April 14, 2011

Drive-In Disaster?

Last weekend, Lynzee and I decided it would be a good idea to take the girls to the drive-in to see Hop. Correction, we thought it would be a good idea to take her girls plus Sassy to the drive-in to see Hop. Considering the movie didn't start until after Tink's bedtime, I thought better of bringing her along. Tink & Daddy had some quality backyard time at home!

So, we loaded the van with blankets and pillows, and headed to Starlite. Since the movie began directly after the music program, and this was such a last minute decision, we ended up stopping at Quik Trip for dinner.

Lovely, I know.

What does one get for dinner at a gas station, you ask? Well, a fruit cup, a string cheese, and a small bag of pretzels for Sassy and a string cheese and some beef jerky nuggets for me. I know, I know...

We decided to attempt to be slick and devised a plan as far as seating arrangements go. We brought 3 adult lawn chairs (Tom went, too) and one child's lawn chair. We placed the chairs outside of the van, and arranged the three girls all snugly in the back, laying on their bellies so they could watch the movie. We deemed the child's lawn chair the naughty chair, where girls who weren't doing a good job listening would have to sit. We explained that we only had one naughty chair, and if someone wasn't listening, they would have to come and sit in it for a few minutes. If two girls weren't listening, then we'd have to go home, since we only had one naughty chair.

Genius, right?

Not so much.

Our first dilemma involved the fact that we had pretty poor visibility due to the van with their hatch up in front of us. They were even kind enough to use a tie down strap that Lynzee and I asked them to use, but it didn't help much. We sort of maneuvered the van in our parking space to optimize our view the best we could.

The girls started off as happy campers...



Twenty minutes into the movie, the arguments ensued. She is laying in my space. She took my blanket. She looked at me. You know, the usual.



Lynzee and I thought it our duty desperately needed to get away from the van, and fast, so we headed to the concession stand, where there was a line 2 miles long.

LuLu wanted cotton candy and LMB wanted a funnel cake, so we decided that she could share it with Sassy. So, Sassy experienced a first at the drive-in... her first ooey, gooey, greasy, sugary funnel cake. The girls stayed happy as they noshed on their treats...



Sassy was in heaven:



Then five seconds later, they all claimed they had to go to the bathroom... again (Tom had taken all three girls before the movie began).

After the bathroom break, we had pretty much had it, and decided to pack up and leave. All in all, drive-in was a bit of a bust. The girls were over tired, cranky, and teary-eyed. Oh, and sugar is NEVER the answer to any behavior problems. EVER.

May just be a while before we hit the drive-in again. Sad face.

2 sweet tweets:

Alyssa said...

Okay, I have to admit I am kind of laughing right now b/c Pat thinks he is going to take the kids to the drive-in on Saturday night while we're in KC- by himself! Hopefully his experience will be better than yours, I've never taken my kids there. Movies past bedtime sounds like a potential for disaster!

Mrs. D said...

Sounds very similar to the experience we had when we had the bright idea to take the kids to see Shrek 3. You describe much kinder than I did ;) It will be a while before we try again too.