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We Saw The Radio City Christmas Spectacular Starring The Rockettes!

December 10, 2013 at 10:46 pm , by 

3 years. 

Dear Jack,

As much as I would love to take you to your first movie in a theatre, I still don’t believe the time is right.

However, you proved to officially be ready to see The Radio City Christmas Spectacular starring The Rockettes, at The Grand Ole Opry here in Nashville.

Turns out, our friends at GoGo Squeez arranged for our family to go see the show. (After all, by now you’re sort of a poster child for them- considering typically anytime I take a picture of you eating a meal, there’s alwaysa GoGo Squeez pouch visible in the shot.)

Leading up to us going, though, I just wasn’t positive you’d have the attention span to sit still long enough for us to stay the whole time, no matter how “spectacular” the event was. I gave you 30 minutes, tops. Fortunately, my doubts proved to be wrong.

And might I say, not only did you last the entire 2 hour show, but you showed off your potty training skills as well. For the 25 minute drive there from our house and back were no problems. There was a 15 minute intermission during the show- Mommy just took you to go potty and everything went well.

Seriously, I can’t get over how cool it is that you’re like… serious about not wearing diapers anymore. Wow. It’s like the end of an era.

Not that either of us will miss diapers!

During the show, you were pretty much glued to the screen, I mean stage.

I asked you afterwards what your favorite part of the show was; you quickly responded, “The bears!” I’m still trying to figure out what’s going through your head regarding what appeared to be a stage full of dancing, mutant bears… pandas included.

Your jaw dropped when you saw them during the Santa’s Workshop scene.

And you loved the live camels during the Living Nativity. As well as the 3D snowball fight. Not to mention, Santa Claus himself.

There was one part where the stage was filled with doznes of Santas, but you recognized right away that the “real” Santa had disappeared. During the whole song, you were quite distraught: “Where’d the big Santa go? Is he coming back?”

I also laughed out loud when the The Living Nativity scene began, after you saw the camels, recognizing the scene from your children’s Bible that Mommy reads you at bed time, you shouted out with excitement, “Is Jesus coming?!”

Our family had so much fun. With all the running around we usually have to do on the weekends for errands that we don’t have time for on the weekdays, it feels like we seldom get to take time just to go out and simply do something fun for our family.

For me, it was a proud family moment and activity. Plus, even though I moved to Nashville 8 years ago, it was my first time to go to the Grand Ole Opry! (What a shame that it took this long, huh?)

And again, it confirms for me: You can handle the travel to and from an event like this, at age 3, sans the diapers.

This parenting thing is starting to really get fun these days.

 

Love,

Daddy

 

Disclaimer: The Radio City Christmas Spectacular mentioned in this story was provided courtesy of GoGo Squeez.

Photo credit for “on stage” photos: MSG Entertainment.

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3rd Birthday Monster Truck Road Trip: Build-A-Bear

November 25, 2013 at 11:41 pm , by 

3 years.

Dear Jack,

As promised for part of your monster truck road trip for your 3rd birthday, we drove the Toyota Tundra to the Build-A-Bear at the Hamilton Place Mall in Chattanooga, TN.

I can’t take credit for the idea to go to Build-A-Bear Workshop, just the truck ride idea.

Mommy cleverly thought of going to Build-A-Bear as a way to celebrate with not only my parents, your cousin Calla, Aunt Dana and Uncle Andrew, but also your great-grandma, who you’ve only met a few times.

Like any man shopping, you immediately identified the animal you want to stuff, a red panda, and got to work.

Sure, you were impressed by the fact you got to pump the stuffing into your red panda by pressing a foot pedal. And by getting to place the heart in your red panda yourself.

But mainly, you just wanted to build your red panda, whatever steps that entailed, to ensure the red panda was officially yours.

Meanwhile, your cousin Calla enjoyed the journey, evidently impressed by the many potential accessories that were available to her pink penguin.

(She ended up getting her a tutu.)

You didn’t care about clothes, scents, or sounds. You just wanted your red panda.

When it came time to name your new friend, you decided to keep things simple:

You named him “Panda.”

Sometimes when your parents plan a seemingly good idea, it doesn’t quite work out as well as it did in our minds.

However, this actually went the way it was supposed to. It was appropriate and a lot of fun.

Not to mention, it wasn’t really expensive and it was an extremely unique experience for a 3 year-old boy and his girl cousin who is 7 months younger.

From Build-A-Bear, we loaded up in the truck and made our way towards the canyon, as you snacked on some delicious sour dough bread from the Earth Fare near the mall.

And of course, “Panda” was there the whole ride across the state lines of Georgia and Alabama.

To be continued…

 

Love,

Daddy

 

Disclaimer: The vehicle mentioned in this story was provided at the expense of Toyota, for the purpose of reviewing.

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Disney’s Planes: Fire & Rescue- A Family Friendly Review

Today my wife and I took our son (age 3 years, 8 months) to his 2nd movie in a theatre: Disney’s Planes: Fire & Rescue.

Review Of Disney's Planes: Fire & Rescue

As expected, he loved it. Though, strangely, when I asked him what his favorite part was, he answered that it was when Dusty Crophopper crashes.

I personally definitely enjoyed this sequel more than the original.

Whereas the first Planes movie seemed more like the “plane version” of Cars, Planes: Fire & Rescue actually serves more as a spin-off of the first Planes movie.

I appreciate that Planes: Fire & Rescue picks up with the protagonist Dusty Crophopper moving on in his career. He leaves behind his career as a racer and decides to pursue obtaining his certfication to become a fire and rescue plane; in the majestic setting of the very fire-prone woodlands of northern California.

(As I learned from sitting through the movie’s ending credits, actual fire and rescue officials from Sacramento were consulted for the making of this movie.)

I felt the characters and the plot line in this sequel/spin-off were much interesting and original. It sort of reminds me of the difference between the two Captain America movies.

While the concept of death is not typically addressed in the Disney Cars/Planes universe, it definitely is in this movie.

They don’t shy away from that theme; as heroes of the fire and rescue team, they must be willing to sacrifice their lives for others. Death is not simply alluded to in Planes: Fire & Rescue, it’s very much a present concept throughout.

I believe that part of the reason it is rated PG instead of G is because of the undeniable theme of life and death; even though there are no shown “deaths” throughout the movie; they are only referenced.

Language and sexual content are not an issue. There are of course “vehicle-related” substitutes like “Chevy” being used as a curse word, for example.

Also, one scene features an “oil and gas bar” named Honkers, in which the sign contains the headlights of a car lit up, as to parody Hooters; though there are no “topless” waitresses, as suggested in the original Cars movie in which race fans “flashed” the race cars by turning on their headlights.

But obviously, only adults would even recognize those brief references. I can’t see any of those examples actually being perceived as offensive.

Review of Disney's Planes: Fire & Rescue

So in other words, Disney was clever enough to splice in a few subtle references to make sure that Planes: Fire & Rescue had just enough “oomph” to earn a PG rating.

By now, it should be common knowledge that PG rated kids’ movies make a lot more money than G-rated kids’ movies; likewise, PG-13 rated non-kids’ movies make a lot more money than PG rated non-kids’ movies.

(That explains why nearly every PG-13 rated movie contains its one token “f-word.” It ensures that more profitable PG-13 rating.)

In summary, our family loved seeing Disney’s Planes: Fire & Rescue on opening weekend. We had a great time! I seriously doubt your family will be disappointed either.

As you can see from the photo collage above, my son and I spent this morning building planes out of Legos in preparation for seeing the movie today. And of course, he had to take his two Planes toys with him to the theatre.

Thanks for reading my family friendly movie review of Disney’s Planes: Fire & Rescue. About a month from now, I plan to review the new (PG-13 rated) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie.

Will it be suitable for my son? Let’s find out… next month.

2014 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie theatre

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It’s Officially Cool To Drive A Minivan Now

October 15, 2013 at 9:12 pm , by 

2 years, 10 months.

Dear Jack,

There used to be this stigma with minivans. I was very aware of it.

I figured if I was a 32 year-old dad who drove a minivan, it would be like giving up on being cool.

To me, driving a minivan was like wearing a t-shirt of a wolf howling at the moon and tucking it into jean shorts, with a flip phone in a holder on my woven leather belt.

At best, driving a minivan would be an ironic thing to do- like it was when I did it in high school.

But this past year, I started realizing… minivans are actually pretty cool these days.

Call it perfect timing, but then Toyota let us take one of their 2013 Siennas on our family road trip from Nashville, TN to Louisville, KY this past weekend. That’s what made me realize, it’s officially cool to drive a minivan now.

(By the way, you were pretty sad to have to say goodbye to it today. You waved to it as I dropped you off for school.)

And no, I don’t just think it’s because I’m older now and have a kid that I think minivans are cool.

Driving a minivan is fun.

I can say this, now that I’m back in my normal car, it feels like I’m driving with the emergency brake on. Mommy coincidentally said the same thing today; with this being our first day back in our own vehicles.

She and I both agreed that the Sienna rode like a boat. I mean that in a good way.

It just seemed to effortlessly hover across the road; never seeming clunky or like driving a loaf of bread.

One of my favorite parts about driving the Sienna on our road trip this weekend was when I shuttled the 8 of us around Louisville.

You, me, and Mommy met my parents, sister, brother-in-law, and your cousin there in Louisville. There were 3 vehicles and I figured we would have to do sort of a caravan thing as we drove around the city for the weekend.

But sort of by accident, Mommy discovered the stowaway seat in the very back of the van which could be attached in between the 2 captain’s chairs in the 2nd row.

That meant there were 8 seats for 8 people; 2 of those people being 2 year-olds. It’s not like we felt like a can of sardines, either.

In fact, my mom (your Nonna) commented: “I feel like I’m riding in 1st class!”

(She’s never actually ridden 1st class so we’ll let this count.)

It was a lifesaver for me because I get stressed out when I have to lead, or be part of, a caravan; especially in a city I haven’t completely memorized. Instead, all I had to do was drive (with Mommy riding shotgun) and follow the built-in GPS to the zoo.

Also, we saved money on parking by being in just one vehicle.

So, I’m over my conditioned belief that minivans uncool, or at best, ironic.

Things have changed, now.

We had a great family road trip anyway, but it totally (!) added to the enjoyment factor and subtracted from the stress factor by having the Sienna. Now I don’t like the thought of taking another family road trip the old fashioned way… without a minivan.

 

Love,

Daddy

 

Disclaimer: The vehicle mentioned in this story was provided at the expense of Toyota, for the purpose of reviewing.

P.S. To see more pictures of our family road trip, go to The Dadabase’s Facebook page and click on the picture folder, Louisville AdVANture Road Trip October 2013.

 

1 Comment Posted on car reviews, parenting, People, reviews

We’re Ready For A Family Road Trip…Minivan Style!

October 11, 2013 at 10:14 pm , by