Girls' Day Out

Since Martin Luther King Day is a holiday and there's no school and I didn't have to go to work, it was the perfect day for a girls' day out.  Lindsey, Carley and I took the train into the city and met up with Cindy for lunch and a movie.  We saw Beauty and the Beast 3D.  We had a totally terrific day.  It's so fun going out with my girls.

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Father's Day 2011

We had a full and fun Father's day starting out by letting Daddy know just how much we appreciate him by getting him an ice cream cake and cards to celebrate the day.  We even had a surprise visit from our friends, Rick and Chris, who stopped by on their way home from camping over the weekend.  We hadn't seen them in a while so it was great to visit with them.

Then Lindsey and I met Cindy and Brian at the movie theater to see Kung Fu Panda 2.  I had heard there was an adoption theme to the movie (Po, the Panda, goes in search of his early beginnings before he was adopted by his father who is a goose.)  I didn't realize how heavy the adoption theme was, though, and found myself getting very emotional at the end when Po finds out about his birth parents, and how he came to be found by his adoptive father, the goose, but tells him "you'll always be my dad!" 

I asked Lindsey on the way home if she understood Po's beginnings and where he was from and she said, "yes, Pandas don't come from fruit baskets" (his adopted dad found him in a radish basket).  I think she really believes that most people are adopted because that's the reality of our family.  She asked me not that long ago, "Who adopted you, mom?"

http://youtu.be/YIW5oo-8NYw

Finally in the evening we had a sitter come over and Blain and I went to a heavy metal concert and saw the New York Dolls, Poison (I'm a Bret Michael's fan) and Motely Crue.  Nothing like some head banging music to end the weekend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTy9cG8Njok

Hop

I took Lindsey and Sammy to see the new kid's movie "Hop" today.  We met up with Cindy and Brian and we all gave the movie a big thumbs up!  It's a feel good movie with a happy ending and plenty of laughs for kids of all ages.  And what better time of year to see a movie about the Easter Bunny. Then we went out to lunch and did a little shopping together at the mall where I bought some new earrings for all the girls of the family (myself included).  Another fun Saturday, especially considering Sammy's soccer game was canceled because of snow.  This has been one long winter!

127 Hours and Superbowl Sunday

Because of my newly rediscovered love of movies and because it happened here in Utah so it was a REALLY big deal in the news here at the time and because it's now nominated for an Oscar best picture, I got away for a couple of hours yesterday to see "127 Hours".  It's well done and I can see why it was nominated for best picture, though I doubt it will win.  It happened in 2003, but I would have sworn it was only about 4 years ago instead of 8 (wow, as you get older time really does start to speed up).  Great story of survival and the meaning of life.  I don't think I would have survived 27 hours myself.

Then it was TV watching for the rest of the day, first the Puppybowl on the Animal Planet Network with the kids, then the Superbowl.  Glad Greenbay won and glad that a guy from Utah won a million dollars for coming up with the best Doritos ad during the Superbowl.

Where the Wild Things Are

This was another movie I watched a couple of days ago.  I haven't seen this many movies in years!  I've rediscovered how entertaining and thought provoking a good movie can be.  "Where the Wild Things Are" has haunted me since I've seen it.  In fact here I am blogging about it at 4:00 in the morning.

This is the best movie I've ever seen that deals with some of the more raw and difficult emotions of childhood - anger, loneliness, fear, wanting to be heard and accepted.  A young child doesn't always know how to recognize or deal with these feelings, hence the term "acting out" which is basically being out of control and wild.  I remember this as a kid and I see it in my children.

The story of this movie is pretty simple, a young boy has a fight with his mom and runs away and ends up on an island inhabited with some very strange and immature creatures.  They threaten to eat him so he convinces them that he's really a king, in fact their king (they're not very bright).  Each of the creatures represents his different emotions.  At first everything is fun and great but things slowly but surely spiral downward and out of control.  In the end, he escapes the island and goes back home where he knows he's loved.

I know this sounds so basic, but it really was a great film, beautifully shot.  There really are no solutions offered, these are emotions all humans deal with and being able to handle them, well, really the only cure is growing up.  Oh and by the way, I've never read the book.  From what I understand it's a really short children's book.  Now I'll have to check it out.  I must say, though, the movie does seem more geared towards an adult or teenage audience.  I know it's too intense in places for my five year olds.
 
Afternote:  After watching the trailer again, one of the reasons I liked this movie so much was the beautiful way it portrayed the fun and wonderful imagination of a child.  It's a good reminder to get in touch with that part of my inner child and appreciate and enjoy this with my children.

Good Hair

Carley's Beautiful Natural Hair

Carley's Beautiful Hair Extensions - You know, she's beautiful no matter what!

During my recuperation, I've had the chance to catch up on watching some movies I've been wanting to see for a while.  This morning I watched the Chris Rock movie "Good Hair".  I was blown away.  I think it's a should see for all Americans, but is definitely a MUST see for any parent, black or white, of a child of African descent, in particular if their child is a girl.

The movie starts out with Chris Rock explaining why he made the film, because his 3 year old daughter came to him crying and asking, "Daddy, how come I don't have good hair?".  So he started researching what the Black American culture considers "good hair" and it is not the natural African hair, which was often referred to as "nappy" by the African Americans he interviewed.  In fact one black woman he interviewed that wore her hair natural in locs stated that she was often considered revolutionary because of her natural hair style.

What were the preferred hair styles for most black women was relaxed hair or hair weaves, basically European type looking hair.  To relax the curl from African hair takes some incredibly harsh chemicals.  They showed 3 and 4 year olds getting this done.  When I got Carley's hair extensions put in last month, the African American beautician had no problem with relaxing Carley's hair at age 2.  She said she had relaxed hair of kids as young as one!  After seeing this movie, Carley's going to have to be much, much older, maybe when she's 21.

The price and source of the human hair for the hair weaves was a major eye opener.  Most of the hair comes from India where people either have their hair shaved as a religious sacrifice or have it cut off and stolen and sold to hair brokers.  After the hair is processed and sold in the United States, it goes for $1000s.  This made me feel a lot better about the $65 I spend on Carley's non-human hair extensions.  I also felt a little bit better about getting the extensions when the black mom of the 4 year old getting her hair relaxed said the main reason she was doing it was the time it took to comb out her daughter's hair.  Even though I think the majority of wanting straight hair is more cultural than anything else, let's face it, unless African hair is kept pretty short, Lindsey's Asian hair which is long and straight is so much easier and quicker to take care of than Carley's hair which is considerably shorter than Lindsey's but is dry and thick with very tight curls.  So there is a convenience and time factor as part of this as well.  Even though it took over an hour of Carley sitting in the chair at the salon to have the hair extensions put in, on a daily basis we're having to spend much, much less time styling it.

This movie made me laugh in places, taught me a lot about the African American hair culture in this country, gave me a lot to think about regarding what Carley will be facing as she gets older with her hair and her self image and then made me cry at the end when Chris Rock said that what he wanted to teach his daughters most was it's more important what's inside of their heads rather than what's on top of their heads.

It's About Time!

For whatever reason, we have never taken our kids to the movie theater.  Plenty of DVDs and TV and other type of outings but never actually gone out to see a movie.  Lindsey and Sam went to the movies with their daycare last summer so I feel bad I missed being with them for their first time.  Anyway, we finally all went as a family and saw the new Disney movie "Tangled".  And the reviews are in.  Sammy declared it "too girlie" (I think Blain backed him up on that) and Carley got bored after about an hour which I thought was a decent enough attention span for a 2 year old.  Lindsey and I really liked it.  We all enjoyed, though, getting out of the house together on a rainy and cold January day. 

They had previews for "Cars 2" coming out this summer so the plans are that will be our next family movie and one that won't be too girlie.  And in case you didn't know, Sammy is a HUGE Cars fan.  I've lost count of how many Lightening McQueens we have floating around this place.