Movie Break, Play Time, and Family Fun

Yesterday afternoon, the girls settled in to watch a multi-episode block of "Strawberry Shortcake" that I had rented from On Demand.  This particular "Strawberry Shortcake" mini-marathon was especially exciting, in that the episodes are from what I believe is the 2nd of 3 incarnations of the television show.  The "Strawberry Shortcake" tv show of yore, from my childhood days, in which The Peculiar Purple Pie-Man of Porcupine Peak is Strawberry's nemesis, is long defunct, and the current "Strawberry Shortcake" series, which my girls watch regularly, bears virtually no resemblance to the older show.  What I hadn't realized was that in between then and now, there was another, short-lived cartoon version of the show, whose episodes have been compiled into hour-long "movies" On Demand.

So basically, Strawberry Shortcake has evolved several times:

1970s Strawberry Shortcake

2003 Strawberry Shortcake (the one whose episodes we rented yesterday)

Current Strawberry Shortcake (the version with which my kids are familiar)

At any rate, Julia has decided she actually prefers the 2003 version of the Strawberry Shortcake show and character, because, believe it or not, the current Strawberry is just a little too much of a goody-two-shoes for her.

JULIA: Mama?  You know why I think I like this OLD "Strawberry Shortcake" a little better?  Because, like, the NEW "Strawberry Shortcake" is just SO sweet, and she always does EVERYTHING right, and she always has to GIGGLE about everything.

I can't say I disagree.  The current Strawberry Shortcake is way too saccharine for my taste.  Pun intended.

At least in the 2003 version of the show, there are some not-so-sweet characters who learn their lessons about how to behave in kindness. Take Lime Light, for instance, who, until Strawberry shows her the way, is basically a spoiled brat. Even Madeleine was able to pick up on Lime Light's diva-esque behavior.

MADELEINE: Mama?  Lime Light thinks that EVERYTHING is about HER, but it's NOT.  Everything is about GOD, but she thinks everything is about HER.

Yeah.  That's right, Madeleine.  Way to get at the moral heart of the story.


ANYWAY, once the movie was over, I expected the girls to start begging me, prematurely, to head over to Family Fun Night at Rosemary Pool, but surprisingly, they both launched happily into pretend play games that kept them occupied much longer than one would expect based on the premise of the games.

Julia's game was "Ice Cream Stand," in which she was hard at work selling ice cream to (mostly imaginary) customers.  Occasionally Madeleine or I would order ice cream, when Julia would shout out in hopeful optimism, "Is there anybody ELSE who would like some ice cream right now??"

The basic premise of Ice Cream Stand is that the stand is run entirely by college students, or, as Julia calls them, "collagers."  Here is her description of the game:

"Each collager does something for, like, each SEASON, and, like, run the Ice Cream Shop.  So they sign up for any season they want, and I signed up for summer, so every day I do SUMMER ones.  And then the rest of the collagers do them in the different seasons.  It's ONLY collagers, because, like, HIGH SCHOOLERS raised money for collage, so collagers need to raise money for, like, if they're going to GRAD SCHOOL, or, like, if they need to buy a house or something."

Julia selling ice cream to Daddy, in today's resumption of the Ice Cream Stand.


Julia also informed me that because the staff is all collagers, they try really hard to talk really politely to their customers.  Julia then occasionally checked in with me to see if I was overhearing how politely the college students were speaking. 

The basic conversations went something like this:

JULIA (as collager): Here you go, here's your ice cream miss.  Would you like anything else with this?
JULIA (as customer): No, thank you.
JULIA: (as collager): Well, thank you SO much for visiting our ice cream stand.
JULIA: (as customer): You're welcome.  Thank you so much for your ice cream stand.  We just LOVE coming here in the summer.  It's just SUCH a special treat for my daughter.

If only Julia could remember these sorts of manners when she's talking to the REAL people in our household.

While Julia was busy selling ice cream, Madeleine began a game of "Don't Let the Ball Touch the Ground" in the dining room, tossing around her yellow soft foam ball (pictured below):

Despite not having a ball-playing partner, Madeleine decided to play with an unnamed, invisible friend after Julia turned her down.  I was in the bathroom at the time, standing at the mirror using the tweezers on my eyebrows, and heard Madeleine visit the Ice Cream Stand.

MADELEINE: Julia!  Wanna play "Don't Let the Ball Touch the Ground" with me?
JULIA: Uh, no, I can't.  I'm busy working at the Ice Cream Stand, because I have to run it in the summer.
MADELEINE: Oh.  Hey Julia!  We're BOTH busy!  (running to the bathroom) Mama!  So.  Me and Julia are both BUSY!  So, we're ALL BUSY!
ME: Great!

Madeleine then returned to the dining room to talk to her invisible friend.

MADELEINE: Hey, where did you go?
MADELEINE: I had to go into the bathroom to tell my mom something.
MADELEINE: Okay, wanna play?!
MADELEINE: Yeah!  Come ON!

So, happily, the girls were able to entertain themselves for most of the afternoon, and were really excited once the time rolled around for Family Fun Night.   And what a blast they had at the pool.  Two hours of swimming, with a break to have pizza for dinner, sitting on our towels, getting ice cream from the (real) ice cream stand for dessert, and the chance to play games like diving for rings absolutely made their night.

As Julia put it, afterwards, "That Family Fun Night was SO MUCH FUN!"

It certainly was.  I mean, it *may* not be as fun as playing "Don't Let the Ball Touch the Ground" with an invisible friend, but I'd say the girls were both pretty fulfilled with their evening pool experience.