Planes in China

After school today we went to see the movie "Planes" at our local theater - and as you can see above, part of it took place in China.  We hadn't seen any previews, so we didn't know the movie was about a race around the world.  So the appearance of Madison's homeland was a pleasant surprise.

In fact, as you can see above, this is all pretty close to the place where she was born.  One of those forklifts probably helped take care of her at the orphanage.

Or not.  As for the movie itself, we enjoyed it, if only for the family time together out at the movies.  We had a free ticket because of the movie card we'd been using at this local theater.  Not only are the employees there super friendly, but they have all kinds of money-saving incentives.  Another shout out for the Cumming Carmike Theater:  we've been pretty impressed with the employees, theater, prices - you name it.

We got in our usual spot in the center of the back row, camped out with a tub of popcorn and some candy goodies and drinks.  And soon we were off to the races!

The movie has a "direct-to-DVD" feel at the beginning, but picks up a little steam - or at least airtime - once the great race begins.  Madison's favorite part involves the Mexican flyer and the Canadian jet.  Pretty soon, she'll be building this Mexican airplane at Lowe's:  his name is Chupacabra, and was just one of the "comic relief" characters in the movie.  In fact, he had the best part, a pretty funny serenade with accompaniment from about eight or nine singing forklifts that played guitar.  It was that sort of movie.

Before going to the movies, we went to the chiropractor.  As usual, Madison had a great time.  It's like inviting her to a tickle fight.  She always loses, of course.  But today she was not quite as unhinged - she giggled, but wasn't quite the uncontrolled laughter a visit usually provides.

School today was good for her:  she brought in a plastic ziplock bag with three things in it, each one an item that has a story.  To make things easier, two of these items are pictures (one of her with Jack Sparrow, and one of her playing the keyboard).  The last item is a refrigerator magnet from China.  She didn't get to talk about herself today in show-and-tell, but she said that she'll be a part of the Tuesday group.  

Meanwhile at home, Mommy and Daddy did a bit of clean-up.  Daddy built another chair for the front porch, or should I say, assembled another chair.  We're changing the look of our front porch, after Mommy found these really nice rocking chairs at Wal-Mart.  Now they're both complete, so we'll set them up and start rocking that porch!