A Grand Adventure at the Dollar Movie

Dentist husband has been gone all weekend in Texas with his brother and Dad golfing. His brother lives in Wisconsin and about this time of year, they all decide that they are tired of the cold weather and they plan a golf trip to a warmer climate. Texas usually is where they go because the flights are relatively cheep from Utah and Wisconsin.

Anyway, when Dad is away, I always try to plan a fun weekend. So, on Saturday, I told them we would go see "Enchanted" and then go to a local favorite chocolate store afterward. Toothsome #4 (16 months) is VERY active these days and I should have thought through taking four kids under the age of 8 to the dollar movie theatre the first day that "Enchanted" is there. As I write this, I am still not sure, what I was thinking.

We got there early so we could get seats together and stood in-line for 20 minutes waiting for them to let us be seated. I was able to get good seats, next to the aisle, so I could slip out with toothsome #4 and stand in the back if necessary. Well, before the movie had even started, she was wiggling and hollering out about having to sit on my lap. Once the movie started, she was beyond wiggling and started crying and hollering loudly in frustration and anger. So, I quickly stood up and moved to stand in the back and let her run around at my feet. That was not good enough. She started POUNDING on the exit doors, trying to escape--yelling in frustration as I tried to hold the doors shut. Meanwhile, toothsome #3 did not like sitting next to his brother and sister without me, so soon he was standing next to me begging to be picked up. I couldn't pick him up because I was still trying to keep toothsome #4 happy and in the movie theatre. (I should mention that people are coming and going through the doors, I was trying to keep shut and she tried to slip past me everytime a door would open.)

Anyway, in trying calm down toothsome #3, I noticed that toothsome #4 was happy. She was happy because she was picking up popcorn from the floor of the movie theatre and happily munching away at it. Remember this is a dollar theatre---the floors are black from lack of cleaning. So, I stood there at a loss of what to do, she is happy and actually standing in one place but then again, she is eating popcorn off the floor. I can't leave the theatre to buy a bag because I still have a 6 and 8 year old in seats watching the movie and toothsome #3 is clinging to me because the movie is too scary. (He says that about everything--even Barney). I then notice a group of four 12ish aged looking girls with a fresh bag of popcorn. They couldn't find four seats together and were sitting on the floor in the back of the theatre. I decide to offer to buy their bag of popcorn from them and have them get a fresh one. Instead, these VERY nice girls tell me they have more popcorn than they want and they will just share with toothsome #4. So the rest of the movie was spent with toothsome #4 standing about 3 inches from these girls while they feed her popcorn. Every once in awhile, she would leave them and try running down one of the aisles or try and escape out one of the exits and I would have to go chasing after her with toothsome #3 running behind me.

Needless to say, I didn't see much of the movie but my older kids loved it. (I did get to see the whole singing section in the middle and loved that part.) We ended up not going to the chocolate store, but to 7-11 where I got myself a 44 ounce Diet Coke. Boy, did that taste good after my movie experience.