A fun outing

The boys and I wanted to go out today and do something...anything, except shopping. Okay, how about lunch? (Tom's suggestion)
I wish we could see a movie. (Joe's suggestion)
Sounds like a plan to me. The boys did not want fast food though so I figured we could eat at Chili's Too at Arundel Mills Mall and then go watch the only G rated movie I could find, The Princess and the Frog. Jenny had written a good recommendation of the movie and the boys and I watched a trailer before we left. I was a little concerned because scary or suspenseful things tend to make my boys really unhappy. We arrived at the mall at about 12:45 for a 2 pm movie, only to find that almost all the stores and restaurants were closed until 2. Really didn't see that one coming. Dave and Buster's was the only restaurant (non-fast food) that was open. My kids have never been there, so I turned to them and said we were only going to eat, not play games. We sat down at a table about 12:55. Our drink order was taken after about 5 minutes and the manager who brought our drinks said the server would be over to get our order. Even though I was ready, the manager wouldn't take my order. Okay...I kept flagging down people because no one would take our order. They just kept saying "just a minute". Finally at 1:35 our order went in. We were served our food at 1:50 and I told the boys they had to chow down quickly because our movie started at 2:05. We didn't get all of our food eaten in the short amount of time, but we got most of it.
I really did enjoy the movie a whole lot. Sam liked it as well, though he cuddled on my lap from time to time to hide from the scary stuff. He also couldn't sit in the seat without it folding up on him, so it was a little distracting for him. But he still liked it.
Tom LOVED the movie. He was really into the whole movie. He cried at the sad parts, was worried about the frogs not getting turned back into people and declared it to be the best movie he has ever seen.
Joe thought the movie was okay. I asked what his favorite part of the movie was, and he said none of it. I'm sorry that Joe didn't like it, but I am glad that at least the other two did.
The boys all had really really good behavior and the whole experience was much better than the last time I tried to take my kids to a movie. I took Joe and Tom to see Cars while I was pregnant with Sam. A friend of mine had taken her two kids (who are the same age as mine) to see it a week before me. She had given a glowing review and how much her two kids liked it. Tom cried and screamed in the opening 10 minutes because it was too loud and half-way through, Joe started asking to go home. I am glad that today went so much better.