Hail to the King, Baby!

Here Madison is with Elvis himself, the King! Tonight is our last night for the Graceland series at children's church, and we're ending it with a spectacular concert that promotes the children's worship band, KP7. We've had an amazing time in Graceland, and now Daddy is really wanting to take Mommy and Madison to Memphis sometime soon (so we can eat some peanut butter and banana sandwiches and have an Elvis song marathon all the way out there). Daddy dreamed up this series over five years ago, and it is great to see everything fall into place so neatly. Nine services gave us a chance to do a lot of different things, and everyone was excited all the way through. Madison was excited too! As you can see by the picture, she loved hanging around with Elvis.

Maybe it was the Aloha

jumpsuit, or maybe it was the way he sang "Love Me Tender." Whatever it was, she wasn't shy about running up to him for a big hug, or even an attempted tackle. Elvis didn't mind taking the hit either - he's a great guy that never hit a wrong chord with her. You can see that guitar he's holding, and see her big smile. She likes the guitar and enjoys strumming it herself to make different notes float through the air. She's been even singing a lot more lately - her newest song being "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."

All throughout this series, she's been playing musical instruments in her playroom at home: there's a guitar, a clarinet, a xylophone, a keyboard wind instrument, and a few other percussion instruments too (like that spinning drum thing they used in "Karate Kid 2"). She'll haul each of these out in a big pile and cycle through them, making as much noise as possible. Her favorites right now seem to be in the wind instrument family, especially one you blow into while pressing different keys on a keyboard. She got that one for Christmas, and knows how to play the different notes rather well. There hasn't been anything we would call musical yet - although there are some abstract pieces of music that sound similar! It's all about experimenting with the music, and becoming familiar with notes and how they are played. Of course, Daddy doesn't know how to play anything either. But that doesn't stop Madison from giving Mommy and Daddy some instruments so that we can join in the band. I guess we'd better start lessons soon!