A Belated Birthday Gift

A couple of months ago, when the Dog Walker was still working at Wal-Mart, he decided on a very special gift for Curly's 5th birthday. He wanted to take the entire family to see the new Disney movie, Planes. Then when he quit his job and money became more difficult to get, he thought he might change his mind.

He just knew Curly would love to go, but taking our clan to the movies costs a lot of money! Finally I felt so bad for him I offered to split the cost so that his dream wouldn't be shattered. He jumped at the idea and then we had to find a day that would work for everyone. That day was today.

So this morning I stopped by a certain theater that won't be named and picked up the tickets. $78.75 later and we had our seats for the 7:05 show.. (You know, I used to pay 50 cents for a movie when I was a kid.) Curly was so excited! We piled into the van at 6:40. Even though it was only a 5-minute drive to the theater, I wanted to make sure we could all sit together. I was expecting a crowd since this movie was released only last weekend. Boy was I wrong!

Besides our 13 people, I think there were only about 10 others in the show which turned out to be a good thing. Right after the previews played, we lost the sound in the theater. We watched the first 10 minutes without sound while we waited for the manager to fix the problem.

After what seemed like forever, the sound came on and then they restarted the movie. Unfortunately, it wasn't very long before the sound fizzled again. My sweetie went out to talk to someone as they restarted the movie a third time. By then the Dog Walker and Curly (as well as a few others) were getting pretty upset.

When the sound finally died a third time, we all got up and made a mass exit. The theater gave us our money back as well as free passes to see another movie on a different day, but that didn't stop the tears and disappointment from a certain 5-year-old.

We quickly piled the kids in the van and headed for another theater that I was hoping I remembered had an 8:00 show. We pulled into the kiosk to check availability at 8:10. We saw that it had started at 8:00, but the kiosk wouldn't sell us the tickets so we all bailed out and headed for the lobby while my sweetie parked the car.

I paid for the tickets and then sent the Drama Queen into the theater with the kids while I waited for my sweetie. The ticket machine spit out some free popcorn coupons and even a free child's combo, so we swung through the treat counter on our way. Curly was so excited to receive the combo since he was the special birthday boy. His huge grin had definitely returned and we didn't even miss any of the movie.

It turned out to be a great gift that we can enjoy again in another month or so when we use the free tickets to the other theater. But I think I'll call ahead first and make sure their sound is working.