Occasional Dose of Dahl: We spent HOW much on a movie?

Today was another "Give Parents a Break" day. For GPAB, you should be able to get a pass from your 1st Sgt (not going to happen with the wanker we have in charge), from the AFRC (not going to happen unless your spouse is..umm..away for a while), or from Family Advocacy. Back when the Family Advocacy playroom was in the community building instead of shoved into a tiny little unused childcare center classroom, I used to take T and S. One week I met the director of Family Advocacy who encouraged me and the other moms there to call her and get a pass for GPAB. I don't know if the other moms did, but we sure have taken advantage of it whenever possible.

This month GPAB was from 10-3. R and I had talked about going to Luxembourg to catch a movie in a real theater with surround sound, theater seating, and all the other bells and whistles. When R called Family Advocacy to ask for a pass, the director was on vacation and R was referred to the AFRC. When he went to the AFRC, they refused to give him a pass unless we wanted to speak to a counselor to determine if we were stressed enough to qualify for one. When R told me this I had to laugh. I know that if we took the kids into the AFRC for an evaluation, not only would we walk out with a perma-pass, the 'counselor' would probably ask for one too. And, since these things have a way of coming back to haunt careers (cough*career suicide*cough), R wisely passed. Gotta love the way military handles things -but that's a story for another day. Long, long in the future. But don't worry, I'm keeping notes.

So this morning we were all up by 7:30 and the kids were in a good mood. Checking the movie theater website, the new Ice Age movie was playing there, so we decided to take the kids and go. It's really not all that far, less than an hour away, and there's a great mall attached there. And on Saturday, I think parking is free since we were there over the time limit and didn't have to pay.

The kids were really, really good. We headed out around lunchtime and bought snacks for the ride over, planning to eat lunch when we got there. We found it without getting lost (a first), got a good parking place, the kids didn't run into traffic, and we found the entrance without walking two extra miles. The first place we went into was having a sale and we were poking around in the toy, shoe, and clothing sections. S had managed to get her shirt really dirty on the ride there, so I thought we could just buy her a shirt while we were there. Since she started pre-school two weeks ago, she has ruined some of her clothes with paint and permanent markers (HELLO! they make washable markers now!), so she really could use some new shirts. They had some really cute stuff, but I know S well enough to know that cute to me is the kiss of death for her. It's nice, though, to be able to hold something up and have her let you know if she likes it.

After putting the kids through the boring part (shopping), we took them to the carousel and let them ride a few times. S took over the fire truck and T chose the spinning tea cup. What a difference from the last time he rode the carousel! He was really good about getting off when we asked him to (S, if you are wondering, protested long and loudly - but what else is new?). After that we went to get lunch and met an American couple that live in Luxembourg. We chatted with them for a while and then headed off to the movie theater. We dropped off our purchases in the car first, and when we followed the signs in the parking deck to the movie theater, we got our two mile unnecessary walk in. We still made it to the theater in time, where we spent 6 Euro each on admission, and another 12 Euro on popcorn and water. Again, I feel the need to point out that the kids did beautifully. The concession stand is self serve, so everything is out for you to grab. I was expecting a battle over candy and coke, but neither one of the kids asked for it. Still, when I sat down and realized that we just spent over $50 to go to the movies, I was almost sick. I guess I should get used to it, because it's not going to get any cheaper. I could always pull a page from my mom's book and start sneaking food in, I guess.

Anyway, the theater was great - double arm rests, comfy seats, plenty of leg room, and everything. The kids loved the movie, so it was totally worth the one time splurge. It wasn't too crowded, either, and there were lots of other kids there who got excited at the some parts of the movie the kids did. As we left, T said sadly, "but I want to go back to the popcorn place. I want to stay there". I feel ya, T. But we can go to the base theater with popcorn and drinks for around $25, so chances are slim we'll go back to Lux anytime soon for a movie. But it was a great afternoon.