A Plumm Good Family Movie

As Devra told you, I have been insanely busy with my way too fun production of British Invasion at the Rialto Theatre in Loveland these past few weeks. I finally got some down time with my family on Sunday evening after an incredible opening weekend and we all snuggled up on the couch to watch a new movie sent to me called A Plumm Summer. It is a wonderful family film about growing up in small town America in the late 1960's. The people are average, simple, regular folks with all the quirks most of us still have in our families today. The movie handled teenage crushes, "weird" kids, ridiculous FBI agents, and family alcoholism all with the same unobtrusive and gentle touch.

My husband and I watched with my 13 year old daughter and 7 year old son and we didn't experience any of those awkward, squirming, "should we all be watching this together" moments. When our 15 year old daughter called during the movie to see what was up, our son piped in with, "We're only watching the best movie ever!" I don't want to give anything away but suffice it to say your tooth fairy believing young ones and your finding first crush teens will enjoy the film as much as you will. Besides, it's got Henry Winkler, William Baldwin, and Chris Kelly (a guy for every generation) along with the adorable Owen Pearce.

Go see it. You'll be glad you did!

A little Q & A

Hope you are all still out there somewhere. We've had technological difficulties and our webmaster was off bettin' on the ponies. We'll catch up next week but in the meantime I will answer some questions people think we must be able to answer because they visit our site after searching:

What does schmuck mean? It means "penis" in Yiddish, but is commonly used to describe someone who is acting foolish or moronic.

What is the article in Newsweek titled "Girls gone bad"about? Spoiled girls. Duh.

Will soon to be ex-husband ever return? If his name is Charlie and you dropped him off in Boston, it's doubtful.

Friend's daughter has nits, do I tell her? Yes. Whether it is your friend or her daughter, either way you should mention it. You can work it into casual conversation like, "Oh hey, I need to run by the pharmacy and pick up some toothpaste. Want to go with me and pick up some Rid for you or your daughter? I'll drive."

How is Aviva? She's been busy with rehearsals for the Loveland Choral Society's spring show. If you ever had a reason to visit Loveland, this is it.

What is a pack n play? It is a portable crib made by Graco. We highly recommend them, particularly if you are a family that travels. Hotel cribs sometimes don't meet current safety guidelines. Also, if you are staying with friends or relatives, they may not have children or if they do,their kid might be using the only crib or has outgrown it so they don't have one at all.

What does your house look like? We try to make sure they aren't sticky or stinky, but other than that, we don't worry about it too much. The house can be spotless when the kids leave for college. Until then we'll just keep it surface clean as opposed to ready for royalty.

Does Britney Spears have a daughter? No.

How do you tell your family you don't wear underwear? All it really takes is putting your dress over your head. Just once.

What would The Fonz say? If The Fonz guest posted on Parentopia, we'd want him to share this quote with our readers:
Cool is knowing the difference between right and wrong and doing what is right with guts.

Parentopia May-nia

Wow. Just wow. All of a sudden we have so much to tell you. Our online and offline lives have surged and we're both whirling dervishes. We have so much to blog about, and we will get to all of it. But since things are so insane right now, it's going to be in bits and pieces and it also may be out of context too. But knowing most of you reading our blog are parents, it's not like you've never been interrupted or had to catch up on something later. And this is why we heart you all so very much!

Let's skip ahead to May and then we'll work our way back to April. For the first time in our lives we can say we are cover girls! In words, not in pictures, but who cares? We are on the cover of the May issue of Parenting Magazine! Parenting Magazine's very own Julie Tilsner also interviewed these two bloggers for "Kiss Mommy Guilt Goodbye!" and we didn't even know it at the time. Then we read the article and thought, "That is so cool!"

Love it when our paths cross like this! The Internet is so very large, yet so very small all at the same time. True that.


Two other May events are coming up fast and furious. We hope you will join us!

The first is "The Working Mothers Summit" being held in the Metro DC area on May 10th.

The second is Mamapalooza in New York City on May 17th.

Johnson and Johnson, GM, and Nintendo, Oh My!

The weather was, well... dark when I headed out to DIA at 3:00 in the morning on April 2nd. I was off to New Brunswick, NJ to be a part of Johnson & Johnson's Camp Baby! Honestly, I had no idea what to expect. All I knew was the folks at J&J were hosting an all expense paid trip to hear about their programs and products in exhange for some viral marketing and consumer feedback via the mommy bloggers of the blogoshpere. In addition, Devra and I had been invited to join them as influential parenting experts in their networking family. Sounded fair enough and, besides, it meant three days of leaving my clothes on the floor, not cooking or cleaning anything, hanging out with a some old friends and meeting a few new ones.

Upon my arrival in Newark, I was greeted at the airport by a lovely gal named Ava (her name is almost as cool as mine). She brought a group of us to our driver who whisked (OK, not really whisked but got us there) us off to the lovely Heldrich Hotel in the Chevy Malibu (I'm pretty sure) provided by GM.

OK, I will do my best to NOT have the rest of this read like a bad commercial.

The first night was an incredible evening of fun with Ted Allen. I'll be honest with ya' - before this, I wouldn't have known this guy if I plowed him down in the lobby on the way to the food. By the end of an evening of wine tasting with him though, we were gabbing away. I mean, any guy who starts a wine tasting by telling us we can't eat the little plates of food we have at our spots yet because they're like your plates at the Passover table, I am definitely going to have a good time partying with.

The next day was filled with informative talks from various people involved with J&J. My personal favorite was learning about InfantSee with Dr. Scott Jens. This is a program supported by J&J which provides a free eye exam for all infants. Since my brother struggled horribly in school until they realized he was near sighted in one eye and far sighted in the other and simply couldn't see what was going on in the world, I think this opportunity is something all parents should take advantage of! As a matter of fact, I have already made arrangements with Dr. Jens to get information about InfantSee into my community. I also loved hearing Bridgette Heller tell us about the many things J&J Baby Care division is involved with and how they strive to implement good health all around the world. One funny thing - about 30 minutes after Dr. Charles Gerba spoke with us about germs, you couldn't find a drop of hot water in the hotel. I think we used it all up frantically trying to remove germs we had gathered from any fomites in the room.

That night we had a fabulous dinner at The Frog and the Peach sponsored by none other than Nintendo - because nothing says fine dining like video games right? We arrived to drinks, hors d'oeuvres, and, of course, Wii. Now, being a Wii virgin, I was quite excited and a bit nervous. The folks from Nintendo were very kind though. They taught me to scuba dive and bowl without laughing at me and we even got to check out a new step game that isn't available to the public yet! Once we worked up our appetites, it was time to eat. The dinner roles were amazing (remember, I live in Colorado) and I joked with the restaurant manager about needing to bring some home. Wouldn't you know it, not 10 minutes later the waitress showed up at my table with a couple of boxes of rolls for me! Now that's service. After dinner, we went back to the hotel (courtesy of GM, of course) and gathered for a virtual camp fire evening.

The next morning we packed up (how sad) and headed to the lobby for a field trip to the J&J campus. The administrative building was quite beautiful and the campus has an on site day care facility as well. While there, we learned some J&J history and gave them some tips for heading into the future.

Then it was time to go home. The J&J folks loaded us up with plenty of goodies to take home and even had sack lunches for us to bring to the airport. They thought of everything!

Overall, I must say it was a wonderful trip and now, more than ever, I believe J&J lives up to its credo and truly is a company full of "good citizens [who] support good works and charities."

Thank you Johnson & Johnson, GM and Nintendo for a wonderful 3 days and for everything you do!

We pity the fool who doesn't have April Fool fun with the family

Son One set our clocks an hour ahead. If you are like me-need java in the morning before you are even remotely able to formulate a sentence-then you know I am a total suckah. I woke up, took a look at the clock and puzzled as to why my kids let me sleep in on a weekday.

I walked into Son One's room. No one there.

I went to Son Two's room and there on the bed was a note written by Son One:

"Dear Mom, Son Two and I have walked to school. Don't worry about us, we'll be fine. It's not a long walk, just a couple of miles. Maybe a stranger will pick us up and give us a ride. Love, Son One and Son Two"

Now that part I realized was a joke. When I walked downstairs I had two children leaping up at me from behind chairs yelling, "Happy April Fools Day!"

Did you prank your kids? Did they prank you? Did someone else get you?