High on Fun - Packed with Calories

Well this weekend started out with tub of popcorn at the movies and ended with a pizza at my in-laws. And what happened in the middle tasted better, had more calories and was just as much fun. On Friday night, Bruce had to work at Local 4, so I headed to the movies to see, "In the Land of Women." Which is a total chick flick and I was pretty sure that no man would want to see it, so I went to the Lapeer Cinema's by myself, I got a tub of popcorn and a coke, that was well my dinner and enjoyed the show. It was funny because the guy moves from LA to his grandmother's home in Michigan of all places, however it was not Michigan just somewhere else with a lot of Michigan license plates. Also I noticed that most of the cars they used where not American cars and I was thinking that is funny, because in this state more than any other state people are more likely to by American and it felt like the majority of cars with the Michigan license plates well were not. But hey, its funny they didn't call me to be the "Michigan Consultant" on the project. The overall movie was ok, not great, but I didn't leave wanting to ask for a refund.

Then Saturday we woke up early and headed to Greenfield Village to meet my mom, dad, sister, niece and nephew for "A Day Out with Thomas." For all of you who were like me a couple of years ago, Thomas is Thomas the Tank Engine. He is the main character in a series of children's books and television shows. And the kids go crazy for him, and some one is making huge money off that. Yes, they bring in a full-sized Thomas that travels across country stopping a railroads to give kids a ride. This weekend (and next) Thomas is at Greenfield Village in Dearborn. If you have never been to a Thomas event you will quickly see that the median age is 7, it's that high because the 2 -5 year-olds can't drive themselves, they need their parents to get them there. So we were at Greenfield Village with about 10,000 2- 5 year-olds who were in 7th heaven because they got to go on Thomas.

Max and Sophie were also very excited to see Thomas. When it actually came to riding him, Sophie seemed to enjoy it much more that her brother. Max liked it for the first 5 minutes and then said he was ready to go to the "brown house" which is code for Grandma and Grandpa's house. However, it's funny as the day went on, he seemed to have more and more fun with Thomas. After we had our ride on Thomas (that sounds wrong) we went to meet his friend the life sized "Sir Topham Hat" we all agree that he resembles Mr. Peanut. Well he stood under a tent and got his picture taken with the kiddies. Max was sooooo excited when he saw Sir Topham Hat, so excited that he wanted to cut in line to get closer. We reigned him in, however when it was his turn, he was not all about Sir Topham Hat. Sophie was but Max started to freak out, which you can clearly see in these photographs.

Then we headed over to the carousel for fun. However it turns out that when there are nearly a million toddlers in Greenfield Village who only get to ride on Thomas (I know wrong right) once they immediately head to the carousel. Which meant we waited for what seemed like FOREVER to ride the world's longest carousel ride, but the kids liked it, then we hit the Thomas Gift Shop, where you could have bought pretty much anything with Thomas on it, however they didn't make shirts in my size, ridiculous... We got away cheap they kids just wanted a Thomas Balloon, when I say cheap that was just $12, we could probably spent a lot more. Then we high tailed it out of there, the troops were getting restless.

We headed home and we were hungry. Max requested that: "we stop at the french fry store and get some chicken nuggets and a turtle, please." The turtle is the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle toys that Mickey D's was given out. Well how can you say, no to that. You don't so we stopped at McDonald's for lunch. Then we headed home to Manchester. We played outside, the kids helped Grandpa with his shoveling. Then we packed up the minivan again, this time we headed west to Jackson for an All-Star Dairy (aka the parlour) dinner. Yes, that is ice cream I am talking about. So for those of you keeping track we had McDonald's then ice cream.

Sophie and Grandma were the only ones able to finish. Mainly because well Grandma got a junior sundae. Krista and I went with the full almond combo which is made with vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, caramel and almonds. Grandma had the same as us, but only the junior so that meant it was smaller. Max and Sophie went with chocolate ice cream and sprinkles. At the end Sophie was drinking what was left from her bowl, it was well amazing. On the way home we sang the best of Sesame Street tunes in the car. Here is some video, but I want to preface that I was in the back seat trying to shoot video of what was in front of me while staying buckled in - safety first. Then we went home, the kids had baths and Grandma made homemade popcorn on the stove.

This morning Grandpa made us breakfast and then Aunt Jennie painted Sophie's nails and toe nails again . Then it was time for me to head back north. It was a great weekend. I love hanging out with the fam. Max and Sophie are so talkative and they say the funniest things, like for instance when Sophie told Grandpa that he shouldn't come to the ice cream store because he did not stop Nina (the dog) from chasing them. Or when Max talked about his Day Out with Thomas or when he would read you the Three Bears story with the voices.

However, I did make a point of running at the park when I got home. I put in a good three miles. I needed to work off something from the weekend and it was too gorgeous not to be outside.