{Everything is Awesome - Lego Movie Review}

At the weekend, R & I took the kids to see The Lego Movie.

I don't know who was more excited, them or us!

It was the first time I'd taken the kids to see a film, and I was really impressed. It is an expensive morning out, but it was worth it. I booked our Odeon family ticket online for just over £27 and at the cinema we got treats for us all for £9.99 - the Odeon Family Mix includes 2 Kids Mix (snack, drink & kids popcorn), 2 medium drinks and 1 medium popcorn.

The movie itself was amazing. I absolutely loved it... I laughed and I cried. Definitely the sign of a good film. My favourite character was Batman, although Liam Neeson as Bad Cop/Good Cop was also highly amusing. It's a great film for all the family. There's a lot of adult jokes and an interesting political undertone (R's words, not mine!). 

The kids were very well behaved, although the littlest sat on my knee throughout which hampered my viewing at points. Plus, despite taking her to the toilet before the screening started, we still had to go half way through so I missed a wee bit!

Emmet and Batman

Bad Cop

As we were leaving the cinema, I took a quick video of my son to capture his thoughts... I should have thought ahead of what questions I was going to ask (poor planning on my part!) but you get the gist!

"Everything is Awesome!"

All in all, we give the movie a big thumbs up. I would happily watch it again, and again!

We also discovered that Dobbies have half price DK sticker books... The Lego Movie and Super Heroes... reduced from £7.99 to £3.99. I bought two and have stashed them for a rainy day (of which there are plenty in Glasgow!).

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{#JanuaryJoy - go and see a film}

Today's #JanuaryJoy prompt is to 'go and see a film'.

For Christmas, as well as some other gifts including a beautiful bracelet, my lovely boyfriend R bought me a Netflix subscription.

Instead of giving me a voucher though, he gave me a very cute little popcorn charm!

{Glasgow Mummy on Instagram}

So I have a whole host of movies (& TV series) at my fingertips. I love nothing more than snuggling up watching a film, especially when the weather is miserable (it's currently pouring outside!!!). 

What programmes should I be putting into my watchlist? 

{#JanuaryJoy - plan a girls night in}

'Plan a girls night in' is today's #JanuaryJoy prompt.

Once the kinder are in bed, I tend to not do very much... work on my blog, watch a bit of TV, have a general tidy up... it's nights like these that would be perfect to host a girls night in, and I have a couple of girls in mind that are yet to see my new house ;-)

So Roz, Lauren and Becky (although I appreciate that Becky you've already seen the house, but I'm hoping you may be up for a night in anyway?) - let's get a date in the diary for a wee movie & popcorn night at mine?

Follow me on Instagram here

{image source}

{#ShareAdvent - "Joy to the World"}

I still can't quite believe the Clutha Glasgow Helicopter Crash and my thoughts go out to those that have been affected by this. Police have now named two of the victims, and it makes it so much more real. From the small amount of footage I've seen, it looks like the Glasgow-people have pulled together and shown a real sense of community. I'm proud to live in this great city. I'm still going to put my Christmas tree up this evening as planned, but when I light my candles later I will be thinking of those involved in this tragic incident. There is a memorial service at Glasgow Cathedral next to Glasgow Royal Infirmary at 11am this morning should you wish to attend. 

Eight people have died.... 

14 are in hospital with serious injuries... 

And they've still not recovered all the bodies...

At the moment it seems there is no joy in the world, but I've decided to keep the post I had originally scheduled for today's #ShareAdvent. Here it is... 

I'm planning on joining in with Anna from Skin and Blister's #ShareAdvent this year.

The calendar starts on December 1st and counts down to Christmas Day. You can join in however you please...blog, Tweet or Instagram :-)

The first prompt, "Joy to the World", I'm guessing is in reference to the popular Christmas Carol.

Joy to the World

I'm not religious, and my thoughts on Christmas carols and festive music then turned to a Buddy the Elf quote...

"The best way to spread Christmas Cheer, is singing loud for all to hear"

Which sort of ties in with the carol and today's prompt...? (Although I may then be stumped when it comes to 11th December!)

Heaven and nature sing

Anyway, today is the first of December and I will be putting up my Christmas tree and other decorations this evening.

It's become a tradition of mine that I watch Elf and put the tree up on the first Sunday of December, usually with a glass of wine in hand (preferably mulled, to get me in the Christmas spirit!). Click here to see a photo of my tree last year!

The other movie that I watch every festive season is The Holiday (it's in my all time top 10). I just love it.

And this year, R (the man!) & I are off to see Its a Wonderful Life at Glasgow Film Theatre. I love this time of year!

When do you put your tree up and what movies are on your list this Christmas?

{Guest Post: The Winter Blues}

Today's guest post touches on the topic of a previous post of mine, technology and the impact it has on playtime. Karen's children are obviously older than mine as she talks of texting and Xboxes, but I agree that being inside because of miserable weather does not need to mean boredom. As my kiddies get older, I love the idea of starting a tradition of family game night... I also have lovely memories growing up of doing puzzles with my dad before bed. I picked up this game at the supermarket recently. We're yet to play it, but I thought with the penguins it was perfectly themed for winter! 

Penguin Pile Up Game from Sainsburys, £4.99

Anyway, enough of my blabbing... over to Karen:

Getting most kids’ out of the home during summer time is not a big deal. With the sun shining, ice creams vans parked on every corner in the UK, fun activities, music blaring and long days you don’t even need to give them that nudge they sometimes need! When winter arrives it seems harder and harder to keep them active as they would rather sit in front of the heater than pop down to the corner shop to get that desperately needed loaf of bread. As a parent of two, during winter I have to admit that after a long day at work all I want to do is curl up in bed and switch the telly on...but then where does that leave my children? Most of their winter is spent in front of the T.V, playing games, texting...just about anything that will reduce their boredom.

Family Movie Night {image source}

When I do have the energy I find that my short winter days are spent nagging them to do something productive and get out for a while. I get them off the T.V so they get their phones out. I take away their phones so they fire up the Xbox. I demand they switch off the Xbox and I wave my arms towards the front door like a mad woman and I can see their scepticism as the rain and wind darkens the skies and batters the window. At that moment I asked myself ‘Would I really go out in that weather?’ I think that every parent reading this will know what my answer would be.

It finally dawned on me that I had to change my attitude towards winter so I could teach my kids’ something. I thought back to my childhood winter days and knew what I had to do. No amount of pushing them out the door was going to do it. I understood that winter is opposite to summer in physicality and in the spiritual sense. The idea that both summer and winter balance each other out led me to make very small changes in our lives...without stepping out the door.

Changes began with simple conversations. After work rather than allowing everyone to escape to their individual rooms I would try and get them to sit down together at dinner and ask questions. After a few times filled with tired responses and moody faces I was delighted to see my kids were actually enjoying our little time together! Baby steps led to our winter being completely transformed and I started to look forward to the end of work to finish off that ongoing game of monopoly or that television series we were watching together.

Family game night {image source}

Thinking back I realise it was the small changes that brought me closer to my children during the winter. It finally dawned on me that it wasn’t my children that had to be taught a valuable 'lesson'...it was me. I made the effort to make my kids winter just that little bit more magical and maybe one day they will carry on the small traditions I introduced to them with their own children. So, to all parents out there have a happy family winter!

Author Bio

Former British Airways cabin crew member, Karen Rayner currently lives in Warwick with her husband and two children, Charlotte and Jack. She is the founder of Childrens Funky Furniture, an online furniture store which provides imaginative and creative furniture items that appeal to young children. Karen also writes extensively about how to create artistic and vibrant bedrooms that children can relate to and enjoy. Follow Karen on Google Plus.

{Top Ten Movies}

I had been trying to come up with my list of top ten movies, but I'm really struggling to narrow it down (I'm at twenty!!).

Anyway, I thought I'd share it here as it's probably quite insightful (in no particular order)...

• The Life of David Gale - this probably is my all time favourite

• The Game - again, definitely up there in the top 5. 

• The Holiday - I watch this every Christmas and love it

• Taken - not so impressed with Taken 2 though

• Hannibal - funnily enough I don't think I've seen Silence of the Lambs, should really sort that

• Gothika - I love scary movies, but ones that could actually happen rather than giant spiders and the like. This movie terrified me!! 

• Love Actually - I always cry when Emma Thompson opens the CD and not the necklace, but equally I laugh at loud when Hugh Grant does the dancing through Number 10 scene. Hilarious!

• The Dark Knight - definitely more into Batman than Superman, but not the silly voice

• Green Mile - I think Tom Hanks is a brilliant actor

• My Girl - this was a childhood favourite of mine

• The Truman Show

• I Am Legend - the scientist in me loves this film

• Forrest Gump

• Castaway

• Big - another childhood classic

• Leon

• The Little Mermaid - I could (& do!) watch this over and over with my kids

• Lion King

• Rio - this is my favourite kiddie movie at the moment - I urge you to watch it if you haven't done so already

• New Years Eve - I saw this last year for the first time and I anticipate watching it each year, at New Years funnily enough! 

What's in your top ten (or 20)?

I'm running a competition just now to win a family cinema pass for the Sea Life Centre, Loch Lomond. Have a peek at this post to find out how to enter!

{Vine}

Have you heard of Vine? It's the latest craze, so I hear, and I have quickly become addicted!! Basically,  you can use the app to create short six second looping videos and it's really easy to use. Similarly to Twitter and Instagram, you can follow people, search hash tags etc. You'll be able to find me under the username @Glasgow_Mummy.

Here is a Vine that I posted tonight - toddlers, huh!

vine.co/v/b1wmUMUvbx7
— Sarah (@Glasgow_Mummy) February 2, 2013

Anyway, I'm taking part in Gloria's #VineADayChallenge where users are asked to upload a vine each day on the basis of the prompts she has created:

Here's my vine from today's prompt 'This is Me'... (pls ignore my typo in the hash tag - whoops!!)

#VineADayFebruary #VineADayChallangeAbout Me #lego #blondie vine.co/v/b16LDAQxKzO
— Sarah (@Glasgow_Mummy) February 2, 2013

So, are you in?