And then there’s this. I love the show CBS Sunday Morning and often the girls watch part of it with me. And that inevitably led, I guess, to them spoofing it. They wrote a script and had an MJ cameo. Nice.

Louis Armstrong is my favorite cyclist. I’m guessing this is just the tip of iceberg since I just came across them trying to clean up their iMac hard drive.

That’s it from us for 2010. See you (on the radio?) in 2011.

A few weeks ago, Emma and her Fourth Grade compatriots presented “A Winter Celebration!,” a handful of carols and songs of the season. It was cute.

As they file in, Emma's right in the middle in her red skirt

She's singing, or at least her mouth is open

Enjoy this snippet of “Deck the Halls,” which has a couple of fa-la-las that are just out of reach.

My baby's done grow'n up

Emma practices her singing

The cast

Emma, Layla, and Emma B.

Enough with rehearsals–the performances were great. Started out with “Finale” from Aladdin. Layla was the Sultan, and both she and Emma had speaking parts (they thought the tiny microphones were cool).

The Sultan with Emma to her left (your right)

Then a “Bigger Isn’t Better” from Barnum with a costume that surprised me.

Emma being introduced as one of the trapeze artists

Layla as the Bearded Lady--I so wish I had a better picture

After a long break with other groups doing numbers, the girls were back for “Anything You Can Do”–kind of Emma’s personal motto–from Annie Get Your Gun.

Emma do-si-dos?

To my disgust (but to the girls great delight, “We Rock” from Camp Rock. Layla wore her Nick Jonas shoes and “Mrs. Nic Jonas” t-shirt in tribute. If only she’d been wearing them to dinner a few weeks before.

I guess I should be proud

The big finale, “Circle of Life” from The Lion King, included the entire cast.

People of the animal masks unite

So the girls loved the whole thing, and I was pretty impressed by how well the whole thing was run. This is definitely penciled in for next summer.

The entire cast, I assume

Anyway, unlike most birthdays of recent years, we consolidated the festivities down to one day. But boy what a day it was. Started off with just Emma and me for breakfast over donuts. I left it up to her whether anyone else was invited. She decided against inviting others.

Unfortunately, we both have a thing for donuts

After lunch at the house, which Emma graciously allowed everyone to eat, it was present time.

Madysen is excited about present-time!

Remember how much Madysen cares next time you think about sending a card

Deciding which to open first is momentous

A tennis outfit

A tennis bag

A tiny paper tennis racket, so she can pick it out herself; I'm getting the sense that there's a tennis theme

Tennis rollerblades--wait, I'm confused

And some other stuff. So having eaten and opened gifts, it’s cake time! For whatever reason, I’m guessing because Speed was involved, the cake had two simple candles and a “7″ candle.

Cake with no icing? Now I'm really confused

Candle success except that the "7" fell (Speed's fault)

That’s a pretty decent birthday–and it’s not even 2 p.m. So all the kids and I go see Despicable Me in 3D. Man, I hate 3D. Really, we aren’t yet in a position to take advantage to the potential benefits it brings. I have to wear uncomfortable glasses to see the opening credits in 3-D and have some shard of glass fly in my direction?Meh. But I’m loosing this battle, clearly. Every movie preview was for a kid movie coming out in 3D.

But as for the movie, I would have loved it in 2D. I laughed a lot. I think Madysen was a little uncomfortable with how much I laughed.

That evening, Emma had her choice of restaurants for dinner. Kind of. She picked Red Lobster, which is where Holly and I worked in our salad days and neither of us have fond memories of the experience. I.e., we don’t think the food is any good. But I was fine with it. Holly, however, suggested (with just enough persuasion) Pappadeaux’s. So we did that.

And dinner was fine. They even brought Emma a turtle brownie thingy.

Yes, more sweet stuff crammed into one day!

The waitstaff doesn’t sing for birthdays, but Layla launched into a solo directing her voice over Holly’s shoulder to the Jonas Brothers sitting very close to us.

Oh, did I forget to mention that Kevin Freaking Jonas (!) (channeling Emma and Layla and Madysen and Holly (though they’ll deny it)) had been sitting at a table just feet away since midway through out dinner? Holy cow. There he was. Layla had the vapors. Emma had the vapors. Madysen tried to play it cool. Holly pretended like she only cared because the girls cared.

As we were leaving, Layla–more than a bit nervous–walked over his table, introduced herself, shook his hand, and asked for a picture. He was polite enough to indulge her, at which point Emma jumped up to get in the photo.

Surprised they didn't pass out from excitement

And while it is somewhat fitting that Layla’s wearing her family motto t-shirt “Go Big,” it would have been even better if she’d been wearing her Nick Jonas shoes (which she did have on at the movie) or her “Mrs. Nick Jonas” t-shirt.

Once in the car, I asked Emma if this was the best birthday ever. She replied: “Best day ever!–so far.” Not willing to put all her chips in as of yet.

Then we went to Toys R Us and looked a Webkinz and bicycles. Pretty weak ending.

Oddly, the venue was way undersold, so they moved everyone in closer and to the stage. Never had that happen at a concert before.

Elvis was great, playing several numbers off the new album and some standards–all of them with a bit of a country twist.

During the Alison encore, Elvis brought up a 2 year-old boy complete with his own guitar and fedora. The boy was shy when Elvis approached, but he strummed away when the spotlight wasn’t on him.

The setlist featured numerous numbers from Clapton and Winwood’s days together as Blind Faith. I enjoyed it since I’d never heard many of these songs live. Holly enjoyed it less since many of the songs she is most familiar with didn’t make the cut.

Every time I make it to a Clapton concert, I wonder if it will be the last time. Hopefully not, but this wasn’t a bad endnote if it is.

We headed to the Flight of the Conchords concert at the Nokia Theatre and got there very late (but safely, which hasn’t alway been the case). We had terrible nosebleed seats, but Jemaine and Bret were very funny and the songs were great. More comedy than a real musical act, they are pretty talented. And with those accents, it’s a bit easier to be funny. Holly was completely unfamiliar with the TV show and she has some trouble with the New Zealand accent, but she liked it well enough.

Not taken from our seats

Because we were so late, I know we missed at least a song or two (not to mention the opening act, which I think was comedian Kristen Schaal, who plays Mel on the show), so I’ve tried to reconstruct the setlist after the fact. I’m sure it’s wrong in several places. Oh well. A fun night.

So I was shocked to hear a few hours later when I arrived home that Layla was at the very same concert with some friends. And someone says I approved it a while back. I do not recall that–it doesn’t even sound right.

You won’t be surprised to hear that Layla thoroughly enjoyed it, though I suspect it had a ton to do with a lot of the stuff beyond Britney. Or at least, I seriously hope that’s true. So after the concert was over, Layla and a couple of the other girls talked to the people in the suite next door–the crew from the Kidd Kraddick radio program. They asked the girls what they thought of the concert on a scale of 1 to 10. Layla rated it “50 billion!”

So now I’ve got to figure out where it all went wrong.

Last night was the “D” stop, Dallas. It was at the Palladium, and I took a friend who had never even heard of Waits–he’s young, so I give him a bit of a pass–and he was joking that it would be only us and Tom. “Maybe he’d invite us to join the band for a song or two.” Well, my young, naive, idiot friend, not only we were not alone with Tom, but the Palladium was as packed as I’ve ever seen it. On a less exciting note, the air conditioning was underperforming–and there’s nothing like a concert with sweat pouring down your back.

But gratefully, Tom came on without an opening act at 8:30. We were way in the back (in the beer line for 45 minutes, if you must know) and Tom’s vocals needed to be louder to properly reach that far back. Despite all those obstacles, it was an excellent show (and I sweated out about 5 pounds–thanks!).

The setlist:

• Lucinda/Ain’t Goin’ Down to the Well
• Way Down in the Hole
• Anywhere I Lay My Head
• November
• Chocolate Jesus
• Frank’s Wild Years
• Singapore
• Hoist that Rag
• Get Behind the Mule
• Such a Scream
• Eyeball Kid
• Lucky Day*
• Invitation to the Blues*
• Lost in the Harbour*
• Innocent When You Dream*
• 16 Shells from a Thirty-Ought Six
• Lie to Me
• Fannin Street
• Black Market Baby
• Misery is the River of the World

Encore

• Make it Rain
• Jesus Gonna be Here
• 9th and Hennepin
• Time

*Tom on piano

(Photo courtesy of we shot jr)