Emerson's First Movie

By the title of this post, you would think we have deprived our poor child of a movie her entire life. Totally not the case, we have just deprived her of the experience of seeing a movie in a movie theater.  You may remember we tried a year ago to see The Princess and the Frog on our last beach trip and ended up not seeing it because it was sold out.  This year, we certainly weren't making that mistake, so we got tickets on Fandango early and Friday afternoon, after our frolic on the beach and just in time for the weather to turn rainy, we headed to the movies to see Disney's Tangled. 

Tangled is the story of Rapunzel.  We opted for the non-3D version, thinking the movie theater would be experience enough for Emerson.  If you haven't seen the movie, I highly recommend it.  So cute!!  The music was great and the animation even better.  Plus, it's a great story!! Emerson really seemed to enjoy it, too.  She loved her popcorn and Sprite.  You'll see in the pictures below the popcorn was as big as she is; she didn't even skim the top of it.  In fact, with three of us eating on it, we didn't even make a dent in it.  Danny says he got the big one for photography sake.  Emerson was more interested in her Sprite, a special treat for her since Mommy rarely lets her have soda.  She was perfectly content to sit there and eat her popcorn and drink her drink.  She didn't get scared at all, not that there are any scary parts, and wasn't much of a wiggle worm.  She ended up sitting in my lap for half the movie, which I was totally fine with!!!  If my husband won't cuddle with me at movies, at least my three-year-old will. 

On the way home, I asked Emerson if she enjoyed the movie.  (spoiler alert!! - don't read below if you don't want to know the end of the movie)

Me: Emerson, did you love the movie?
Emerson: Mommy, I loved the movie!!
Me: Good, I am so glad
Emerson: Mommy, I loved it but I didn't love it so much because the boy messed up her hair!!

Well, I thoroughly enjoyed it because I got to spend some good quality time with both Emerson and Danny (which is rare in our family) and it was another first to mark off Emerson's list.  I hope movies become a family outing on a regular basis!!

More Beach Frolicking

On Friday morning, we tried to get outside before the rain came, so what better way than to head out to the beach for some more frolicking.  This trip has been all about writing letters in the sand, so Emerson convinced Mimi to write everyone's name in the sand and then Aunt Sissy, Mimi, and Alice filled in the letters with seashells.  I, of course, took pictures!!  Emerson had a great time with all the girls running, playing, collecting seashells, and well, just frolicking.  Here are some (okay, a lot) of my favorite shots:

I took a few minutes out of playtime to take one picture other than Emerson, admittedly not as fun, but it still turned out great and was worth sharing.

Let's Go Fly A Kite

On Thursday afternoon, after running around all morning for a secret beach photo shoot, then a failed attempt at a nap, Birdie surprised Emerson with a kite.  The look on her face was priceless, so we got on our play clothes and headed out to the beach with intent to fly a kite. (It just makes me think of the song, "Let's Go Fly A Kite" from Mary Poppins).

Birdie made several attempts to get the kite in the air and flying.  The first few weren't so successful.

Emerson got tangled up in the tail of the kite.

It's flying....Birdie and Uncle Perfect got it in the air and flying.  It was short lived though, it crashed seconds later!

While Uncle Perfect and Birdie made some adjustments to the kite so it would actually fly for more than a few seconds, Emerson got distracted by the sand.  Likely distraction for a preschooler.

 ....and distracted by the water...VERY COLD water at that!!!

Emerson decided she wanted to practice her alphabet and drew a very perfect (if I do say so myself) D and E, then Mimi drew Emerson's full name in the sand. 

To me, this picture looks like a scene out of a movie or a sitcom.  The two men, the kite that is getting the best of them, the little girl they want to make happy.  Kite 1, Birdie and Uncle Perfect 0.  

 Emerson kept frolicking while the guys figured out the kite.

Back to the kite.  Did you think I had forgotten about it??  Ahh yes, Daddy to the rescue.  After Danny finished frying the turkey, he came out to see the kite and spend some time with us before dinner.  He added to the very testosterone-filled kite predicament but they finally got the kite flying.

 
She didn't let Daddy have all the fun....she came over to help hold the "kite controller" several times.  She even attempted to hold the control by herself.  The first time holding the controller, she let go of it by accident and it went flying down the beach a few hundred feet.  But once she got the hang of it, she loved it.

Here are a few of my favorite shots from the day.  

What a great way to spend Thanksgiving afternoon....good to be outside in the beautiful weather, spending time with family, enjoying the smile on Emerson's face, and trying out a new activity that will certainly become a quick favorite for future beach trips.