Mary Poppins Returns

I went to this movie twice in the theater (so far!). Mary Poppins Returns follows The Banks kids from movie one all grown up. Michael Banks has 3 children and after his wife passing he is struggling to pay a loan he took out against his house. The movie is 2 hours and 10 mins of typical Mary Poppins fun and music tied up with saving their house from the big bad wolf.

I took my 2 nieces and 1 nephew the first time I saw it. It was Christmas Eve, which may be why my 4 year old nephew and 6 year old niece had a hard time sitting through it. My 9 year old niece really enjoyed it though. The 2nd time, I brought my other 9 year old niece and she was up dancing through all the songs (thank goodness we were in the back and there was only 4 others in the theater! lol).

I absolutely love the sound track. A few of my favorites are

1. Can You Imagine That
• This song gets stuck in my head all day long! It is super cute! My niece sings it with me
2. Turning Turtle
• Who doesn't like a crazy Meryl Streep? She plays Mary Poppins cousin Topsy and every 2nd Wednesday her life gets topsy turny (or as she calls it turning turtle). The songs is cute and crazy!
3. Trip A Light Fantastic
• This song is similar to Burt's Step in Time from the 1st movie but follows people who light the sidewalk lamps instead of chimney sweeps. This song has a lot of dancing and silly words.
4. A Cover is Not the Book
• This is a great song for a good lesson learned. It's pretty much about not judging a book by it's cover. It ties in nicely with the wolf in the scene. Mary and Jack sing about different stories. It's another fun song with lots a dancing!

I will most definitely be buying this movie when it comes out on DVD/Streaming. I would recommend seeing it in theaters if you have older children. I feel like it was a little long (and maybe a little slow) for a 4 year old. He may sit through it later at home if he can play with his toys at the same time though.

SPOILER BELOW........

The one thing I wasn't happy with was Dick Van Dyke's part. Disney had the perfect opportunity to bring him back as Burt but he came back as a banker. I loved that he was in it though, he even danced a little! But, had I have written him in, I would have had him come down the chimney at the bank with the burned up page from the shares ledger, not as the bad guy's uncle! He came back as Mr Dawes Jr and saved the day though, so it all turned out for the Banks family!

I also wish some of the other actors/actresses made a cameo. I know they are all older now, but they could have come back as someone else like Dick Van Dyke did and not necessarily their original part.

Incredibles 2

I took my niece to see Incredibles 2 the other day after school. It was raining and the perfect ending to the school year for her.

The movie picks up where the 1st movie left off (even though it's been 14 years!) The movie starts out with the Incredibles fighting Underminer, but destroying the city in the process. Because of the damage, the authorities become concerned and as a result, Rick Dicker informs the Parr family that his department's "Super Relocation" program is being shut down, forcing supers across the world to permanently adhere to their secret identities. 
Lucius Best, their superhero friend "Frozone", is stopped by Winston Deavor, a superhero fan, telecommunications tycoon, and owner of DEVTECH, after the fight with Underminer. Frozone tells Bob and Helen about his encounter and the 3 of them to to DEVTECH to meet Winston Deavor, who proposes a publicity stunt to regain the general public's support of supers.

Helen Parr, considered the least-destructive of the supers, is selected to undertake the stunt by openly fighting crime in New Urbrem, under her old identity of Elastigirl. As part of the plan, Winston provides the family with a new home, to which Bob offers to take care of the kids while Helen is away. During her absence, Bob discovers that Jack-Jack has various super powers, but struggles with controlling the family's infant. Seeking help, Bob takes Jack-Jack to Edna Mode, a family friend and superhero-costume designer, who agrees to help upon seeing the baby's superpowers in action. Meanwhile, during her mission, Helen confronts the Screenslaver – a mysterious villain who hijacks screens in order to project hypnotic images that can brainwash civilians.

After rescuing an ambassador from the Screenslaver's clutches, she manages to defeat him, only to find that he is no more than a pizza delivery man, who has no recollection of what he did. While attending a celebration of the Screenslaver's defeat at the Deavor's, Helen realizes that the pizza delivery man was being controlled by hypno-screens within his goggles. Before she can alert anyone to this, Winston's sister Evelyn Deavor overpowers her and brainwashes her with Screenslaver's goggles glasses. Evelyn reveals herself to be the mastermind behind the Screenslaver – seeing supers as a threat to humanity's independence, she sought to undermine her brother's mission, and plans to brainwash the world's leaders so that they cannot re-legalize superheroes. Evelyn then manages to lure Bob and Lucius into a trap, and place them under her control with brainwashing glasses.

Avoiding the same fate as their parents, Dash, Violet, and Jack-Jack, whom Edna had outfitted with a super-suit, sneak aboard the Deavor's ship to rescue their parents, as the world leaders meet for a hearing on supers. After freeing their parents and Lucius, the group reveal Evelyn's plan to the assembled leaders. A battle on the boat ensues, threatening to crash the ship into New Urbrem. However, the group manage to stop it, while Helen apprehends Evelyn when she tries to make an escape. Following the incident, the Supers Relocation Program is reinstated in response to the group's heroism, making supers legal once again.

This movie had a lot of action, which held my niece's attention for the whole almost 2 hours! There is an issue with flashing lights that may cause issues for some people, but other than that it was a great movie. I highly recommend kids and adults to take the time and watch it.

As we were leaving the theater, my niece asked me if we could see it again this summer with her cousins AND if I would buy it as soon as it comes out on DVD (which will be awhile, because we watched the movie opening day! lol)

Online shopping/ Stores closing

Last night, while watching T.V., I saw multiple ads for online shopping. While I was watching the commercials, I was also on Facebook reading how everyone is sad that stores are closing.

As a someone who works in a small business, a brick and mortar business, I can tell you exactly why stores are closing.

We have become too reliant on online shopping. I know, I shop on Amazon too! However, because I work in a store, I force myself to go to a few stores before turning to Amazon. 

If we continue to shop online, we will continue to see stores closing. And what happens when stores close? We lose jobs!

Please do my store a favor. Shop in stores! Shop small, local businesses. Support your neighbors who own businesses. 

The Children's Orchard franchise once had 100 stores nation wide, we are down to less than 30. Stores are closing left and right for us, and other stores! 

Think of stores as being on the endangered species list. Pretty soon we will be extinct, if we don't do something about it. Please, shop in small stores like us!

From a grandmother's perspective (Stephanie): It's a good learning experience for children to be out in stores. It is a good place to teach them how to behave in public. If we don't teach them, no one will. It helps them learn how to interact with people: have eye contact, speak with adults or other children. We can teach them to respect other people's property.

Museum of Science- Boston

During February school vacation week, I went to the Boston Museum of Science with my 3 nieces, 1 nephew and my sister in law. For my sister in law and 3 of the 4 kids, it was their first time ever. I haven't been since I was a kid. We all had a blast. 

We drove in, because taking the train then the subway and walking with 4 wild kids was not what we wanted to do. The drive in wasn't bad, we didn't hit too much traffic. We parked in the lot that was attached to the museum, which is very convenient.

We stood in line a few minutes before getting our tickets. I had gone to the library and gotten their pass before heading in. The pass is good for 4 people and we would only pay $10 a ticket (instead of full price). However, there was an extremely nice lady in front of us. She was a member and had some extra tickets and offered us all to get in free. We were very happy that she saved us money! Because we saved by not buying out tickets, we bought tickets to the butterfly exhibit, that the kids insisted on going to. We paid $6 per person to go in. This exhibit was okay, but the kids did enjoy it so I don't mind paying extra. In my opinion it was small and the ones at the zoos are bigger and included. However, when we went there was a nice woman working and she really engaged with the kids, which was awesome. The kids got to hold an orange that attracted the butterflies and they got to watch them eat.

The lightning show was amazing! My oldest niece, who is 9, was bugging us for hours to see this show. It did not disappoint! She is still talking about it a week later! The other kids really enjoyed it too. Be aware though, it is pretty loud and get's packed quickly. 

We saw the show about cold (I think it was called Wicked Cold or something like that) The lady was good at keeping the kids' attention, while teaching them (and us!) something.

The kids enjoyed the house of mirrors, to the point where we walked through that maze about 6 times!

I packed our lunches, so that helped save money. We did pick a busy time to eat (noon) and we got the last table. It wasn't too bad though.

I rented a locker for the day. We stashed our lunch and jackets in there so we didn't have to carry them around all day. I was able to open the locker a few times, unlike some places where you can only open it once.

We didn't have time to do the planetarium, so that will be the 1st thing we do next time.

I highly recommend visiting with kids of all ages! It is a lot of walking, so if you have younger kids (or a runner like we do) I suggest bringing a stroller (wish we brought one!)