Winged Migration, Southington Fun, and Harry Potter

Today we started out at the movies, at 10 am, to see a free presentation of Winged Migration. I've heard about movie theaters showing free movies during the summer, but this is the first time we've gone to one. Mostly they show all the animated stuff we've already seen, but I was happy to find something I thought would be of substance.

This movie was visually spectacular and I'm glad to have seen it on the big screen. For two reasons. One is that the exquisite cinematography might not translate as well to a smaller screen. And two is that if it were on TV the boys would have turned it off after 15 minutes. The movie really is visually stunning, and I highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys just watching nature. But I was extremely disappointed in the missed opportunity to learn something. Me and my kids, both. Imagine March of the Penguins without any narration, and that's pretty much what you've got. Once in a very small while there were subtitles which blinked by too fast for me to read the whole thing to the kids.

What my kids were saying through the movie:
"What kind of bird is that?"
"Where is that?"
"Why is he doing that?"
"I wonder why..."
It was so darn frustrating! And it's so unfortunate, because with some decent narration this movie could have rocked. The kids actually wanted to know about the birds, not just look at them!

After the movie we walked around the mall a bit. I let the boys dictate what we did for quite a while. They spent all the money Grandma Rocks had given them on Saturday at their cousin Sean's birthday party. We had a pleasant and easy going afternoon. At one point we stopped into a book store in the mall and R saw the strategically placed Harry Potter display. Seeing it up close and touching it had him asking if I would buy it and read it to him. This from the boy who only wanted to hear Jim Dale read it on CD (list price $79.99). I had reserved the audio book at the library, which we were due to visit, and told him to let's wait and see if we could find out where on the list we were for it.

On the way home we stopped at BJ's for gas and I ran inside to get a soda. And there it was: the ENORMOUS Harry Potter display, with the audio book for only $42.99. R agreed to give up his allowance for a month, and I would pay the balance. However, we'd still wait to open it till after the library. Well the librarian told us we were "way down there" on the list, so we now officially own our own copy. Needless to say E is losing his mind without someone to play with.

We finished up the day with some Southington Fun. The first show was a performance by a Polynesian Dance school. It was very interactive for the kids (click on the photo to see it closer):It was great that they got to interact, but it would have been nice if they could've had the kids sit down during the straight performances. It was very difficult to see. I did not get any photos of all the cool hula skirt numbers because they saved all that for the end, and by that point all the kids were standing and we could barely see a thing. E was getting really pissed.

Unfortunately, all the interaction made it challenging for the next entertainer; a juggler. Get a load of this...
Ha ha! The guy really was amusing, and very talented as well. He did an admirable job staying patient with all the kids running up onto the stage to touch "this" and "that" too. I have to say the parents were really neglectful in their basic good manners lessons for the evening. The performer did manage to refrain from screaming at kids, but I could see he was wishing parents would pay attention and help him out. His frustration was pretty obvious.

Later the Southington Park and Rec people actually started speaking to the kids, especially as the show got to the point where being onstage or even too close wasn't a good idea.

The guy was a really good juggler. The lawn chair thing was my favorite. It was also fun when he got up on his six foot unicycle and took bites out of an apple as he juggled it, a machete and a juggling pin.

We had actually seen this guy perform during Southington Fun a couple of years ago. Yes! I remembered it! But the boys didn't.

R was thrilled when I told him he could stay up as late as he wanted to listen to his book. He turned in an hour after his regular bedtime. As I write this he is on disk four of 17. And he keeps wondering why he keeps hurting himself. I had hoped he'd sleep a little later than usual the day after, but the garbage trucks woke him up.

What an amazing day. It was one of those days when I wasn't thinking about anything but where I was. And totally enjoying it. I'm so glad to be getting better at it.