We're All in This Together.....

A new cultural phenomenon has sung and danced it's way into our home. It flickers on our TV Screen and floats out of our car speakers and family room stereo. Our wooden floors are becoming more worn with the dance moves that this music inspires Kate and Liam to produce. The culprit is the Disney made-for-TV-movie, "High School Musical" --- and now also "High School Musical 2".

These sugary sweet and very bouncy musicals are all the rage with kids across the US right now - literally from age 3 to, well, 32! :) (I must confess, they are fun, cute, and catchy!) Kate is completely into "HSM" and knows all the songs and dances along. Liam gets into it too - particularly during the basketball scenes where he runs around and bounces up and down with a huge smile on his face.

I have to say, Nick and I are thrilled by the interest. First of all, it is not animated, so that is a nice change. Plus it really is just all about the exuberance and innocence of youth and has a strong message of independence and acceptance - all set to an infectiously bouncy beat that makes our kids boogie....and nothing is more fun than watching a 1-year-old and a soon-to-be-4-year-old bust a move.

Yesterday at Target (which was the most poorly planned trip to Super Target ever in that I took the kids with me on the Sunday of move-in weekend for all the colleges around here) Kate drew the smiles, laughter, and even applause of many-a-college-girl as she belted out HSM songs from the Target cart. Every college girl I know from my work at the U of M also has an unabashed affection for these movies and they know all the tunes and have super crushes on the lead guy, Zac Efron (his character is Troy Bolton). And, ok, I must admit, I TOTALLY get the crush factor! If I was 13, I FOR SURE would have had a "Troy Bolton, High School Musical" Trapper Keeper.

For a musical theatre nut like myself, I have to appreciate the "homage" that they pay to all that came before "HSM". I have fun noticing the nods to the movies of the past - the line from "Mame" that runs through the film, the dress that mimics "Maria's" from "West Side Story", the Esther Williams and Busby Berkley choreography, the Fosse, the Kevin Bacon Footloose rip-off, the "Hopelessly Devoted to You" frame and the "Time of My LIfe" mirroring. It is musical theatre fabulous! :) For anyone who cares! ha ha

But.....Nothing is more fun right now than 7 o'clock pm in the Harris household when dinner is over and baths have been had and the freshly clean, sweet smelling Kate and Liam are running around the family room singing "Get Your Head in the Game" (Liam does this by saying "getcha getcha getcha getcha" through the whole song) while they jump and giggle all over the place and Nick and I laugh and applaud from the safety of the couch.

Seriously - it is so fun.