I have not watched To Kill A Mockingbird since I was young and was anxious to watch it again as an adult to glean more of a message. I am also inspired to re-read the book, and have put it on my library list.

Mita and I cozied up on an icy day when the rest of the family were on a snow hike. We popped some popcorn and watched the movie together. I love watching old movies with the kids.  Being a black and white film, long beginning credits and the length of the movie itself are a history lesson.

To Kill A Mockingbird is a movie filmed in 1962 and was based on the novel of the same name that was written by Harper Lee. Set in the deep south in the 1930′s  Atticus Fitch, a single father,  is appointed to be the defense attorney for an accused black man.  The story is shown through the prospective of Atticus’ children, and covers far more than the racial divides of the day.  For example the topic of a neighbor with a mental delay/illness shows us how people with special needs were treated and feared in that time.  The poverty of the depression is shown throughout as is the mourning a family without a mother is noted upon.

I will not give away the story as it is such a powerful one, I do recommend watching this movie and reading the book if you have never done so before.  A great movie to watch with your older children.  It was great to watch with Mita and point out how things were just  100 years ago. The jury in the courtroom consisted of twelve, white men. The courtroom only allowed blacks in the balcony and the use of the n word and calling grown black men boy was very noticeable.

To Kill A Mockingbird hits the stores January 31st in DVD and Blu-ray.  The extra features include a conversation with Gregory Peck, and his Academy Award acceptance speech for Best Actor.   I enjoyed watching the Scout Remembers feature and seeing Scout all grown up and learning the story of how she was chosen to act in the film.  The book,To Kill a Mockingbird: 50th Anniversary Edition is now available at Amazon.

(Disclosure: I was provided with a preview copy of To Kill A Mockingbird from Universal Home Entertainment for my honest review. No other compensation was received.  Amazon links are affiliate links.)

The first movie is A Turtle’s Tale: Sammy’s Adventures hits the stores on January 3rd (I’ve already seen Walmart advertising it).  An animated film, the story follows  Sammy the turtle from being a new hatchling trying to make it to the sea and through the next fifty years of his life in the ocean.  Along the way he meets friends, the love of his life and learns about how things are changing in his enviroment.

Elle (age 7) and Enu (age 9) enjoyed watching A Turtle’s Tale and we passed it around to a few friends to watch. The under ten crowd has a lot of fun watching Sammy and his friends.

I also want to tell you about A Mile In His Shoes.  A Thomas Kinkade Production that comes to stores on January 10th,  is directed by William Dear (Angels in the Outfield) and stars Dean Cain and Luke Schroder.  Luke looks so much like his father it reminds me of Silver Spoons in the 80′s heyday!

Based on a true story A Mile In His Shoes  is a  DOVE approved PG movie that is perfect for the family.  The story about a young teen with Autism in the 1940′s and how he impacts the lives of others when he joins a baseball team.  This family film is great for ages 8-12 helping them learn that people who are different than them can be friends and be a part of a community.

(I received a copy of each of the above mentioned movies from Vivendi Entertainment  in exchange for my honest opinion about the movies. No other compensation was received.)

Starring Selena Gomez (Wizards of Waverly Place, Beezus and Ramona),   Emma (Katie Cassidy, “Melrose Place”), and stepsister Meg (Leighton Meester, “Gossip Girl”).  Monte Carlo is perfect for the tween scene.  Selena Gomez is also a popular singer. I took the girls last November to watch her perform in Columbus and they adore her. She is also pretty age-appropriate for younger fans (so far anyway).

The main story line is a familiar one, but it is one that works.  Selena’s character, Grace,  is mistaken for a famous English heiress, and she along with her two friends live the life of wealth for a few days. Along the way there is fun, love, arguments, grief and ultimately learning to be yourself.

If you have a daughter the between the ages of 9 and 12 chances are this movie is for them.  There is a bit of lovey-dovey-kissy scene or two but they are nothing new and tame. My older three girls (ages 12, 11 and 9) loved it. The seven year old wandered in and out of the movie a few times, but did say she liked how it ended.  I liked how it shows a little bit of the world and overall the moral of the story was honestly and loving who you are.

MONTE CARLO arrives on Blu-ray and DVD on October 18th and is produced by Academy Award®-winner Nicole Kidman.

(Disclosure:  I received a free copy of this movie from @FoxHomeEnt in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was received.)

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

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!