Is This Normal?
The chaos that is the KerbersArchive for movies
He tries so hard to be brave…
Star Wars I is being re-released to the theaters in 3D later this month. Dave and I were debating whether Ben would be able to handle seeing it in the theater or not, so we decided to let him watch it here to see if he’d be interested in going to the movies with Dave.
Ben was all gung-ho about watching it, so last night we started it. He was literally sitting on the edge of his seat, and he was asking Dave a million questions about it. It actually went very well. They didn’t have enough time to watch the whole movie last night, so tonight Ben started asking about finishing the movie as soon as we got home from school today. We put him off until after dinner, and then Dave fired it up to finish. By the time we went upstairs to get ready for bed, Ben was all excited because they had finished I and had started II. It was all good.
Five minutes after we came downstairs Ben was down here crying hysterically. He was scared because of the movie. The poor little man. Dave said that he had been kind of quiet and weird as he was tucking him in, but I had no idea it was that bad. Dave had to take him back upstairs and talk him of the ledge big time. He had to leave the hall light on and leave Ben’s door open to even get out of the room, but Ben was finally calmed down enough to let him go.
It was actually very sweet. Ben was so excited at the prospect of going to the movie with Daddy that he tried his hardest to get through it bravely. But once the lights went out it was just too much for him. The final decision was actually very easy to make…there is no way Ben will be seeing this movie in the theater. Since he’s totally into Star Wars, though, we’ve decided to try him on the old ones, numbers IV-VI, which are a bit tamer. Hopefully that will go better!
A Christmas Eve movie
We still had a lot to do today to get ready for tomorrow and Monday’s Christmas parties, but we wanted to make sure that we had some family time, too. Dave took the kids shopping in the morning, which gave me some great time to focus and finish up the chores. We had told the kids that if they were good we could go to see “Chipwrecked” the latest in the Alvin and the Chipmunks series. They were both motivated big time because they’ve looked forward to its release for months. Dave said that a couple of times while they were shopping Ben reminded Emma, “Make sure you’re good so we can go see Chipwrecked!!”
Of course they were angels, so we got to go. Seeing a movie on Christmas Eve is certainly not a traditional activity, but we had no family obligations, so for us it was the perfect thing. The movie, however, was not. Everything started fine…it was silly and fun and the kids were totally into it. Then of course it had to become an action-adventure movie where the Chipmunks and Chipettes were in danger of death because of a volcano that was going to erupt on the island the were stranded on. It was a little too much for both kids. At one point Ben had a horrified look on his face and frantically said, “I have to go to the bathroom!” Dave obliged, even though we both knew that he was just scared. Meanwhile, Emma was basically whimpering and saying, “I don’t like this…” It would have been comical if they weren’t completely panicking.
Thankfully everything worked out ok and everyone escaped the island. Shew. I guess overall the kids liked it, but there was definitely a time during the climax that they truly wanted to leave. Not really the fun family event we thought it would be, but hopefully no one was scarred. At least it was a nice time together.
The last day
Today was the last full day we lived at 1520 Augusta Dr. in Normal.
We had lots of packing to do, and Dave and I were up and at ‘em early to get started on it. Thankfully, the kids were content to play with each other most of the morning. And after lunch our neighbor Maxon came out so they all played outside together.
We had planned to grill a nice dinner and then have our last family movie night in the house. However, the kids were having so much fun playing with their friends that they wanted to stay outside after dinner. That was fine with us, because there was plenty of packing to be done, anyway. As the evening wore on, Dave and I kept on packing things up while the kids were having a blast with their friends. It was kind of bittersweet, as we knew it would be the last time they could simply run outside to play with Maxon and Elijah, who live behind us. Yet we didn’t want to make too much out of the fact that it was our last night, either, because we didn’t want the kids to be too emotional about it.
We ended the evening by lighting some sparklers that were left over from the fourth. The kids all had a ball with them. Unfortunately, though, we waited just a little bit too long to head inside. By the time we did, both of the kids were at defcom 12 and we were experiencing some major meltdowns. That wasn’t really in the plan for our final night at 1520, but it was kind of fitting, too. It’s just our life.
As we put the kids to bed, Ben told me that he was really glad they chose to play with their friends instead of watching a movie. “We can watch a movie anytime,” he said, “But we won’t be able to have Maxon and Elijah as neighbors ever again.” I’m glad that he understands, but am definitely sad that his statement is true. We’re going to miss a lot about this house.
Laughing it up
I’ve always heard the phrase, “Laughing until I cried” but I’ve never really experienced it for myself. I have a friend who cries all the time when she really laughs hard, so I get it, but it just doesn’t happen to me. Oh, I laugh…a lot…and sometimes I laugh so hard that it makes my stomach hurt. But today, for the first time I can ever remember, I laughed until I had tears rolling. Why, you ask? Because I saw the movie “Bridesmaids” this afternoon.
I can’t really describe what was so funny about this movie, but my friends and I were literally laughing almost the entire duration of this film. It certainly isn’t highbrow cinema…in fact it’s very crude and somewhat gross at times. But omg, it is freakin’ funny. I think the best thing about it, though, is that it’s a story that real women can really relate to. It’s over the top and extreme, but the heart of the story is friendships changing and possibly dying and all of us have worried about that at some point in our lives.
I highly recommend that you get your group of girls together and go see this show. If you’re a prude you may want to have a drink or two before-hand, but I promise if you loosen up a little bit you’ll love it. There is no way someone could think this movie was not funny.
Snowtorious B.I.G.
Well, it happened. The storm came just like everyone said it would. Snowtorious B.I.G. is here!!
We found out about 8:30 last night that school would be closed today…all in anticipation of the big weather event that would supposedly happen. My class and Emma’s choir had both already been cancelled, and those were on Wednesday night! Everyone was really preparing for a giant storm. So when I got up this morning and it was doing nothing outside I thought maybe our school officials (and everyone else who was whipped into a near frenzy) were crazy. But about 10:45 this morning it started snowing, and it was immediately snowing hard. By noon it was blowing and was near white-out conditions. Everything was shutting down early and even State Farm closed at 12:30. It didn’t really seem like much was accumulating, because the wind was blowing so hard, but of course it was all landing and drifting somewhere.
We enjoyed our snow day watching TV and movies, playing games, and generally being lazy around the house. The kids are already starting to understand how special a snow day really is. I know all my teacher friends were loving opportunity to go to bed last night without setting the alarm! Meanwhile, the storm got worse into the evening and right now the wind is howling outside so much that it’s actually noisy in here! If it keeps up this badly all night, we’re liable to have over a foot of snow and some seriously plugged up roads. School was cancelled again for tomorrow by 5:00pm tonight. I don’t think anyone would have thought that we’d be able to go tomorrow…it’s going to take some time to get us all out of this!!
Stay warm and safe, everyone, and enjoy your time home together!
Ready for Santa
The excitement in the house is almost palpable. It’s Christmas Eve and Santa will be here in no time. We had a great day and evening together as a family and I think everyone is eagerly anticipating the next couple of days. But tonight before the kids headed to bed, there were things that needed to get done.
First, we wrote a note so Santa would know that the things on the coffee 
table were for him. Then we got the special cookies we had decorated and selected for him and put them on our special Santa plate. We also got a couple of carrots to leave for him to take up to the reindeer. Finally, we poured a glass of milk and our setting was complete.
We can’t wait to see what Santa brings us. Thankfully the kids were so exhausted from playing outside for two hours this afternoon that neither one of them complained too much when we headed up to bed. I’m sure they were asleep in no time, and I’m just hoping that they sleep until at least daybreak before bounding into our room to get us up to see what is waiting for tomorrow morning.
Our first family movie
Today was supposed to be the Atherton Christmas in Earlville, but that got cancelled because my aunt Marla broke her arm last night. So we were faced with a free day…an unusual occasion in this house lately. 
I suggested to Dave that we try taking the kids to see Tangled, the newest Disney movie. To this point Ben had been skeptical about it…it is a girls movie after all. But today when I asked him if he’d like to go to the movie theater to see it, he said yes! Emma was of course excited about the prospect of going, like she is about most things even though she has no idea what she’s getting into, so it was a plan.
We went to the 3:05 show, which seemed perfect. Emma had time for a nap, and it would be dinner time as soon as the movie was over. We got our tickets, our popcorn and two booster seats and we headed into the theater. Man, does it take a long time for a movie to start when you’re with preschoolers! But finally the previews started, and we were all thrilled to see a preview for Cars 2, which is due in theaters this summer. There were other movies that the kids seemed excited about , so hopefully we can convince them to go back.
Finally, the movie started. Both of the kids were glued to the screen for most of it. There were times that either Ben or Emma or both got very scared, but we got them through it. I think that at one time of another both of them said, “I don’t like this movie!” And by the end Emma was sitting in my lap and was pretty tired of paying attention. But we made it through, and overall everyone liked it. I guess the biggest surprise was how much Dave and I liked it. It was really cute.
After the movie we had dinner at a Mexican restaurant that was a hit with Emma but not Ben. *sigh* Someday that boy will appreciate good food. What cracked me up, though, was that Ben asked a million questions about the movie all during dinner. I seriously mean a million questions. I couldn’t answer many of them, so I’d say, “I don’t know, Buddy.” That isn’t good enough for Ben anymore, so every time I’d say that he’d respond with, “But what do you think?” Oh, man, I was exhausted by the time we got home!
I’m so happy that we had a successful movie outing. Dave and I love movies so much that I hope we can continue to see them with our kids. Hopefully the chicken period will be a short one and the kids will be brave enough to try another show very soon.
Neighborhood fun
When the weather’s nice, we see a lot of our neighbors the Mathiases. Maxon is just a few months younger than Ben, and they are the best of friends. Actually, they’re more like brothers, because they bicker back and forth all the time but still love to be together and just want to play outside together as much as possible. Since it’s been getting colder, and especially now that the time has changed and it gets dark at 4:45, we don’t see them even close to as much as we used to. And we definitely miss them.
So tonight they walked over for dinner and some playtime. The kids were so excited to see each other, and they went straight for the basement to play. Dave went to pick up some pizza, and our night was set. Of course there was some bickering between various kids, and we had a couple of battles to referee, but for the most part they entertained themselves pretty well. And that was really great, because it gave the grownups some time to catch up, enjoying some cocktails and some laughs.
After a while we popped some corn and started a movie downstairs. The kids loved it.
We all agreed that we need to do this more this winter since we can’t get out to play as much. I hope we do, because it was a very fun night. We’re so lucky to have such great neighbors.
The drive in movie party
Last night we went to one of the most fun parties ever. Our friend Addie had seen the idea in afamily magazine of some kind, and thought our group would be a perfect one to try it with. It was a drive-in movie party, and I still can’t believe we pulled it off. Everyone brought a big box with them to the Ince’s house. All of the boxes went downstairs and somehow we got all of the kids sitting down for pizza. You have to understand that we had fifteen kids there. That’s right…I said 15 kids and their ages ranged from 2-16. Just getting them all fed at once was some kind of miracle.
After we ate we all headed downstairs to decorate our boxes. 
We were making them into cars, so everyone added black paper plates for wheels, red and yellow circles for headlights and tail lights, and a white paper plate for a steering wheel. The kids were really into it, and since we had so many big kids they were able to help the little kids decorate. Last but certainly not least, Addie had Toy Story 3 stickers to add to the cars because that was the feature presentation upstairs in the living room.
Once the cars were finished, we hauled them all upstairs and got them situated in the living room. We attached shoe boxes onto the side to hold all the snacks. The kids got in and were all set to start the movie when the snacks started coming out of the kitchen. 
We had popcorn, puppy chow, crackers, cereal, fruities, and juice boxes for all the kids…only $1.00 each. We had given them play money to spend on their snacks.
Finally, we were all settled and ready to start Toy Story 3. Ben was not very excited about watching it because he knew there were scary parts to it. But he made it through the entire movie and stayed in his car. In fact, everyone stayed in their car. Like I said, it was some kind of miracle.
We had so much fun, and the kids were absolutely exhausted by the time we left the party. It was a great night. I’m really thrilled that we’ve started doing things with this group of friends. The mix is nice and the kids all get along great. I’m looking forward to the next event.
The preschool overnight
Tomorrow’s Promise preschool holds an overnight event every other month. You pay a fee and your kids get to spend 7:00 Friday night until 9:00 Saturday morning at preschool. I’ve heard that every kid who attends them has a great time and wants to go every time. Ben never had any interest in going. Each time I’d ask, he’d quickly say, “No, I don’t want to go!” So I never pushed him on it. This time, though, he said, “Maybe…I think I’d like to go.” So we were on it. We started talking it up and emphasizing how many of his friends would be there. This month the theme for the event was “Toy Story”, so that helped. The kids were going to do an event with their favorite toys, they were going to watch the first two movies, and they even got to bring home a Toy Story 3 book. Ben seemed pretty excited, and I was hopeful that he’d really do it. Oh, in contrast, Emma was super excited about it from the get-go. Once she realized that she would get to go, too, she jumped up and down and squealed with delight.
He went back and forth in the week or so leading up to the overnight. He went from excited to nervous and back to excited again at the drop of a hat. On Wednesday I stopped in to talk to Mrs. Gee, the director of the preschool, just to make sure that everything would be ok. She explained how everything worked, and assured me that he would do great. So I talked to Ben again, described everything that would happen to the best of my ability, and got him pretty psyched up for the event. Then we got there.
The minute we walked in the door he started getting nervous. By the time we dropped off their sleeping bags and backpacks with all of the other kids’, he was downright panicked. But then he sat down to start coloring next to his friend Boyden, so I thought maybe we’d make it. We kissed Emma good-bye and tried to do the same to Ben and he burst into tears. He was hysterical within seconds. The next several minutes are a blur to me, because I do not handle Ben’s hysteria very well. I know I should be empathetic and sympathetic, but instead I get impatient and annoyed with him. It makes me feel awful, but it’s what I do. Dave talked to him and calmed him down, but he still kept saying, “I’m NOT staying…I do NOT want you to go!” and was pretty much on the verge of tears again. Dave finally got him convinced that we’d stay there for a while and he could join his friends in the small group activity. Their group was headed to story time, so off he went with the other kids.
We stuck around for about a half hour fretting and stewing trying to decide what to do. Ok, I was the fretter and stewer and Dave was really pretty calm about the whole thing. I know that’s not a shock to anyone. We finally left, promising Ben that we’d come back later and if he didn’t want to stay we’d talk about it then. I was devastated. I hate that he gets so apprehensive about the unknown. I hate that I cannot do anything to calm his fears and console him. It makes feel like a failure as a mom. Even though this should have been a date night for Dave and me, it was ruined because I felt horrible.
The story ends well, though. Dave went back to check on things at about 9:15 or so, and Ben was having a great time. Dave briefly talked to him and then said, “Ok, then, I’ll see you in the morning, Buddy!” Ben’s eyes had some fear in them, but Dave left, and things seemed ok.
We picked him up this morning and he was happy as a clam. Both he and Emma had a great time and want to go to the next overnight. Dave and I tried to praise Ben this morning as much as possible for being brave and facing his fears. I only wish he would let himself go a little more. Maybe someday the fears won’t take over so fiercely and he’ll be able to embrace the unknown. I think he will…I just wish I knew how to help him get there.
