The Adventures of "The Lorax"

Maybe I was feeling brave. I must have been feeling crazy! Because I decided that today I would take Jackson, Addison and Adeline to see "The Lorax." We were going to spend the day waiting for dad to come home, so why not have something fun to do (at least that was my initial thought). Here's the complication. Our movie theatre is closed (welcome to small town USA). The closest theatre is 45 minutes away, and in my crazybeenalonewithkidsallweek state, that sounded doable. First mistake...getting the kids excited without checking movie times. Turns out that that movie had moved on...which meant that to go we had to go 2 hours. Kids were so excited, that I didn't have the heart to tell them no. Thankfully Kelly had agreed to come along. (I swear, the extra hands come in so handy!!! I am absolutely grateful to all of me helpers who come to the house, on trips, everything!!! ). Trip was almost canceled because last night Jackson threw up (EVERYTIME DAVE IS GONE, ONE OF THEM GET SICK. EVERY. TIME). He said he felt much better afterwords, so it was a watch and see.

All was ok with the tummy this morning (still a little off, but not sick and no fever), so we plowed ahead. We took Kim's car because I can't fit three seats in my back seat. All were in (after 15 minutes of trying to buckle kids in....Kelly was the smart one who suggested starting with the middle child before the sides when we stopped for potty...brilliant!).

Adventure #1: A 2 hour drive qualifies as a movie trip, so when we got everyone in, I grabbed the laptop to play the movie...I had plugged it in earlier, but it wasn't in all the way so it didn't charge. We headed to Kelly's house to grab her laptop. It was charged, but wouldn't fit between the front seats so everyone could see in the back. So we headed back up to the golf course where my car was parked to get my travel player out of my car. 30 minutes later, we had pushed play and were ready to go. Of course, snacks were immediately necessary (which I had grabbed!).

Adventure #2: I guess not an adventure, but there was a border patrol check that had us stopped for about 10 minutes to get through. This, combined with the DVD player mishap cost us too much time and we were going to miss the original show.

As all mom's do, the game plan was changed and we shifted gears to a movie about an hour later. We stopped and grabbed happy meals and chinese food, and had a quick bite in the car. Jackson spilled his chocolate milk in his seat because his toy fell and that was more important. Thank goodness Addison had extra clothes in her bag. He sat on those, which spared the milk on the butt look.

Adventure #3: Just getting through the movie. Of course they wanted popcorn, which was fine. But add a drink to that and little bladders and man....3 times! But only for 2 kids. Yup. Addison had to go twice (actually probably would have gone 3 times, but I wanted to see the last few minutes of the movie), and Jackson had to go once. We were in the upper row, which was great. There was no one behind us that could be bothered by their movement. And they moved. I started on the end with two seats to my left that were empty. By the end of the movie, we had shifted down and were now using all of those seats. Addison took off her skirt during the movie, she decided she didn't want it on anymore. Adeline took off her shoes. Jackson had his hands inside his shirt because he spilled water in the car on his long sleeve shirt. Seriously.

We hit Starbucks on the walk out because this mom was tired, and my extra hands needed a pick me up too! It was cute because Jackson, Addison and Adeline thought everything was so pretty! They loved it!

Adventure #4: Getting home. By this time, kids were tired. I think that says it all. But it always amazes me that right when we get home, a switch flipped and all three kiddos were ready to play again. With each other. Go figure!

Funny: Along the road both ways, Addison kept repeating, "Get me outta here! Get me outta the desert." I'm not sure where it was coming from, except that she decided she was done.

Lesson learned: Next time for a movie, 45 minutes to drive is the limit. Addison still gets a little squirly in the middle of the movie, but she ended up doing ok.

All in all, it was a success. Hey, I took 3 kids to the movies. Next time, I might even attempt it by myself. We'll see how brave I'm feeling then!!!