Hypothesis: MomOf3 can successfully take the Princess, the Prince, and the Knight to a movie by herself. The movie in question is Charlotte's Web. (I cannot figure out to to underline here on blogger.)
Cost:
- Hypothetically, the cost is nothing because the theater is having free kids movies this summer.
- Actually, the cost was $10 because I treated the kiddos to a medium popcorn and a medium lemon-aid. (Crazy theater prices!)
Experiment: There are several movie theaters around town that are showing free movies in the mornings this summer. Because taking the kids to Shrek the Third last weekend went off without a hitch, I decided to test the waters and see if I could do this by myself.
The movie started at 10:00. Because I like to be early to things like this, we left at 9:15.
That was my first mistake....
Apparently DadOf3 and I were wrong (Stop the presses!) when we assumed that there would not be a big crowd. When we arrived at the theater around 9:30, a full 1/2 hour before the movie was to begin, there was already a good sized crowd. I decided to get in line for snacks because I didn't want to have to get up in the middle of the movie to get them. I had promised the kiddos popcorn and lemon-aide just like last weekend, and I wanted to keep my word.
This was my second mistake.
In retrospect, we should have just gone in and claimed our seats. It was CROWDED. By the time we did actually get into the theater, after having to wait in the sslloowweesstt snack line ever, I could not find 3 seats together.
After scanning the entire theater, I saw two seats together and ran for them, hollering to the Princess and the Prince to follow me. They were carrying the popcorn and the lemon-aide so they could only move so fast, but we got the seats!! I asked the Prince and the Princess to sit down and told them that I would find a seat behind them. I did find one, two rows behind them, but it was fairly close to them. It actually worked out OK because I could see their every move from where I was sitting.
After telling the Prince and the Princess several times to not under any circumstance get up during the movie, I sat down with the Knight on my lap, and we made it through 45 minutes of the movie before the Prince decided he needed to go potty.
Because there was no way I was going to leave the Princess in the theater by herself, I herded all three kids to the potty.
This was my third mistake. Let's just say that it was not the emergency potty break that I was lead to believe....
When we arrived at the potties, both the Prince and the Princess said that they no longer had to go.
My thoughts: "Oh no you don't! We are here and you are going to go!"
I didn't say that out loud though... I politely requested that the Princess and the Prince each go potty since we were there anyway. Princess complied, but the Prince had a minor meltdown. After that passed, they both ended up using the potty, and we headed back to the theater, crossing our fingers and hoping to get our original seats back.
When we got to the isle where the Prince and the Princess had been sitting, the Prince refused to go in. I had Princess go sit down and took the Prince to sit with the Knight and me.
The seat I had procured for us was actually in a handicapped accessible row. There was an empty space right next to us intended for a wheelchair. Because I had one seat for the three of us, I had the Knight sit on one knee and the Prince sit on the other knee. After a while, Princess turned around and asked if she could come back too. Of course I said yes. She and the Prince took turns standing next to the chair and sitting on my lap through the rest of the movie.
We made it all the way to then end of the movie!
Conclusion: We will definitely do this again with some minor adjustments.
- We will go a LOT earlier next time.
- We will get three seats!
- We will not get popcorn. The kids ate very little and I don't need it!
- We will get lemon-aide. They did a great job sharing.
- We will invite friends to go with us so if there is a need for a bathroom break, we can divide and conquer!
- If all goes well next time, we will attempt to shop afterwards!
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