Narnia, Narnia & More Narnia

Starting last fall, I began reading through the Narnia books with the twins.  They LOVE these books.  It is taking us a while to get through them with our other commitments (Awana, sports, etc) & responsibilites (like homework), but right now we are in the middle of The Silver Chair (Book Six). 

In addition to reading the books together, the boys also have all 7 Narnia books on audio CD.  They sometimes listen to them at bedtime when they're falling asleep, but they will only listen to the books that we've already read together.

I discovered that there was a children's theater production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe happening nearby, so I decided I would surprise James & Andrew with a date night to go see it.  My good friend Yvonne is also reading through the books with her son Joshua (one of the twins' good buddies) so I asked her if she was interested in going too.  She said yes and so we had a double date with our eldest son(s).

Here I am with the boys in their "handsome shirts."  I don't know how long they'll think its cool to wear button-down dress shirts, but I hope its forever.  Even if its just with jeans, I love seeing my little men dressed up. 

We went to Jason's Deli for a pre-theater dinner because we're fancy like that.  Actually, we went there because I had three vouchers for free kid's meals (courtesy of completing the winter reading program at our library).  Also, Jason's deli has free self-serve ice cream for everyone and nothing says fancy date night like a twist ice cream cone. Seriously, my kids are still young enough that the idea of twisting chocolate and vanilla ice cream is novel and excites them. 


We arrived early to the play and had some time waiting for it to start, so we worked on making different expressions:

SILLY

SHOCKED

HAPPY

The play production was done really well.  All the actors were between 6-18 years old.  The boys had lots of questions before the play started.  Yvonne and I sat on the ends so that Josh could sit between the twins.  It was a good setup except that I realized it put my super talkative son (James) next to her and he barraged her with comments during the play.  She was very gracious about it.  I don't think he bothered her nearly as much as the woman on her other side who "woohoo-ed" at every scene during the play.  I did have the boys switch at intermission.

Yvonne reading the play program to the boys.  She's so patient.

Overall, it was a very fun night out and I hope to go back and see some other productions by Spotlight Youth Theater with the kids. 

In keeping with our current Narnia obsession, tonight we hosted a Narnia movie night with some of our friends.  The boys have been begging me to do this forever.  Its a long movie, so we had all the kids come in their pjs and eat a picnic-style dinner on the floor.  We had pizza, veggies, juice boxes and oranges.  After dinner, we broke out a big bowl of popcorn and a dish of Lemonhead candy (courtesy of my current in-home candy taste testing study). 

The best part of the night (for me) was that while the kids were watching the movie in the living room, the moms sat around the dining room table eating and chatting. 

Jaime brought her amazing salted chocolate chip cookie bars, Yvonne brought a delicious Chardonnay and Ruth brought some more virtuous food (fruit and hummus).  I finally got around to trying to make some jalepeno cheesy pull-apart bread that I've seen on pinterest.  I also tried my hand at making a flatbread with prosciutto, goat cheese and fig butter.  It was a super relaxing night.

The boys all thought that the Battle of Beruna scene was the best part of the movie.  So, after the movie was over, they decided to re-enact it.  I'm not too surprised.  These six kids who just sat for two and a half hours needed to do a little running around. 

I'm hoping we can do this version of "movie" night again before too long.