Jana Alayra concert

Have you heard of Jana Alayra? If you have kids you need to familiarize yourself with her and her music! She is a favorite in our house and we were finally able to see her live on Halloween! I'm on her e-mail newsletter list, so when I saw that she was giving a concert at the Chinese Baptist Church of Central Orange County in Irvine, I jumped at the opportunity to buy tickets. I e-mailed my family to see who wanted to join us for the adventure and my sister and her kids joined us! It didn't dawn on me until a few days before the concert that we might be extremely outnumbered. I guess I thought that since I found out about it from her website that more white folk would show up. When we arrived at the church my realization hit me! I think the church members were asking each other what the white people were doing at a Chinese church! It was awkward at first, but once we got inside and the lights were turned down low it was fine!

Emma is so excited!

Joshua wasn't as excited as I thought he would be.

Perhaps he was in awe that this woman who he is used to

seeing dance on his TV at home is live and in person.

Jana's concert are interactive, so she kept asking for kids to come up on stage to sing and dance with her. My sister and I strongly encouraged Emma and Joshua to go up!

"I want to go!"

For one of the songs, the kids had to put "masks" on.

Here is Zachary's "mask."

The absolute highlight on the night was when Jana called the dads up on stage. Lawrence had befriended Mr Incredible (on stage to his left), so when he was called up he made sure Lawrence got up there with him. The song the dads danced to is called "Down on my Knees." On her DVD she has 6 cute little girls dancing with her. It was quite different with 6 grown men on stage and boy did they have the audience laughing! Had I known, I would be posting the video for you below, but blurry pictures will have to suffice!

Next, it was the moms turn and Lawrence made sure I got up on stage to sing and dance the night away! My song (Rain or Pour) wasn't as funny or memorable, but it was fun being up on stage.

The kids had another opportunity to go up on stage and I was able to capture Joshua getting in to the hand motions a little bit more.

There's my sweet Emma!

Our kids posing with Jana's props

We bought another CD while we were there and waited to have Jana sign it after the concert was over. She was so personable and friendly and definitely worth the wait!

My new best friend!

Jacob even shared his beloved blankie with her.

All in all it was a great night! Lawrence had several "nice dancing" comments during Trunk-or-Treat. We have even been invited back to attend if we ever move to Irvine!