A movie for me, and a movie for you

Joey gets four hours of 1-on-1 attention each school morning; Alex doesn't make out quite so well, but, since his brother sometimes naps in the afternoon, he can count on at least two afternoons alone with his mom each week.  But it occurred to me that neither Dennis nor I had spent any significant time with Ella since we moved here.  So today she received her last gift: an afternoon with her momma, including a trip to the movies.  She endearingly called it her favorite present, for my daughter knows exactly which of my heartstrings to pluck at any given time.

Alex: "A wizard casting spells at a Giant's body"

Joey's hard work

 

We spent an extremely quiet morning at home, with Alex and Joey penning us some lovely pictures and Ella drifting out of the house for a larger canvas. She worked away at making the world's largest and most confusing hopscotch board, and turned our sidewalk into a life-sized treasure map.  I really enjoyed watching the passersby giggle at our industrious kiddo.

At 1:30, while Dennis heroically stayed home with the boys and plowed through our tax forms, I snatched up the better half of the bargain.  Ella washed the chalk dust off her hands and we caught the train downtown, planning to first buy Ella a little necklace and maybe stop for a snack and a card game before our movie.  

But I completely forgot that little rule about Sundays: everything except for the train station stores were closed.  So instead of the bakery I'd hoped to visit, we stopped for for some noodle soup and a ice cream bar in the Hauptbahnhof and window-shopped along pedestrian zones before catching a tram to our theater.

We decided to see Gnomeo and Juliet: for months, Ella's been intrigued by the movie posters that are next to our train track.  She asked me what the movie was about, so I briefly told her the plot.  She was already crying openly when I killed off Tibolt, and she was seriously questioning our choice of movies by the end of my summary.  I prayed to the merciful gods of children's movies as I promised her that this movie would surely have a happier ending.  (It seemed a safe bet: although Walt Disney doesn't hesitate to murder parents in opening scenes, I don't think they've ever killed off a protagonist.)

Waiting outside for the movie to start.

There was one other little hiccup: it turned out the movie was in 3-D, something we've always had to avoid because Ella finds them overwhelming and scary.  But, apparently, 8-year-olds are able to gulp down their fear a little bit better, because she decided she still wanted to see the movie.  

$48 dollars later (with tickets costing $21 a piece, and an additional necessary purchase of two pairs of 3-D glasses...oh well, at least Ella will have a second pair of specs to wear when she wants to play grown-up), we made our way to the snack bar.  Interestingly, although just about everything in Zürich is double the cost of the American equivalent, popcorn prices were exactly the same.  Not even the Swiss can justify charging more than $6 for a medium bag of popcorn.

I found it interesting that we weren't allowed into the theater until five minutes before our movie started, and there weren't any advertisements.  I suppose there's one advantage, at least, to the insane ticket prices.

But, when all's said and done, it was worth it.  Ella and I had a lovely afternoon out, and she adored the movie. Especially the happily ever after.

And since I got to see a movie today, I thought I'd share one with you as well.  A couple of weeks ago I posted some videos that Ella and Alex had made with a children's app on our iPad.  At some point Joey must have curled up with my iPad, too, because I found he'd edited one of our movies, changing the colors and dialogue somewhat.  Thirty seconds of indulgence, please, for Joey: