since we were in Jamaica which was two years ago. She loved it. We collected a few seashells and we all got a little wet and sandy. Very fun.
And the always smiling Ever...
As if that wasn’t enough activity for one day, we came home and C wanted to hook up this water sprinkle thing she got for her birthday. So hooked that up to the hose and she and G then ran through the sprinklers. I don’t think I can post any of those pics since Miss C was in her underwear and without getting creepy, don’t need those shots out in the blogosphere for the wrong person to see. But suffice it to say, that I got some cool shots with the water drops looking kind of like snow. And when C would run through them, she’d run with her eyes closed. It was pretty funny.
Exhausted? We all are. Nighty night.
Labels: Angelina Ballerina, Festival of Books, Hi-5, Mandy, Miss America
