Family Date Night: Movies in the Park

Continuing with our busy weekend, we squeezed in a Saturday night movie in the park. Movies in the park has been hosted by First Things First for the last 12 years in Coolidge Park.

We attempted to go to the first movie in July, but on our way to the movie, it rained AND Jack fell asleep in the car... meaning Daniel and I settled for eating McAlister's sandwiches in our car while Jack slept. Real life of parents, sometimes dates look like this.

Last week my aunt and uncle were visiting and the weather was still questionable, so Daniel and I accepted the babysitting offered and went to grab dessert by ourselves instead of going to the movie in the park.

This week was the last movie of the summer and even though we had been busy (Lookouts Game, biking, concert) we felt like we should go. Ok, let's be real, I thought we should go. Daniel would have been happy to watch a RedBox from the comfort of our own home and Jack wouldn't know that we had skipped on a summer movie.

I decided that since the movie was free (we somehow even managed to find a free parking spot right next to the park) we should go a little early and get ice cream at Clumpies. This was our first visit to this ice cream shop and it did not disappoint. Our philosophy is that is ok to splurge on ice cream since the rest of our evening was free.

Daniel had peanut butter ice cream, Jack had strawberry ice cream with sprinkles and I had the Espresso Chocolate Chunk in a fresh waffle cone. So good! 

While ice cream was a fun idea, it kind of backfired on us, in that by the time it got dark enough for the movie to actually start Jack was wound up. He sat quietly for about 45 minutes and then he started standing up, dancing around and jumping on us. 

One hour into the Lego Movie, Daniel and I decided to call it a night. It was 10pm, church was in the morning and getting jumped on while we watched a movie was not exactly fun. Overall a good experience. We will try again next summer when Jack is a little bigger and will hopefully sit for the entire movie...

Books I Read in September (#20)

On a bit of a whim, I downloaded a free copy of The Soulkeepers by G.P. Ching with my iBooks account. I don't read a lot of young adult fiction so I was a little leery at first, but I really enjoyed this sci-fi, paranormal story.  

The Soulkeepers is the first in a trilogy of books that follows 15-year-old Jacob Lau after her loses his family and has to move from Hawaii to rural midwest America to live with relatives he didn't know existed. During this time of transition he discovers that he possesses special powers. 

There were a few times I felt like the book didn't flow that well, but overall I was really surprised by how much I liked the book – especially as more characters were introduced. I was also intrigued by the explanations/accounts of the paranormal beings. I don't want to give it away, but I thought this was a good story and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good sci-fi/paranormal novel of the young adult variety. I gave the book 4/5 stars on Goodreads.

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This has nothing to do with reading, or books, but last week we were in a toddler parenting class at the Clear Creek Church of Christ and we were discussing discipline. 

The teacher (from First Things First) brought up spanking and said that there was a time and place for this type of discipline (agreed). She said that you should consider the H.A.L.T. method. Are you Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired? Make sure you are in the right frame of mind before administering the punishment. 

A parent raised her hand and said, "When are parents of toddlers ever NOT one of those?" Touché.

If you have a chance to take a First Things First seminar, I would definitely recommend it. Being that we are older parents, I didn't learn a ton of new things, but I did get a few good reminders. If you are a young parent or didn't come from a good family environment, you should check out one of these seminars.