Pass the Popcorn

I have always thought that there was something special about going to the movies. Since becoming parents,we have not been able to go to the movies very often at all. And to be honest, even before that our movie attendance seemed sparse because we've been pretty busy since the months before our wedding. But in the past few weeks, I've been to the movies multiple times. My theater loyalty card is racking up numbers after years in hibernation, and I'm buying theater gift cards (for the fuel rewards from the grocery store) every other week.
It actually started about a month ago when I started putting prize cards into Kyrie's big prize bag. Usually, the bag is stocked with an assortment of toys and movies, but I thought giving her the option to choose experiences with one or both parents would be nice now that she's older. There are three prize cards: dinner choice, ice cream shoppe and the movies. Right off the prize cards were a big hit, and her first choice was to see "Shrek..." with Darren. She loved it!
I took the kids to one of the summer kids' movies to test Degen out, and he did well enough. He liked the popcorn and watched a little of the movie before falling asleep. Sitting in a darkened theater with a bag of warm popcorn was great, even if I did have to spend part of the movie trying to keep Degen from running amok. After he fell asleep, it was nice to settle back into the comfy seat with Kyrie and take a break from the summer heat and all the errands waiting at home.
When "Twilight: Eclipse" came out, I knew that I'd be headed back to the theater. (Yes, I am one of those!) One of the moms from playgroup read all the books around the same time I did, and we'd seen the last two movies together. We made a plan to go over the July 4th holiday weekend. I felt like I'd won a small jackpot when mid-week before our planned jaunt, I got coupons for $1 concessions on July 4th. The date was set and with coupons in hand, we had the cheapest trip to the movies either of us had ever seen ($7 bought a morning matinee ticket, a large popcorn and large drink). We went early and stayed for most of the credits, lingering. Oh, sweet freedom!
This morning, we headed back to the movies. Kyrie wanted to see "Toy Story 3" using one of her prize cards. Degen had been fairly interested in the first two on DVD, so I held off his nap and told Darren that we would all be going. We all shared a popcorn and drink and both kids did great (Degen fell asleep about halfway through). It was great to have the whole family there all in a row, big & little hands reaching for popcorn while our faces took on rainbow hues with the light from the screen! 
Leaving the theater, Kyrie said that she wanted to see the movie again and before we even got to the car, I, too, was thinking about our return!