Cloudy with a Chance of Crazy

Aug
23

Posted by: Josh

Cheap thrills last Saturday when we saw a movie in the park. The cost? Zipple. Unless you also bought a house while you were there, which is what they were selling, and which we did not (unless Maggie snuck off while I was chasing Eleanor around, but she looked pretty comfortable on the picnic blanket so I’m going to doubt that there are any mortgages I’m unaware of). The movie, which is one of Eleanor’s favorites (also mine!), was Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. If you haven’t seen it, see it. If you have seen it, unsee it. Just kidding. That’s physically impossible, and also very not advisable, because this movie is hilarious, and has a LOT of sardine references.

Bonus: Valencia shelled out for free kettle corn AND drinks. Sugary drinks, not drinky drinks, but still pretty good. Thanks Awesometown! That was awfully awesome of you, he said with a straight face. We brought a picnic dinner and enjoyed the popcorn, and I took a lot of pictures with Maggie’s “old” camera. If you’re a regular reader, you can guess that I also spent a good amount of time chasing Eleanor around the park, at least until the movie started. Then, believe it or not, she sat down and watched about two-thirds of it before losing her mind and running around in the dark babbling hysterically (as she is wont to do). All in all, a lovely evening!

Here’s Eleanor, really considering a Lennar box. In the end, she decided on racing around the grass trailing a big bag of popcorn behind her instead.

As part of the good times, Awesometown handed out bubbles to all the kids! Naturally, Maggie snatched them all up and proceeded to blow 24 bottles of bubbles into the air.

Sometimes, just for kicks, Eleanor runs at top speed with her eyes closed. Not her problem, right?

The movie didn’t start until it got dark, so we were out past bedtime! Living it up in Awesometown!

Eleanor tried to fit two handfuls of popcorn into her mouth at the same time. Success!

Then Maggie ate her face. Success!

Since Maggie claims to have seen the movie like a bah-jillion times already, she brought her own entertainment. Yup, nothing like reading about post-apocalyptic death marches to brighten up the evening.

Comments: 1
Categories: Eleanor Stories, Josh, Maggie
Tags: cloudy with a chance of meatballs, movies, park, popcorn, the road, Valencia

Eleanor’s First Trip to the Movies

Jul
22

Posted by: Maggie

We took advantage of Josh and I being off work for the Monday holiday following the Fourth of July to take Eleanor to her first movie in a theater, Toy Story 3. I’m sure I’ve mentioned many, many times that Eleanor is not the type of kid who sits still, ever. So we waited to see a movie that we knew would hold her attention. She loves the first two Toy Story movies. She talks about Woody and Buzz all the time, and tells us that she’s a cowboy or shouts, “to infinity and beyond!” We hoped that the familiar characters would keep her in her seat for the length of the film.

I snuck a couple quick shots before the movie started:

Even though we knew she would be excited to see her favorite characters in a new story, we expected to have to get up and leave the theater before the movie actually ended. But we were wrong.

She did really well. She didn’t stay in her seat the whole time, but she only got up to stand in front of her seat or to alternate between my and Josh’s laps. We were so happy! We can’t wait to take her to another movie!

Comments: 3
Categories: Eleanor Stories, Josh, Maggie
Tags: movies, toddlers, Toy Story

Date Night!

Nov
09

Posted by: Maggie

Saturday night Eleanor stayed at home with Josh’s family while Josh and I went out on our first date in a few months. We did our favorite new suburban parent style date night: dinner at a decent enough restaurant, drunken walk to nearby movie theater, and sobering up while watching a movie.

It really is quickly becoming our favorite thing to do. While the food is only decent, the wine is pretty good. We split a bottle, which is more than enough for us both to be drunk. We love it! We just laugh a bunch, making stupid jokes, and speculating about the other people in the restaurant.

When we finish dinner we drunkenly walk down the street, which, even though it is just an outdoor portion of the shopping mall, is still kinda pretty lined with these lit-up trees and street lamps. At the end of the street is the movie theater, where we get a tub of soda, candy, and popcorn. We get to fill up with junk while sobering up enough to drive home by the time our movie ends.

This time we saw Where the Wild Things Are. We highly recommend it. I think I cried through the entire movie starting about 30 seconds in. It was just beautiful and so so sad. And it had a fantastic soundtrack. It really stayed true to the heart of the book, which I imagine was difficult to do because the book is such a short and simple story.

I know that this isn’t the most exciting date night we’ve had in our six years together, but it actually was so much fun. I’m curious what you all do on your date nights, especially you parents. Anything as fun as drinking and then filling up on candy and popcorn until you feel a little sick?