Rock Band

Jon was in charge of the activity for Family Night.  He's always pulling out the most ingenious and original activities.  One time, he brought home a few pieces of bubblewrap that they had at work.  Yes.  Bubble.  Wrap.  He gave each of the children a piece and that's what we did ... pop the bubbles.  And, it was a blast.

Another time, he pulled out a penny and we played "Who has the penny?"  (Which the children then tried to replicate another day one on one ... um, didn't work so well.)  Or, there was the time when he said, "The activity is going to bed!"  And, we all proceeded to  pile onto our queen-size bed and just snuggle for a while before we forgot that the littlest of us all was under the blankets and gasping for breath.

We used to have a Family Home Evening wheel that had all our names on it (minus Maryanne) that was mounted on a circle divided into six categories (lesson, activity, opening prayer, closing prayer, music, and refreshments).  The circle with our names would rotate around the circle of categories, moving just one space each week.  That way, we each got a turn doing every item at some point in a six-week period.

When we moved to Arizona, we lost the wheel.  Not because it got packed, but because it was played with and eventually torn.  For a few months now, we've just been calling out what we want to do, and changing it around as we remember who did what the week before.

So, when Jon came home from work and announced, "I get to do the activity tonight, I haven't done it in a while," I was prepared for something funny and outrageously crazy.

And, that's pretty much what we got.  We prayed, I gave the lesson, we sang, we prayed again; and then, Jon announced: Rock Band!  What?   Yep.  Rock. Band.  With seven of us?  Yep.  And, it was a blast.

Back in May Kate pushed Andrew into our drum set and broke the red pad apart from the rest of the drum pads.  It was still hanging by a wire when my brother, who is the epitome of electronic fix-alls, came for Kate's baptism.  I showed him our drum set and he turned it around and around trying to figure out how we could fix the poor thing.  Eventually, the wire broke and now the pad was completely severed from the rest of the drum set (it's the one Maryanne is playing, not connected to the console of course).

To our much surprise and delight, on our way back from Utah a couple weeks ago, we had a new drum set and second guitar in tow.  My brother had bought them for his PS3 so he and my sister-in-law could play with her family online, but that was months ago and they haven't done it once.  So, they graciously gifted us their instruments since they weren't getting any use anyway.

That night, when Jon exclaimed, "Rock Band!" we pulled out all the instruments, got everyone set up and played.  Then rotated. Played again.  Rotated.  Played.  Rotated.  Played.  Ate cinnamon tortillas triangle.  Went to bed.

It was a fun night, and the best part is that now my children go around singing, "It's the final countdown," "And, I'm hungry like the wolf," and "I'm not like you guys."  Ah, brings back so many memories.