Category Archives: TV/Movies/Media
Appropriate road trip music.
Doctor Who Family
iPad cousin buddies
Katie’s in Elmo’s World
Post-snow sibling movie love
Owen’s first sleepover
Owen’s first sleepover was tonight—and it was the first for both of his friends, too.
The kids played for a bit, then we started Fruit Ninja, which they all thoroughly enjoyed.
It’s somewhat exhausting—and they can only really play one at a time—so then we did Crash Course which they could all play at the same time.
Manuel doesn’t have pets, so he was ENTHRALLED with ours (you’ll see more pics later). 🙂
Getting ready for cake!
Time for a movie! Katie enjoyed the sleepover as much as the boys did!
Getting the boys ready for bed about 9. They lined up for a picture, each with one of Owen’s stuffed animals—and here Owen was realizing that they each had one of the primary colors!
Overall, it went pretty good. The boys were boys (roughhousing and such) but they are all fairly similar—very nice, polite, not too terribly rough, and they listened well. We were most worried about putting them to bed and what happened after that since neither of the boys had had a sleepover before. Of course, their parents were on call to come get them, and I had been updating them via text and pics throughout the night. So they all got their PJs on, brushed their teeth, and decided who would sleep where. We told them they could stay up and talk, but they couldn’t be too loud (since Katie was sleeping next door). I read them a story, pointed out all the night lights, told them that if they were scared at all or if anything was wrong to come get us (and we could call their parents), asked if they had any questions (no), and then turned out the lights, crossed my fingers, and went downstairs.
Within minutes, we heard them coming down the steps. 🙂 Apparently the boys were scared of the big stuffed bear, even though they had all been playing with him. But no biggie, Tom just went up with them and threw it in the guest room.
The second trip down (again with all three of them!) was because the kid who decided he wanted to sleep on the top bunk was apparently suddenly afraid of heights and didn’t want to sleep on the top bunk even though we went over that before. But no biggie, we asked if he wanted Owen to sleep on the top and he said no, he wanted to. Ooookay. Back to bed then, and we sent them upstairs.
The third trip down was to tell us that somehow the top-bunk-kid needed his bed made again (turns out he had pulled off all of his bedding to sleep on the floor). Okay, no biggie, Tom went up and got the bedding issue settled.
At this point, I told Tom we should go upstairs to our bedroom so the kids didn’t have to come all the way downstairs each time. So we did. 🙂
Minutes later (the fourth time out of bed), two had to go to the bathroom—even though they all went before getting in bed.
The fifth time, someone was scared of everything in the room. We added another night light (in addition to the three already in there).
Then we heard them talking quietly and we thought maybe that would be the end of it…but then we heard loud thumping and lots of noise so Tom went down and and found them all out of bed! They got told they could talk but they had to stay in bed. We heard more talking but nothing crazy.
About 10, we finally noticed they were really quiet. Tom checked on them and they were all out! We crossed our fingers and hoped it lasted!
King’s Castle, Part 2
That’s one way to watch a movie.
Katie found a Lego wand…
And loves Harry Potter… Leviosah!
Surprise movie and pizza!
We needed to run to Costco and on the way there I decided to check the movie schedule to see if anything kid-friendly was playing that we could surprise the kids with. And yep! Starting in 10 minutes was Penguins of Madagascar which both kids love (they watch the cartoon at home)!
They were thrilled!
And then afterwards we hit Costco…and since it was lunchtime…got pizza in the cafe!
Watching their videos from Santa
Watching Frozen with Grandma
Katie’s first movie!
Tom wanted to take Owen to see Big Hero 6 and wondered if he should try taking Katie. I thought it was worth a try since she can sit still through movies at home…but I said I’d go shopping nearby in case things went south and he needed me to retrieve her. Of course I would be sad to miss being there for her first movie…but I got to do Owen’s first movie so it was only right that Tom get to do Katie’s!
She understood she was going to see a movie and on the way there this is all we heard:
“Movie. Movie. Movie. Movie. Movie. Movie. Movie. Movie.”
Once there she was having NONE OF IT while I was trying to take a picture. 🙂
Unfortunately the movie times had changed in the three days since we last checked, so Tom had an hour to kill at the mall. He said it went okay, and then I got these pics:
Tom said Katie was great for the majority of the movie—only getting fidgety towards the end (which is really good since it was almost two hours long!).
So it was a success! Yay Katie!
TV Buddies
Morning cartoons in mom’s bed.
Morning Dancing
I love when they make me smile.
Bear Hug
Welcome to your new earworm.
What’s an earworm you ask? An earworm refers to any piece of music that is so catchy—and at the same time possibly so annoying—that it feels like a worm has crawled into your ear and eaten the intelligent parts of your brain so that you find yourself humming the song all day long and you can’t stop.
Fun, right?
Owen was doing some strange dance move tonight and when we asked what he was doing, he said TOOTY TA!
Huh? Come again?
A quick YouTube search and voilá—Tooty Ta—the exact moves he was doing. And after I heard it, I recognized it as having originally heard it in Owen’s pre-k class…where he first learned it.
Enjoy!
You’re welcome.
Introducing the kids to Aladdin.
I never get tired of finding this.
We helped save the Rialto!
We donated to the Restore the Rialto Kickstarter campaign and used our two free tickets today to take Owen to see How to Train Your Dragon 2.
The first thing Owen said when he sat down is “Where do I set my drink?” Spoiled kid, used to newfangled seats with attached cup holders. 🙂
Waiting for TiVo
She’s gotta touch him.
The last TV for a few days.
Which TV Mom Would You Be Most Like?
You got Cindy from “Beverly Hills 90210”! You are the main source of stability and guidance for your children. You always keep an open door and a place at your table for whomever might need it. You’re a Down-to-earth mother, who is loving and sympathetic to your children but also to your children’s often-troubled friends. You’re a role model!
I can live with that. 🙂
If you want to take the quiz for yourself, go here.
Dancing to Sesame Street
There’s a little girl in there somewhere.
Sesame Street Live 2014
A quick family selfie before heading in to the theater.
Katie sees the decorated Sesame Street semi and is pointing to Elmo!
Two more spinny toys!
Owen bumped me as I was taking a no-flash photo so with the slow shutter speed I got this awesome shot!
Katie was perfectly happy sitting on daddy’s lap!
Some of it was a little loud for Owen, but overall he did really well and wasn’t bothered by it. (Which is awesome since when we tried this two years ago, he lasted about two minutes.) Katie never even flinched at ANY of the noise!
Katie watched a lot of the show like this!
They revolved the set pieces…
…turning it into Sesame Street! The little girl muppet’s name was Katie! 🙂
Dancing!
Our seats—quite a bit different than the up-front row we had before, but it worked out just fine as it wasn’t quite as loud.
Looking excitedly at the Sesame Street sign as we were waiting our turn to take pictures!
All of a sudden Owen went from super happy to super cranky when we needed to take the picture.
Oh well. Katie was happy!
So a good time was had by all! I’m glad Owen got to enjoy it after missing out on it the last time, I’m glad Tom was able to go with us, and I’m glad Katie was amazing and just sat/stood on Tom’s lap the entire time! (Afterwards Owen said he was sad that the characters didn’t come up to him—a few of the characters came down the aisles about six rows during one song—and we told him they just didn’t have the time to come see everyone! Poor kid.)