Ice cream and a movie

Oh, I woke up feeling so cruddy; happily, the kids are their very best selves in the morning, so I found Ella and Alex playing a card game and Joey playing chutes-and-ladders solitare (of a sort: he was moving the pieces around on the board, throwing in a "wheee!" every so often when they went down a slide) when I finally pulled myself out of bed. Ella told me that she'd also done push-ups and leg lifts and arm raises as well. I'm not sure why she did those exercises, other than to make me feel like the laziest mother in the universe.

I stumbled through breakfast, and then read to the boys while Ella messed around with some arts and crafts.  Last week the kids made a sundae shop out of a card board box, and they decided they wanted something more substantial than the little cookies we made out of construction paper.  I'd brought some papier-maché mix with me from America, and I gave that to Ella yesterday to use for her cookies and cakes and pies and cupcakes, and today she painted them up. I know that sounds terribly Martha Stewart of me, but Ella's at the point where she's mostly self-sufficient when she's doing that sort of thing: it's definitely easier having her do an art project than not, worth the hours of contentment for the occasional "oops I got paint on..." the floor. the wall. her hair. her dress. my jeans.

All of her little toy sweets had dried by afternoon, so the kids opened up shop while I made dinner.  They were really funny about it: they took turns being proprietor and customer, changing into costumes between each purchase. Buzz Lightyear, Dash Incredible, Ariel, Sleeping Beauty: they all have a sweet tooth.

Ella and Alex counterfeited some paper money (in $1, $2, $3, and $4 denominations, so we'll likely not get in trouble), and they used that for purchases they ran out of bills and tried to figure out how to get the cash back into circulation. (Opening the cash box and reusing the money, that's too easy.)  "Mom, I think we need to open another store, selling something else, so that the owner of the sweet shop has somewhere to spend the money."  The economy is blossoming at 32 Wasserschöpfi.

They made more and more elaborate sundaes out of their food, and when they presented one to us, Dennis and I fake-gobbled it down, making "om nom nom" noises.  When I was done pretend eating, Ella was shaking her head at us, pretending to look stern.  "Savages," she said.

And while I was doing the dishes after dinner, they took the game one step further.  Ella made a pretend clipboard, and with it on her hip told me, "Mom, we're playing restaurant critic now. My restaurant has five stars.  Alex isn't doing so well. He only has two."  He kept forgetting to offer silverware and plates. That'll get you every time.

This afternoon, while the paint was drying, the kids and I finally sat down and watched the whole of Sound of Music.  I'd been meaning to have them watch it during our Friday night movie for a couple of weeks, but it's a three-hour movie, and we could never seem to get started early enough. And, when you pause every other line to explain what's going on, you start to stretch into the 4-hour territory.  But we had our blankets and our popcorn and a big pile of legos for Ella and Joey to play with during the slow parts (Alex, he was utterly engaged through the whole thing), so we were good to go. 

As I've mentioned, I wanted to show the kids the movie because we'll be taking the Sound of Music tour on Saturday, and I wanted it to mean something to them.  So I kept saying to them "Do you see that fountain? That house? We're going to see that this weekend!" But they kept asking "Are we going to meet the kids? Is Maria going to be there? Will there be characters? Will there at least be statues of the characters?" I'm afraid they've been spoiled by Disney World.

Dancing along to "So
Long, Farewell"

Oh, they loved the movie, though, so I think they'll get a little something out of the tour, at least.  Alex loved that little Gertl was just his age, and he kept asking questions: "Why is Maria leaving the children? Won't she miss them?" and "Why are they singing that song about Maria getting being a problem when she's getting married?" (You know, I always wondered that, too.) and "Why don't they just use the phone instead of all those telegrams?"

Ella had seen most of the movie before, and she's heard all the songs many times, so she was singing along with all of them (to Alex's dismay). At one point she told me "You know, I think my voice fits in really well with them."

Because Alex liked Gertl so much, I asked her if she identified with any of the characters.

Dancing the Ländler

"Well," she said, thoughtfully, "I want to be like Liesl" (and honestly, show me a little girl who doesn't want to be Liesl. I did.) "But really, I think I'm more like Maria. I love to sing and I can't stop myself from singing and I love little kids and I love to make up games for them and use my imagination." Interesting. Lucky we didn't bother getting curtains.

Joey was quiet for most of the movie, and he always swayed back and forth, smiling, during the songs.  But, and this so makes me smile, even thinking about it now, when the Captain and Maria were dancing the Ländler, I felt his little hand slip into mine. "Joey?" He smiled at me. "Joey? Do you...do want to dance?"

"Uh huh."

So he and I danced, and then Ella and Alex joined us.  When I told Dennis about it later, Joey smiled happily. "Yeah. Dance."

But the funniest part of watching with them was at the end, when the Von Trapp family is hiding in the Abby from the Nazis.  Ella spoke up "It's such a good thing that's not us.  Alex and I would probably start teasing each other and then Daddy would have to go away."

"Oh, Ella! Don't you think you'd be able to keep quiet, for Daddy's sake?"

"I wish I could say yes, but, well, you know us. We just can't seem to help ourselves."

Well, um...sorry, Daddy.