Neighborhood Family Home Evening

Originally we had been booked to perform two different dates during Cherry Hill's summer concert series. After performing quite a few shows in early summer, we breathed a sigh of relief when we realized we had a good month to slow down a bit and prep for our second Cherry Hill gig. Rather than do the exact same show, we had planned to change things up a bit...adding in some brand new songs, now that we had time to work on them...including a debut of our new original song "Reach Higher."

But a couple weeks before our August date, we got a call from our contact at Cherry Hill. He told us that a couple of earlier weekends in July had been rained out and those groups scheduled to perform had not been able to. Would we be willing to give up our second date so that one of those groups could have the opportunity to perform? Though quite a bit bummed, how could we say no?

(Can you find the 3 mics in this picture? I'm holding one for Kami to sing into, Julie is holding one down low to pick up the guitar, and the one peeking out over my shoulder...that one is for the two of us to sing a little back-up on the chorus. And then of course Kami's darling daughters who accompanied with percussion.)


We'd had many friends, neighbors and family all set to come to our Cherry Hill show, the majority of which had not been able to make it to our first. So it was with disappointment that we shared the news on our Facebook page letting everyone know that the show was off.

(Often times we see pictures of ourselves performing and think, "is that what I really look like when I sing??" Clearly the camera caught all three of us with some silly singer facial expressions this night! So why not accept it and document it, yes?)

A sweet friend and neighbor of Kami's and Julie's decided that there was no need to cancel the show entirely...just to move the venue. And she offered up her backyard as an alternate. We were touched at her kindness and jumped at the chance to make this an even more casual Monday night/family night neighborhood party. Everyone brought treats to share and a blanket to sit on. And we had a great time singing some fun songs and interacting with all of our friends and family after all!

One of the highlights of the night was inviting up all the kids in the audience do the Cup Song with us. We gave print outs of the lyrics to all the parents and invited them to sing along as well. I personally can't even do that cup thing...let alone sing and do the cups at the same time! So I put myself on camera and video duty and enjoyed watching the whole thing take off. Dang, those kids are good!

-Sarah