Is it ironic that we’ve been so busy doing totally bloggable stuff that I haven’t actually blogged any of it? I need to get better about posting things sooner, since right now it looks like I’m going to put the kids Halloween photos up some time around Thanksgiving. Although at this point I’m mostly still updating the blog because it’s the only baby book I have, not because anyone is reading. When you almost never post it turns out all your readers get bored and wander away.
Maybe I’m also blogging because sometimes it still leads to super cool stuff, like an invitation to see the new Disney movie Frozen in NYC on Monday from Samsung and The Moms. I’m getting to be an expert at taking the kids into the city alone and they had Veterans Day off of school so of course I jumped at the chance.
We took the Metro-North into the city and got lucky with one of the fancy new trains. I plugged in my phone in our own private outlet and the kids played games on the tablet the whole way in.
I got a little bit lost on my walk from Grand Central to the theater, but it was a pretty nice day and the kids were happy to ride in the stroller. My arms are KILLING me from pushing that much weight around for an hour. I convinced them to get out and walk in the park, but then had to hustle them back into the stroller every time they saw a playground. And then we got held up when a construction foreman with an amazing Irish accent who wanted to chat with me and the gingers about Santa and how blessed I am to have redheads. It was actually not at all creepy or weird, and is exactly the sort of thing that always seems to happen to us and I love it.
We made it to the Samsung/Frozen event just in time to get some popcorn and give the kids a chance to try out the new Galaxy Tab 3 Kids Tablet. Caroline would have stayed out there playing all day if I hadn’t convinced her there was candy in my purse to eat during the movie. On our way in she practiced her step-and-repeat pose, for when she is famous some day.
She’s a paparazzi pro already
3D glasses in 2013 are way cooler than the blue/red ones I remember growing up.
This was the first movie I’ve seen in 3D where I actually wore my glasses the whole time. Even the kids liked it, and they usually take off their glasses within 30 seconds at the mini-theater at the aquarium. It made the already deep-looking (do you know what I mean by deep-looking?) animation pop right off the screen (and there wasn’t a ton of things flying out of the screen at my face, which is why I generally don’t like 3D). I was surprised Frozen was sort of a princess movie, since I hadn’t seen much marketing for it with that spin, but it was definitely the kid of princess movie even the anti-princess crowd can get on board with. It was easy to tell it was made by the same people as Tangled, but the snow and ice made it feel original. The music is sort of opera-like, with lots of talking-turns-into-singing and songs that really tell part of the story. I really, really liked it. I might take the kids to see it again when it’s released, especially because they both keep begging me to see the cute little Mickey Mouse mini-movie they played before the main feature again. Of course I like it a little extra because one of the two main characters is a ginger, but even if she wasn’t a ginger the story would be fresh, fun, and beautifully animated.
After the movie we stayed for the Q&A with Idina Menzel, where I couldn’t think of a single Q because I was too starstruck that she was in the same room. It was ok though, because there were plenty of NYC stage kids there who were THRILLED to ask her adorable questions about being on Broadway. And then she sang for us and I almost died. She’s so pretty.
After our event we met my friend Sara (Aunt Sara to the kids) to go to a giant candy store/restaurant but it was closed so we went to one of the many Greek diners where the menu is 40 pages long. Caroline ate a giant cheeseburger and Evan attempted to eat this giant doughnut but failed.
By then the kids were absolutely insane, hopped up on soda and sugar from their movie treats and exhausted from a busy day, so Sara walked us to Grand Central and we caught an old train home, which meant no charger for my dead phone. Luckily the people who made room for us to sit down were super nice and their 5 year old played with Evan and Caroline the whole time. We made it ALMOST all the way back to our house before Caroline fell asleep (Evan never did) so they slept like rocks and I lay on the couch and moaned about how old I am and how exhausting it is going to NYC alone with 2 kids. That’s not going to stop me from taking them back for Christmas stuff though – we still haven’t done FAO or the big Toys R Us or seen the tree or the Macy’s Santa. Having kids makes things like movies and Christmas way more fun.
Big thanks to Samsung, The Moms and Disney for the invite! We will happily come back for more movies any time! This is not a sponsored post, we just had a really good time.
