Eclipse came out last Wednesday in the early morning hours.  I was not there I must say.  My advanced age kept me from tackling the early morning hours.  Okay.  So I am not that old, but life does get in the way sometime and it did this past week. Hubby and I were babysitting  our friends’ four children for ten days (four plus four does equal eight remember!) and needless to say I didn’t need a Twilight Hangover the next day!  I also didn’t have goodie bags this time around either, but I hope to do better for Breaking Dawn.

The movie was a lot of fun.  I  will be the first to admit that the Twilight movies can be a bit cheesy, but so are the books and yet so many of us like cheesy! I have to admit that I did cringe at Jasper’s sudden Texas accent. It was a bit overdone, but at least they lightened up on his look a bit and he doesn’t look as freaky as he did in the first two movies.

It  had a lot more action than the first two films and I appreciated the bloodless action.  It was great fun to see Edward rip off the head of Victoria.  I never knew  I was this gore-seeking!

As far as going along with the book, the film did pretty good with that. Of course they cannot ever match the book page by page, but there was one part I wish they had gone word for word with.  After Bella kissed Jacob and she is looking at Edward he says,”You love him.” She then says,”I love you more.”  and that was about it.  I so wanted this:

“…when I left  you, Bella, I left you bleeding.  Jacob was the one to stitch you back up again.  That was bound to leave its mark – on both of you.  I’m not sure those kinds of stitches dissolve on their own. I can’t blame either of you for something  I made necessary. I may gain forgiveness, but that doesn’t let me escape the consequences.”  Stephanie Meyer ~ Eclipse

Maybe some producer will read this and add it to the DVD?  Yeah I  am sure that will happen!

My mommy rant of the day (hour?) goes to Burger King.  On our way to an animal park with the kids we stopped at Burger King for lunch.  The kids meals were giving away TWILIGHT TOYS!  You heard me toys of Edward, Bella and Jacob.  My stomach turned and I was ashamed of being a Twilight fan at that time.  The Twilight series is a young adult series plan and simple. Marketing toys to kids under ten is ridiculous and is one more way were are letting our children grow up to early and be exposed to adult things.

Oh, and I totally agree with FireMom:  The sparkling has got to go.  It just looks so tacky, silly, stupid and more!  FireMom is on the fence at this point with the whole Team Jacob team Edward thing.  MomOutnumbered is a solid Team Jacob. I am team everyone wins-because-I-read-the-books-and-they-have-a-happy-ending!

Like and for-sure!  I’m such a teenager after writing this!

Photos by Mandy W.  2010

I cannot possibly write a better review/non-review than the one that FireMom recently wrote, so I won’t even try.  I will tell you why the third installment of the Toy Story series is my favorite and probably will forever be.

First of all I have to tell you that Toy Story is my all-time favorite children’s movie ever. I love the good-natured humor, the music, the graphics, the voices…everything!  I watched to first two movies before I had children and I kept the Toys from Burger King kids meals for at least 10-12 years!  I recently passed them on to Big Brother and Little Brother (FireMom’s kiddos) to play with as my girls never caught on to the movies like I have.

The stories inspire play. True playing with some toys and a lot of imagination.  No plugs, a few batteries maybe, but again a lot of IMAGINATION.  If I had not had my imaginiation as a kid I would have been quite bored and lonely!  I hope my kids learn such innocent play while they are young and are able to have great memories of toys, much like Andy has!

I won’t spoil the movie but there is a character in the film named Bonnie. When you look at her, think of my Elle. She has on a tutu over her clothes with rain boots on…that alone would have made me cry during the movie!

Oh yeah!  My kids did like the movie as well.  I gave them Toy Story Valentines and Toy Story Silly Bandz in goodie bags at the theater. I am a sucker for party favors!

On a side note: Here is the bag I got when I ordered popcorn….

It must be fate   Cannot wait to see this!

A few months ago

I was at the movies with some friends (it feels like years ago!) and we saw the preview for Babies.  I instantly fell in love and wanted to  have a baby right then and there. Hubby didn’t see this preview and did not feel the same. Actually, I think he could have watched the preview and still would have had the same sort of negative thinking!

This movie is about the first year of four infants from different parts of the world:  San Francisco, Mongolia, Namibia, and Tokyo.  The film promises to be beautiful and I hope that Breastfeeding is a big part of this film (fingers crossed).  This film may be a great opportunity for us all to learn from other and come to respect our different ways of parenting.

I have included a few links to share with you with previews and shots from this movie.  Enjoy!

My preditcition is that the birth rate will be rather high come next March.  By then I will be working again in the field of Lactation and be as busy as ever!  Busy with babies..how great is that.  Unfortunately I cannot seem to find a theater in this part of Ohio that is showing Babies this weekend so our birthrate may bounce once it comes out on DVD or On-Demand.  Oh the life of a country bumpkin!  Here are a list of theaters.

(Disclosure: I was provided with these links through the BABIES Ambassador Program. Sharing these can lead to me winning prizes like diapers and baby stuff. As I don’t need these items anymore (boo hoo) in the event of my winning they will be split between our local pregnancy center and my niece Ali!)

The Wicked Witch Was Awesome!

Last Wednesday night hubby and I took the kids to see the 70th Anniversary Screening of The Wizard of Oz (in high definition) no less!  Meg saw this movie when she was about five years old, but the other three have never seen it.  As Meg is playing a Munchkin in a local The Wizard of Oz production, we have been talking a lot about the characters and plot around the house and  Mita, Enu and Elle have had no idea of what we were talking about!

The movie was wonderful, of course, as it is a classic.   I’m not much of a techy, but the  quality did seem better than the old TV version I used to watch as a kid.

The first time Meg saw the movie I watched her carefully when the movie turned from black and white to color.  Meg’s look of amazement was something I will always remember and I wanted to watch the other girls looks as well.  I was wondering how I was going to watch three faces at the same time.  Meg solved this for me when she blew the surprise when I overheard her telling Mita  how the film goes from black and white to color.  Enu was sitting far from me besides Hubby and I couldn’t watch her face. So I watched Elle and I was not disappointed!

As Dorothy opens the door into Munchkin land and the screen fills with color, Elle’s jaw drops and she says,”WHAT!”.  too cute and a magical memory I will always have, along with Mita crying up a storm when Dorothy is held captive in the Witch’s castle.  Enu was so happy with the bag of candy gorp I gave each of them, she would have been willing to watch movies all night.  With Meg mouthing the words and dancing in her seat, we were all very happy.

On the way home I told the girls about the times when Uncle Josh and I were little and we would watch Oz and then go out into the woods during the commercials to be scared!  Those flying monkeys are creepy looking, even now!  We were softies I guess, because they weren’t scared (after Harry Potter and Narnia it’s hard to scare kids with monkeys!)

Good memories that we will remember forever, or at least I will!  Elle wore a blue-checked shirt on Thursday and really wants Meg to play Dorothy, or as she calls her “that nice girl.”

I’m to lazy to edit Meg’s eyes and she thinks they look cool anyway!