Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Going to the Movies

A couple weeks ago, I got an email with a schedule of FREE summer movies that are showing at our movie theater.  The first one was this week and it was Curious George, so I decided to take the kids to see it.  There aren't a lot of other movies on the list that I think the kids would enjoy, so I was glad that I could make it to this one.

We arrived half an hour early and the line was around the building...buses, vans, vacation bible schools, and a lot of other moms with their kids were all waiting to go in.  Once we got in, I was so worried about getting a seat (because it seemed like such a mob) that we went straight into the theater, bypassing popcorn for the time being.

Jack picked out seats for us and we sat there for a few minutes.  I tried to figure out how I was supposed to go out and get popcorn and still keep our seats.  Hmmm.  Couldn't leave the kids there by themselves.  Didn't have any articles of clothing to put in the seats.  Should have come with a friend.  Should have picked up two of those booster seats I saw on the way in.  At the other end of our row, I saw that another mom had draped a shirt across her 3 seats.  When she came back, I asked if I could borrow her shirt to save our seats and we headed out to get popcorn.

I got the kids popcorn tray for Jack and Casey and a soda for myself.  The medium cup is so deceiving when it's sitting on a shelf behind the counter.  It didn't look that big until movie theater girl plunked Monster Cup down in front of me.  I don't even think I could put my whole hand around it.  I only ordered the medium because it seemed that I was getting so much more soda for only 50 more cents than the small size.   I know, I know...that's what they want you to think...and it worked.

Anyway, I found myself with two trays of popcorn that included two children's drinks and a big Diet Coke to carry into the theater.  I didn't have much faith that Jack or Casey could handle their trays without trailing popcorn all the way into the theater, or worse.  With my soda squeezed between my upper arm and my body and a tray in each hand, we headed back to our seats.  Jack helped by carrying the straws.  And then I thought we should grab a couple of those booster seats because there were only 5 left.  Casey carried hers, but I ended up carrying one for Jack.  And somehow I got it all back to our seats.  As I was trying to gently set everything down, I squeezed the big Diet Coke a little too much and dribbled a little down my shirt, but it just so happens we were in a dark theater and no one was the wiser.

The kids climbed into their booster seats (which I didn't even know they had at movie theaters) and got their food all settled.  6 minutes later, Curious George started.

It couldn't have been a better movie for us all.  It was Casey's first movie and only Jack's second.  Jack was riveted the whole time and there weren't any super scary parts to bother him.  He didn't even eat his popcorn.  Casey ate popcorn and watched for about 45 minutes and then she climbed into my lap for the rest of it.  It got a little too loud for her in places and she was trying to burrow into me to hide, but it was also really snuggly and I liked that.  There were a couple spots where Casey spontaneously laughed at something and it was so cute to watch her.

I don't know why I feel so proud of this adventure...it was just fun to take them to see something new and it was obvious that they really enjoyed it.  Besides carrying food around, it was pretty stress free for me and I got to enjoy the movie...Curious George is pretty darn cute.  It also answered a lot of questions about how George met the Man with the Yellow Hat, how his name became George and even where the Yellow Hat came from.  

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