A Birthday Surprise Created and Then Ruined by Pixar

Well dip me in axle grease and call me slick.

I’ve got a few topics I considered writing about, but they all seemed too heavy for a Wednesday Evening. Who wants heavy lifting after a full day of work, or sunshine, or whatever you had today?

So we’ll go with something light and fun. Especially, since tomorrow is the start of Bang’s birthday month, I thought I’d talk about what I’m excited for.

His birthday. He’s been asking for days, “How many more sleeps until June?” He would buzz with excitement when we’d tell him.

A couple weeks ago DW and I saw a trailer on TV for a sequel to a movie we’ve seen a few hundred times.

Cars. Lightning McQueen and Mater make a team that rivals Buzz and Woody. It was Crash’s favorite movie. DW and I loved it, too. We found new things to laugh at every time we watched it.

Then they made Cars 2. It was okay, but I equate it to the Star Wars prequels. It just wasn’t the same.

Then DW saw the trailer for Cars 3 and knew we had to see it. We’ll probably take the kids, too.

Cars 3 comes out the day before Bang turns 6. We were going to make it a surprise. However, since both boys watch TV they eventually saw the trailer. Then they saw it’s release date. Thanks Pixar for both creating a great birthday surprise and then ruining it.

They may have been more excited than me. But not by much.

I think Pixar will live up to its usual expectations. The movie appears to revert back to it’s roots of racing, friendship, and overcoming incredible obstacles that rang out in the first movie. I expect it to have all the humor and all the feels Pixar has been known for since it’s iconic release of Toy Story.

Are you planning on taking your kidlets to watch?

Now race on over and follow me on Facebook and Twitter!

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It’s Just A Movie

No it’s not.

It’s much more than that.

It’s the connections we make. It’s how we react to the message, react to the storyline, react to the words. Combine that with a powerful, stirring soundtrack and you have the makings of movie that moves us to laughter and to tears and back to laughter.

If you haven’t seen Disney’s Moana you might want to put this post in the “to read later” folder. 

To begin with, the movies tackles fear; the fear of a people who teach its peoples to fear. Fortunately, Grandma remembers braver times and encourages her granddaughter to be courageous. Secondly, it tackles love. Unfortunately, Grandma gets sick. Forehead to forehead, her last words to her Granddaughter were

There’s nowhere you could go that I won’t be there. 

Like, Obi Wan, she comes back stronger. Moana casts aside her peoples fears, shoves off from shore to save her people from despair and destruction. Her goal is to restore the heart of Te Fiti that was stolen and lost by the demigod, Maui. When she finds Te Fiti, forehead to forehead she restores her heart and restores life to her people’s island and way of life. 

I could have cried and I don’t cry at movies. Well, there was that one time. But I claim my eyes were watering from not blinking.

In church that morning, our Deakon spoke of a photograph of he and his grandson that he holds dear. They’re forehead to forehead. Then he went on to explain the significance.

It’s living in the moment. In that single moment all we can see is each other. Nothing else exists.

Nothing.

Our eyes are so close all they can focus on is who is immediately in front of us. They have our complete, undivided attention. They have our moment, we have theirs. I find it more endearing than a hug. As meaningful as a kiss. It’s going to be my new thing with DW and the boys.

Disney LEGO

I figure this post should get a million views. Of course they’ll mostly be by kids between the ages of 5 and 10. Every kid into Disney and every kid into LEGO.

And every adult into either, as well.

DW and myself included.

Backstory first. Crash’s teacher emailed us last week to tell us what great job he did on his writing. He sat undistracted (major feat) for two and a half hours and wrote a play. His writing was neat. His writing was on the lines. We were so happy to hear this news! One thing he normally does’t like to do is write. He loves making up stories, of course, but to write it all down? You might as well ask him to wash the dishes.

We told him how proud we were of him to work that hard for that long and to do neat work was incredible. We praised him. After the boys were in bed, I had to go to our friendly, local Wal-Mart for kids Claritin (allergy season). While I was there, I popped over to the toy department and found some LEGO mini-figures. I picked up one for Crash for his hard work in school and I picked up one for Bang for whatever hard work he did. When I showed them to DW she noticed they were Disney and got all excited. Then I did, too.

LEGO has just released its first series of LEGO mine-figures!

The next morning, the boys opened their package to reveal that they had just earned the Cheshire Cat and the Genie. That morning, after DW dropped Crash and I off at school, she and Bang went back to the store to get more. Judging by feel, we think we’re missing just three characters.

The boys have to earn them, though. We’re mean like that. Crash woke up Sunday morning and cleaned up all the toys in the basement! Cha-ching! He’s been motivated!

DW just informed me that if I fix all the mistakes in this post I can earn one too! I hope I get Stitch.

Our hope is that when these characters are passed on to our grandkids, they’ll be worth more than what we paid for them. It’s Disney. It’s LEGO. We’ll at least have some fun with them until then!

Cheshire Cat, Genie, Maleficent, and Donald Duck –
the four who have been earned so far.

Note: Our minifigure collection is NOTHING compared to Tracey’s Funko collection!