We Bought a Zoo

We thought this was good. I cried.
On the down side, it did have some bad language...

so maybe wait and clearplay it if that bothers you, or if you want your young kids to watch it.

White Christmas

Yes, this is a cheesy and predictable movie. But you just cannot beat Bing Crosby's voice or Vera Ellen's dancing. Wow.

127 hours

This is an amazing movie about Aron Ralston, the man who had to cut off his arm to escape his entrapment from a boulder. It is rated R, but with the genius of ClearPlay, there is no language or inappropriate scenes. They even cut out (ha ha) the cutting. We watched this and felt inspired. I am sure that Elder Dallin H. Oaks was not promoting the movie, but he did re-tell the story a few conferences ago, with a reminder to check our priorities and desires. There is also a book, "Between a Rock and a Hard Place", perhaps a future read...

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Ever since I started teaching, "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" has been in almost every book bag and talked about by every child. I didn't dare pick it up because I thought it would be lame. Finally, a student bought it for me and I decided to read it and find out what all the fuss was about.

I thought it was pretty good. First of all, it took me less than an hour to read. That was great because I don't have a whole lot of time anyway. It was funny and the drawings were great.

I can see why it appeals to so many kids. I recommend reading it just for a laugh. I want to read the other books, but I need to get them first.

Jane Eyre

Bob and I watched the recent release of Jane Eyre on DVD last weekend. It was disappointing. The BBC version is much better. Watch that one instead!

Princess Acadmey

A few weeks ago I had a student recommend that I read "Princess Academy" by Shannon Hale. She even brought me her copy and I didn't touch it for a while because I didn't have time and also because I thought it sounded sappy. I picked it up and started reading out of boredom on Saturday night around 8pm and I couldn't put it down until it was done. I loved it! It is especially great for young girls who think they aren't anything special or who feel like they don't belong. I strongly recommend it. It made me laugh and it made me cry. I love younger books and I felt so refreshed after reading it. I think you guys would enjoy it.


"Miri lives on a mountain where, for generations, her ancestors have quarried stone and lived a simple life. Then word comes that the king's priests have divined her small village the home of the future princess. In a year's time, the prince himself will come and choose his bride from among the girls of the village. The king's ministers set up an academy on the mountain, and every teenage girl must attend and learn how to become a princess.

Miri soon finds herself confronted with a harsh academy mistress, bitter competition among the girls, and her own conflicting desires to be chosen and win the heart of her childhood best friend. But when bandits seek out the academy to kidnap the future princess, Miri must rally the girls together and use a power unique to the mountain dwellers to save herself and her classmates."

A call out for good books...

We are having a difficult time finding clean and uplifting, age-appropriate books! If you have a favorite (or a few), please take the time to share them! Thanks in advance!

HP 7 part 2

Well, it was sort of sad to arrive at the end. . . kind of the way it feels to read a good book, but to know that it is over. I thought they did pretty well with the movie, and I would watch it again. Though I think I would like to watch part 1 and 2 right in succession- it probably would make more sense. Overall, good movie!

Like Dandelion Dust

This is a clean and decent movie. It will pull at your heart strings, and if you have Bush blood running through your veins, you will probably cry. It is a story of the struggle between birth parents and adoptive parents.

The author of this book (turned movie) is Karen Kingsbury. She is a famous Christian author and has several inspiring and clean books. Check her out at your local library.

"Hey..."

Kung Fu Panda 2 was great!

And the title of this post is my favorite line from the peacock.

See it. You'll like it.

On Stranger Tides

We thought it was pretty good. 

I was glad that Orlando Bloom and Kiera Knightly were not in the movie...I think their story had played out.

I'm not terribly critical of movies, I like to be entertained, and I was entertained. There were quite a few funny moments. I liked most of the characters.

I think I would recommend just the 2D version, we had to see it in 3D just because of time of showing that worked best for us, but I didn't think it was necessary, and I don't think it really added anything to the movie...in fact it may have distracted a little, at least for me.

p.s. I liked Thor better :)

Thor

Two thumbs up!

Loved it!

The Switch

Mike and I watched this over the weekend.

We liked it...maybe you will too :)

The Cosby Show . . . Season 1

Recently we found that Netflix has the Cosby show on the streaming instant queue, so Dresden and I have been watching it at night after the kids go to bed. Oh, so much fun! I love the Cosby show! So many hillarious episodes that I actually remember watching when they were first released, or on reruns. We have laughed out loud a number of times.

Dresden and I went to see this movie last night for our weekly date night. It was cute. Our favorite thing about the movie is that every time the gnomes did anything you could hear the clunky sound of the ceramic they were supposed to be made of. Fun movie.

Megamind . . . megamarvelous!

The other night Dresden and Jonas went to the temple (it's a 4.5 hour drive one way), so they were gone all afternoon and evening. So I took the kids to see this at the dollar movie. I was thinking it might be sort of dumb, but I truly enjoyed it. Dreamworks does a good job with fun stuff lately- Kung Fu Panda is one of my all-time favorite movies. Anyway, this movie was lots of fun!