I am a working mom of a very busy 3.5-year old, and with my husband working a night shift, we don’t get enough time in the day to just be together. It’s tough, and we absolutely cherish the time we do find; so no, that laundry pile is going anywhere any time soon.
A lot of things like that fall by the wayside in our effort to spend as much time together as a family as we can; thank god for my dear friend who has a cleaning business—she does my floors and bathrooms, so they at least get done every two weeks!! Each night after work, I pick my daughter up from preschool, and we have about 3 hours before bedtime; in that time, I have to fit in cooking dinner, cleaning up, a bath, whatever play we can get in, and a few stories before she falls into bed and I can have an adult conversation with my husband before he leaves for work.
Tonight, I scrapped all that. I was able to pick her up early, we ordered a pizza, and ate it on the floor in our pyjamas opening the Trolls Movie Night Party Package we had received. It may not be the party I originally had in mind, but it was our time together and I was determined it would be a party for US.
Have you seen this movie? It is SO cute. It’s about two diametrically opposed trolls, Poppy (Anna Kendrick, whom I adore!!) and Branch (Justin Timberlake) who go on a quest to save the people of their village when it is invaded by the evil Bergens. That Branch and Poppy work together, even with their differences, to save the village is exactly the kind of lesson I want my daughter to hear. The animation and the colours are so incredibly bright and playful it was hard not to fall in love with it immediately. My daughter fell in love with it too, and has not let go of the Troll dolls she got in the package since she opened the box.
The blu-ray is a Party Edition, so of course when I saw that we went straight to Party Mode. I have never had so much fun watching a movie, and dancing and laughing alongside my daughter made my life. It has interactive bits where an icon appears on your screen and you press the button on your remote with the corresponding color and things happen! (No spoilers here.)
My daughter and I had a ball with the movie, and towards the end of it I pulled out all of the creative pieces that came in the package: a Crayola kit that included more glitter and metallic crayons than I have ever seen, and included sheets of paper with Poppy and Branch printed on them, stickers to the moon and back, and so many colouring sheets! When we got down to business coloring, I couldn’t believe how Crayola had managed to capture some of the eye-popping colors from the movie.
As we sat together coloring and glittering (not literally, because no mess glitter!!! Oh yeah!!!), my little girl talked to me more about her day than she usually does, and though I always thought I was listening, taking the time to actually hear her means sitting down and letting her know I am here—not in the kitchen washing dishes, or downstairs folding laundry; sitting right beside her, listening. In fact, we were having such a lovely time even our cat had to get in on it!
What an amazing family night. The creativity, loyalty, and friendship portrayed in this movie is wonderful, and something I think we all need to keep in mind. I know that if it hadn’t been for the Trolls Movie Night package, I would have been too busy looking after things that didn’t really matter, and missing out on the things that do.
This post is brought to you by Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment but the images and opinions are my own.
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