brave

We took the girls to see the new movie Brave.  The movie was great, but the experience was kind of a train wreck.

We planned it as a great girls day out.  We got to share the day with both grandmas and started with lunch (always chaos with three little girls) and then headed to the theatre.  They were so excited, bouncing around and shouting, posing with the cardboard character cutouts in the lobby and insisting on popcorn (which they didn't eat...however Lovely almost dove into the bag and devoured several fistfuls).  We settled into the mostly empty theater (thank goodness because we were very loud and disruptive) and the movie started.  Almost right away, the girls became whiny.  It was almost naptime but I was intentionally trying to keep them awake until we left on our little roadtrip that afternoon.  I thought the movie would be the perfect activity but it turned out to be a little intense.  The main character, especially in the first childhood scenes, looks a lot like my little Butterfly and she was excited to announce every comparison.  But as the bear showed up or scenes became more emotionally charged, she became clingy and cranky.  She was so tired and therefore more sensitive than usual.  Ladybug followed suit and soon I had two little girls literally climbing on me, begging for cuddles and attention.  At one point, I was holding Lovely, sitting in between Grandma--who was holding Ladybug as she clung to my shoulder, and Grammy--who held Butterfly who clutched fistfuls of my hair.  But all in all, I liked the movie, enjoyed the cuddles and decided I underestimated how tired they were and how intense the movie would be.  I think we will wait awhile before we try that again.