New Adventures

This past weekend we tried out some new things with mixed success. On Saturday it was cold and rainy and the perfect day for a movie and I thought that Rio looked like something the kids would enjoy so I decided to take them to their first movie adventure. They were excited... at first. Rio was sold out (two showings) so we decided to go see Hop even though I thought it might be a bit old for them and not as engaging with bright colors and animals. They were mesmerized at the big screen and laughing and telling me about the different things going on in previews and I started thinking that it was going to be a great new outing for us. I was wrong! Katie could not resist the wide open "stage" in front of the screen and since she was wearing her ballerina dress she wanted to twirl and jump. I got her to sit on my lap and all was well until a preview came on that I thought Tyler would love, but it actually scared him. A movie is coming out about fairy tale heroes and it has a wolf, and giant frog in it and Tyler covered his eyes and was peeking through, and started trying to hold onto my arm. We made it through that preview and the next one had him laughing again, BUT a French movie about safari animals came on and it was over. The lion roared, Tyler started crying and trying to get into my lap and then I had to put Katie down to get him calm, and she took off toward the screen (we had to sit in the front row for them to be able to see because the chairs blocked their view everywhere else). I gathered them up and thought we would go to the lobby to talk about how to behave and it went downhill fast. They had those machines that take quarters and give you junk toys, and a few arcade games and Katie wanted to play with those, while Tyler kept saying he was scared (of course when we left he was begging to go watch the big show), so we just left (Katie having to be carried while screaming and of course I saw some friends of ours who asked if I needed help while I was holding Tyler's hand, trying to control Katie, and had my keys in my mouth). Luckily, the kids were free and I only paid a matinee price, but I think it will be a while until we try movies again!

After the movie debacle I was a little afraid about our Sunday plans - to take the kids to the Vanderbilt football Spring game and tailgate. They did great, though! There were some other kids around their age with our tailgate group and the kids played with them and then Vandy had some bouncy houses set up, which the kids still love. We went into the game and since it was no tickets, sit where you want we were able to spread out and the kids could sit and watch or play in the stands without us really bothering too many folks. We made it longer than I expected and left about 7:15. We were going to try to stay for fireworks, but we decided it wasn't worth it to keep them out and up since they were getting tired and probably on the verge of bored. They talked about going to the football game the next day and said they had a lot of fun so I'm glad we took them. It did show me, though, that they probably aren't really ready to go to many games this year - the tailgates I think are fine, but the actual game is just too long still.

Lance has to work this weekend, so I am not going to play tennis this Saturday. That is probably a good thing, because if we don't go to the egg hunt at the zoo I still would probably rather have some Easter fun with the kiddos than continue losing in tie-breakers on the tennis court :)! Which reminds me, I've got to get their Easter baskets ASAP!!!