Cars, (Air) Hockey, Soap and Tears
No photos today, folks.
We took the boys to the movies to see Cars. I would have taken them by myself, but we were a bit worried that one of them might get too scared and want to leave, so we both went, thus allowing for one to leave while the other could stay. I read up a bit on the movie in terms of its scaryness for kids, and found that there was a loud opening and closing, a nightmare scene which I seemed to recall involved two cars getting crushed by a car crusher (it proved to be two cars getting run over by a combine) and a non-nightmare scene involving the main character/car being chased by the combine.) I warned them about those scenes and told them I'd tell them when the nightmare scene was happening.
It proved to be a non-issue, as neither got too scared, and the opening and closing weren't too loud either (which might have been due to the theater). The guys completely loved the movie. As I tend to be unable to not pay attention to anything on TV or a movie screen (I see every kids show in detail, whether I want to or not), I also watched the film. It's a Pixar movie, so I'd want to see it anyway, but A Bug's Life was lousy, thus we know they can do wrong, and the early word I'd read was that this would be a "lesser" Pixar film. However I really enjoyed it too. I won't try to answer the question of whether or not this is better or worse than Toy Story/Toy Story 2 and others, I can just say that I found it thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish, and definitely to be a great, great kids movie. Not too scary (unlike a lot of kids movies nor like Finding Nemo), but still exciting, lots of humor for kids and adults, the usual well-developed pixar characters and incredible animation, etc. Certainly not disappointing and definitely worth seeing. I was completely sold on the film when we got to the scene involving Lightning going out with Mater at night. I won't say what happens because that would ruin it. It was perfect.
The movie theater was in the local mall, a fairly large one, that also features a full-size indoor ice rink. Aside from ice skating, they play pickup and league hockey. I'm thinking of taking the boys some day to watch the kids play hockey, and of course another time to actually try ice skating. Before the movie we had some time to kill so we went into the arcade (disappointingly pinball-free) and Max and Emmett played a game of air-hockey. Emmett won, 7 to 5. They thought it was fun. When we headed to the theater there was a stop to study the movie poster in detail. Max, Emmett and some other boys studied it, and one boy who'd seen the movie, pointed out and told them who all the characters were. After the movie we went to the other end of the mall where they had a "soft play area". On the way the guys got free balloons from a photo place. Max and Emmett had a great time at the play area, although at one point Emmett got bowled over by a bigger kid (by accident) which resulted in some tears. He quickly rebounded.
Back at our home (away from home) there was of course a lot of matchbox/hotwheels play, with quotes from the movie left and right. Later, while Bek went out to work on poetry, I got the guys to help me clean a floor fan. We removed the front and back grills and took them outside, dumped water on them and then I took a sponge to it. That led to a lot of cleaning-related play, including trying to stop the "river" that had been created by the water we'd dumped on the fan grills. They tried dumping more water on it. They tried dumping soapy water on it. Then just dish soap. The one big sour note occurred when Emmett did something to Max's balloon, resulting in the balloon separating from its string (and teddy bear weight) and floating up into the sky. As you can imagine there were voluminous tears that took a while to quell. Ice cream helped.
We took the boys to the movies to see Cars. I would have taken them by myself, but we were a bit worried that one of them might get too scared and want to leave, so we both went, thus allowing for one to leave while the other could stay. I read up a bit on the movie in terms of its scaryness for kids, and found that there was a loud opening and closing, a nightmare scene which I seemed to recall involved two cars getting crushed by a car crusher (it proved to be two cars getting run over by a combine) and a non-nightmare scene involving the main character/car being chased by the combine.) I warned them about those scenes and told them I'd tell them when the nightmare scene was happening.
It proved to be a non-issue, as neither got too scared, and the opening and closing weren't too loud either (which might have been due to the theater). The guys completely loved the movie. As I tend to be unable to not pay attention to anything on TV or a movie screen (I see every kids show in detail, whether I want to or not), I also watched the film. It's a Pixar movie, so I'd want to see it anyway, but A Bug's Life was lousy, thus we know they can do wrong, and the early word I'd read was that this would be a "lesser" Pixar film. However I really enjoyed it too. I won't try to answer the question of whether or not this is better or worse than Toy Story/Toy Story 2 and others, I can just say that I found it thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish, and definitely to be a great, great kids movie. Not too scary (unlike a lot of kids movies nor like Finding Nemo), but still exciting, lots of humor for kids and adults, the usual well-developed pixar characters and incredible animation, etc. Certainly not disappointing and definitely worth seeing. I was completely sold on the film when we got to the scene involving Lightning going out with Mater at night. I won't say what happens because that would ruin it. It was perfect.
The movie theater was in the local mall, a fairly large one, that also features a full-size indoor ice rink. Aside from ice skating, they play pickup and league hockey. I'm thinking of taking the boys some day to watch the kids play hockey, and of course another time to actually try ice skating. Before the movie we had some time to kill so we went into the arcade (disappointingly pinball-free) and Max and Emmett played a game of air-hockey. Emmett won, 7 to 5. They thought it was fun. When we headed to the theater there was a stop to study the movie poster in detail. Max, Emmett and some other boys studied it, and one boy who'd seen the movie, pointed out and told them who all the characters were. After the movie we went to the other end of the mall where they had a "soft play area". On the way the guys got free balloons from a photo place. Max and Emmett had a great time at the play area, although at one point Emmett got bowled over by a bigger kid (by accident) which resulted in some tears. He quickly rebounded.
Back at our home (away from home) there was of course a lot of matchbox/hotwheels play, with quotes from the movie left and right. Later, while Bek went out to work on poetry, I got the guys to help me clean a floor fan. We removed the front and back grills and took them outside, dumped water on them and then I took a sponge to it. That led to a lot of cleaning-related play, including trying to stop the "river" that had been created by the water we'd dumped on the fan grills. They tried dumping more water on it. They tried dumping soapy water on it. Then just dish soap. The one big sour note occurred when Emmett did something to Max's balloon, resulting in the balloon separating from its string (and teddy bear weight) and floating up into the sky. As you can imagine there were voluminous tears that took a while to quell. Ice cream helped.
posted by public_sjj at 11:15:00 PM
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