Saturday Fun

The dog days of winter are here...the "February blahs," as my mom used to call them, are just around the corner. The rain. The temperatures that aren't really cold and aren't really warm. They just are.

Jason was motivated this morning to get outside, and so he and Rynn drove up to Mt. Hood for some snowy adventures. Eleanor and I chose a more laid back day by staying in Portland, eating some processed chemically induced MacDonald's chicken nuggets (the highlight of her day I might add) and catching a movie on the sofas of McMenamin's Kennedy School second run theater. We saw Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs which not only completely ruined the creative children's book but also left both of us dizzy and with a headache for an hour.

After the movie we stopped by New Seasons, our very "local, sustainable, and organic" grocery store, to pick up some lettuce for a church potluck. Eleanor spoke with Jason on my phone from the bulk food isle exclaiming, "Daddy!! Guess where we ate lunch??? MacDonald's!." Needless to say, she turned a few heads. I ignored the shocked expressions on the faces of my fellow New Seasons shoppers. Yes, it is true. I poisoned my daughter this afternoon not only with chicken nuggets but with something probably more damaging to her mind...a bad movie. I don't mean bad in any kind of moral way, but bad in the way more and more children's movies are bad. They don't tell a good story. In fact, this one even took a good story and made it stupid and anemic. There is no mystery, no imagination, no interesting characters that fall outside the standard prototype box. In the place of a good story they throw images at you, colors, swirling action, and really loud noise in the hopes that somehow all this ADHD inducing stimuli will make up for the fact that there is not much of a story. I find it really irritating that the makers of children's movies so often assume that children are not smart enough nor do they have active imaginations enough to be engaged in a good story. Halfway through the film Eleanor leaned over to me and said, "This movie is making me tired. Why aren't the people in it nice to each other? And why do they have to shout so much?." The movie 'daze' took a good hour to wear off. If anyone has some good movie recommendations for some good stories I'd love your suggestions.

Eleanor looking not too phased by the movie and practicing her Swan Lake moves...

while Rynn and Roscoe guard the snow cave...