We got a flyer saying the first movie was Winnie The Pooh and the second was Spy Kids 4. We figured we could catch the first show and leave during intermission. We brought pillows, blankets, sleeping bags, popcorn, candy, snacks, etc. and took about 20 minutes moving car seats and creating a fun "bed" for us to watch the movie on. We danced to the pre-show music and prepared ourselves for a fun time.
Then we found out that they actually weren't showing Winnie the Pooh. Actually they were showing Smurfs, which seems just as harmless unless you have a kid like Clark. Remember how he's scared of pretty much every movie? After 5 minutes he was plugging his eyes and begging us to go home. I spent about 20 minutes explaining that it wasn't real, the blue guys were just pretend, the scary guy was just pretending, etc. which didn't work. Then I moved him to the front seat so he couldn't see it and he complained of being able to hear it. So then I took out the car seats and created a bed for him on the bench seat and told him to plug his ears and go to sleep. He complained and had a pretty miserable time until he eventually fell asleep plugging his ears.
As we watched the movie, I felt guilty because it's not the kind of movie I was especially comfortable letting Peter watch (I felt it was a little inappropriate for my 3-yr-old) yet he had a grand time. I don't think he understood most of it (luckily) and he ate his weight in sour patch kids and popcorn so he was thrilled at the whole night.
Claire was not interested in sleeping, but at least she wasn't grouchy.
And then near the end it started raining and got the car seats wet (that I took out to let Clark lay down).
Overall, I wouldn't call it a raging success. Next time (if there is one...) we will make sure to check and double check the movie. I believe that if they really were showing Winnie the Pooh our night would have turned out much differently.
I've had some gun times at drive-in movies, but they're really hit-or-miss with kids. (Changing diapers at drive-ins is no fun.)
ReplyDeleteAnd for the life of me, I cannot fathom why anyone would want to make a Smurfs movie. I mean, really? Really? Someone had $100 million and that's what they did with it? :-)