Hairspray, Harry and Sweltering Heat

I've learned a few things in the last 2 days: Number one, having a girls' night out can really boost a tired mom's morale. Number two, don't borrow $10 from "Bree" anytime soon. Number three, my sister-in-law and cousin-in-law are great people. Number four, hats don't always stay on heads. Number five, I've got some pretty amazing kids. (I'll explain more about #5 later)

Friday night I had the opportunity to attend "Girls' Night Out" at a local movie theater with my sister-in-law "Bree" and her cousin "Co-Co". We had dinner and then saw Hairspray. The whole night was so much fun, but especially the movie! Have you ever seen a movie and then as soon as it was over, wanted to run to the box office and by another ticket for the next showing? That's how good this movie was to me. This movie is the type of show I absolutely love. Great music, funny characters, terrific acting, and tears streaming down my face from laughing so hard. We were literally dancing in the aisles afterwards, and immediately quoting memorable lines. Here are some of the highlights!

James Marsden....Yum! Hairspray has done for him what Moulin Rouge did for Ewan McGregor. Give a cute guy a microphone and a solo, and watch me turn to goo!

Christopher Walken grabbing John Travolta's butt is worth the price of a ticket and more!

The way John Travolta says the word "Coke"..... just really funny. He's really funny.

Amanda Bynes has some really great one-liners, and delivers them with great comedic timing. "I'm very pleased and scared to be here". And her mom (played by Allison Janney) rocks!

Could Queen Latifah BE anymore fabulous? 'Nough said.

Zac Efron is not nearly as annoying in this show as he was in High School Musical. He was actually really good.

Nikki Blonsky is really cute, and I love her character's attitude towards life. Watching her sing and dance down the street, I just couldn't help but grin.

But the highlight of "Girls Night Out" was this: During the show, "Bree" grabbed a tissue from her purse to wipe her nose, and later realized she'd been wiping her nose on a $10 bill! Ha ha! Good times.

After the movie and after picking-up the kids, I decided to drive by the store where I had reserved a copy of the new Harry Potter book. I didn't really intend to go in and wait until midnight to buy it, I was just curious to see how busy it was. Well, it wasn't that crowded, and the kids saw people walking around with funny balloon hats and people in wizard costumes, and really wanted to go in. So there we were, me and 4 kids, standing in line to buy Harry Potter at midnight. It was actually very fun and exciting. The kids got fun balloon creations and enjoyed counting down to midnight, and I got my book. Not that I've had time to read it yet, but that's okay.

After getting to bed at 1:00 a.m., we got up on Saturday morning and went to the Days of '47 Children's Parade downtown. We had great seats and it was really fun. The kids loved spending time with their cousins. After the parade, we went to the festival and the kids got to play games and play on lots of blow-up slides and bouncers. The girls especially liked the Sweet and Sassy booth, where they each got fancy "princess" hair-dos with glittery hairspray. The heat was unbelievable, and "Buddah" lost his awesome Pittsburgh Steelers cap that he got for Christmas, but we had a fun time.

Now to #5. I have some pretty incredible kids. I can't express how wonderful it is to know that when I drop them off at Grandma and Grandpa's house (or anyone's house really), I don't have to worry about their behavior. They are always really good for sitters, and I'm so glad that they are. Then after spending time at Grandma and Grandpa's, they were so amazingly well-behaved at the store waiting for Harry Potter. They had to be tired, but there wasn't any crying, any whining, any fighting...we just enjoyed the time together, and had a memorable experience. Then this morning, after getting way too little sleep, they were still really very good at the parade and festival. By the end of the afternoon, we were all exhausted and hot and a little crabby, but who can blame them. I look at the last 24 hours and am so thankful for the kids that I have.