~ 1 ~

My husband and I are pretty geared up about the release of Toy Story 3. We won’t be in the theaters on opening day, or probably for a week or so, but we are thinking of surprising the kids and doing a family movie night…in the theater. (OK, so it will be in the afternoon, and it will be expensive, but…I can’t help but jump up and down!)

Until recently, my husband hadn’t seen Toy Story 2. We borrowed it from a friend, and then the Disney channel started playing both of the first two in the evenings (those promotional geniuses).

This is one of those rare sets of movies with sequels that I like and where, in fact, I think as highly of the sequel as of the original.

~ 2 ~

Speaking of movies we can’t wait to see:

Yeah, that’s the trailer for The Dawn Treader, the third in the Chronicles of Narnia movies. We love-love-LOVE the books, and we’ve been very impressed by the movies.

If I have to take a brand-new baby to it, ah, I will. (Easy to say now, anyway, right?)

~ 3 ~

My kids have gotten to bed twice this week at a time that is very, very late. It’s like my Mom Bedtime Radar is turned off. It’s like my body is confused by the longer days, by the lull in the house when Daddy takes them out to weed the garden or clean the baby pool or whatever he does with them out there. It’s like…it’s summer or something!

Luckily, there hasn’t been much of a piper to pay in the mornings or through the days (but I’m waiting and I’m not holding my breath…it’s going to get ugly if I don’t straighten this bedtime thing back up soon!). I have missed the quiet time with my husband to read and talk and watch TV. Oh, and we’re getting to bed later too, as a result. That part’s not so good.

But the firefly hunt the other night? That was SO totally worth it.

~ 4 ~

The obligatory funny story from the horse farm this week: my five-year-old was walking her pony, Trent, to the outdoor arena where she was going to have her lesson. He was being pretty cooperative, as ornery ponies go, but her boots weren’t.

We’ve had a stretch of rain, and there was a ditch of mud that she was walking through when, schloop, her boot just came off. I was standing at the watering trough with my two-year-old’s pony (and she was atop), our instructor was fiddling with a gate, and she was calling for help.

My first response? Laughter. Bailey, the pony I was holding, was immersed nearly over her nostrils in water, tossing her head around, and the whole situation just struck me as, well, hilarious.

Elizabeth was saved and made it through her lesson minus a sock.

The lesson? Avoid the slurpy mud. Especially if you have slip-on boots.

~ 5 ~

A few weeks ago, the last race in the Triple Crown was on, the Belmont Stakes. We didn’t actually see the race itself, but we saw a lot of the on-all-day-long stuff leading up to the big race. There were smaller races and stories and, oh joy, movie trailers for upcoming horse movies that we absolutely must see!

Disney is making a movie about Secretariat! Yes, that’s right! It probably will be good whether you like horse stuff or not, but for us…this is a date waiting to happen. Heck, we rewound the trailer that morning about three times and I think I got both starry-eyed and teary at the thought of it.

Both of us, my husband and I, were horse crazy in our youth. (Ironically, we found this out quite accidentally after we were married.) Secretariat is the Michael Jordan of race horses, and race horses are what Walter Farley wrote about, you know. Those books we devoured were made into a sort of reality by this horse I don’t even remember (though I think Bob does).

Ahhhh. This will be a movie we will own, methinks. But not before I gush about it much more.

Image source

~ 6 ~

Believe it or not, we’re really not avid moviegoers. My husband’s height makes it hard for him to get comfortable, and he just doesn’t usually like going to the movies. You wouldn’t know it from my gushing about movies in this post, but…there you have it.

~ 7 ~

Happy Fathers Day to all you dads out there! We’ll be celebrating by giving my husband a day of his own (which might mean fishing, if he’s lucky). If I was a super baker, I would take Matt’s advice and make him a tie cake. (Check out the link. Wow. I’m in awe.)

As always, you’ll find Quick Takes hosted at Conversion Diary.