Categories
Everything Else

The Man Who Invented Christmas

Are you in the holiday spirit & ready to go to the movies this Thanksgiving weekend?! I know of a couple great new films coming out & I’m so excited to share my thoughts on them with you. First up.

The Man Who Invented Christmas tells the behind the scenes magical tale of Charles Dickens & how he came up with the infamous Christmas Carol, the novel that forever changed Christmas as we know it. The film is based on the book by Les Standiford of the same title & shares how Charles (played by Dan Stevens) used real life events & people along with his wild & vivid imagination to create the timeless characters we all know & love including Marley, Scroogie (played brilliantly by Christopher Plummer) & tiny Tim.

Man Who Invented Christmas Suz'sTreats

This film is rated PG & is considered a comedy, drama. Hearing Christmas & PG, I decided to bring along Zach & Lucy as well as my aunt to our showing. I should have watched the Man Who Invented Christmas trailer first. Zach & Lucy loved the reclining seats, the popcorn & the costumes. But they didn’t “get” it. The story was just over their 5.5 year old heads.

My aunt & I really enjoyed it though. We loved that it is based on a true story & gave us the background story of Charles’ family as well as depth behind the characters I love. So, if you have older children, tweens/teens, take them & go start the holiday season with a movie that will help you remember what Christmas really is all about.

While I was giving passes to see COCO for myself & family, their generosity did not effect my honest review.

Categories
Everything Else Motherhood

A Bad Moms Christmas

We might still be six weeks away from Christmas, but the Christmas spirit (& frenzy) is starting to take hold of me. Gift buying, decorating idea, travel plans & outfit choices have been occupying my thoughts for a couple of weeks now. It doesn’t take much to have it all be very overwhelming.

Which is why I was thrilled to have a night out with a few of my favorite fellow “bad moms” to go see the new film, A Bad Moms Christmas recently.

A Bad Moms Christmas Suz's Treats

Have you seen it yet?! I laughed til I cried.

We meet the same three moms we fell in love & saw ourselves in the original Bad Moms (played delightfully by Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, & Kathryn Hahn) but this time as they’re in the middle of the holiday hustle. Adding to their holiday craziness is their three mothers. & we as the audience got to experience the mother/daughter dynamic of the ladies with their moms (played by Cheryl Hines, with Christine Baranski, and Susan Sarandon).

My friends & I looked the mall scene. & we loved Justin Hartley I’m sure you know from This Is Us, but you see a whole new side of this guy in Bad Moms Christmas. So much fun!

A Bad Moms Christmas is a great reminder that sometimes less is more. Kids are what matters most at the holidays. & that keeping your sanity as a mom is important too!

If you loved Bad Moms, feeling like you might be a slightly crazy, “bad mom” & in need of a laugh, grab some friends (or even your mom!) & go see A Bad Moms Christmas! I’m so glad I started off my holiday season doing just that!

I was invited by STXfilms to see a pre-screening of the film but their generosity didnt sway my views.

Categories
Toddler Life

Teacher Appreciation Week {Bruegger’s giveaway}

Happy first full week of May! And May means for most kids, the winding down of school & thus taking the time to thank the teachers who have helped teach & care for your children this year.

Lucy & Zach moved up to the late 2s/early 3s room at their daycare a couple months back, so these teachers they didn’t have last May or over Christmas. Making this week my time to tell these ladies a big THANK YOU! For keeping L & Z happy during the day, for making sure they eat, nap, play nicely with their friends & each other, for learning & for getting Lucy almost completely potty trained (probably another post, another time)!

In the age of Pinterest, it’s easy to find images & ideas other moms have done for Teacher Appreciation, but as a non-super crafty, overly-tired, working mom of two almost-3 year olds, I leave the Pinterest projects to someone else.

I’m relying on my trusty favorites: food & gift cards! You can’t go wrong there right?! I figured I’d stop by Target after work & grab a lip balm & little gift card for each of their 3 teachers. I won’t have specialty printed paper, but I figured I could write “You’re the balm! Love, Zach & Lucy” as my nod to the crafty moms.

And for food, no question, the Bruegger’s Big Bagel Bundle. This way I can not only give breakfast to their two morning teachers, but show my appreciation to the whole staff with 13 bagels & two yummy cream cheese tubs! A handwritten note of thanks & quick stop at Bruegger’s Friday morning is simple yet perfect! & Bruegger’s is always a delicious hit in my opinion!

Because Bruegger’s is so awesome, they’re providing me with not one, but TWO $10 gift cards to give out to TWO awesome readers. Just leave a comment letting me know What have you done or are you doing to show appreciation for the teachers in your children’s lives?! If you don’t yet have children, leave a comment with what you think is a fun idea!

And I’ll pick two random comments ~ Congratulations Elana & Crystal! Y’all won! I’ll email you both for your addresses!

In exchange for this post, Bruegger’s is providing me with gift cards for me as well as the ones for the giveaway, but my thoughts & opinions are all my own & not swayed because of their generosity.

Categories
Family/Travel Toddler Life Travel

Thanksgiving ’13

We celebrated another wonderful Thanksgiving down at OIB with my Mom & Dad & my Dad’s parents, Nana & Pawpaw. {We missed my brother & SIL in NY & my mom’s side in Charlotte!}

And their dog, Bocce was a huge hit with Zach & Lucy. Who needs toys when there’s a dog?! Even better that they’d just learned to say dog & woof woof & learned his name while we were there. Zach just followed him around & loved to pat him on the back & head. L liked to talk to him & look from afar & thought his fluffy tail was fun to pet. They were surprisingly gentle, & Bocce, who can be skiddish, did great putting up with them. I think Bocce’s a big fan of L & Z because he gets to do clean up floor duty after every meal & snack {bribery at it’s finest}.

Thursday morning, we made a chilly walk up for beach church on the sand. Rev John spoke quick because it was cold! Z ‘played’ with sand & had fun watching birds then got too cold even all bundled up. Lucy was snuggled into me & lasted in her owl fluffy hat & ruffle coat.

Thanksgiving was also my mom’s birthday! So we had birthday cake along with our Thanksgiving meal. 🙂

Dad enjoyed lots of books with L & Z including hallmark The Night Before Christmas which he recorded his voice reading. It’s so cool.

Thanksgiving Thursday

Friday & Saturday we shopped, ate & ate, played, L & Z had dance parties with Nana & their Cici.

Jason & I escaped for a day date to see Hunger Games Catching Fire & a quick Boj’s lunch. Our first movie since the weekend before I went on hospital bed rest.

Lucy & Zach took baths in Nana’s big garden tub. Zach loved it & I think he’s going to be our lil fish. Lucy liked a quick duck tub {within the tub} bath then to watch.

Saturday, OIB starts off the Christmas holiday with a bunch of events. L&Z were napping during parade time & we skipped the floatila bc it was dinner/bath/bedtime. But we made it to the fire station for cookies & meeting Santa. LOL. It didn’t go so well! Poor L was hating it!
Friday and Saturday Thanksgiving

Sunday, we went to my grandparents’ church {where we were married} & L & Z did great playing I the children’s room while we worshiped & listened to Nana in the choir. Afterwards we finally remembered to take a four generations photo!
Four Coggins generations

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. Now onto Christmas holiday posts!

Categories
Family/Travel Photography Toddler Life

Pumpkin Patch {take 1}

With my parents in town last weekend, we headed to a local pumpkin patch Saturday morning. We’d had fun with tiny Z & L there last year for their first pumpkin patch experience & decided to go back.

Oh how pumpkin patch photo ops are different with running toddlers vs not-yet-sitting-up infants!
Zach-and-Lucy-Pumpkin-Patch

Saturday L & Z were all look at the dirt! & mud! & balls {aka pumpkins!} & trucks {driving by quickly on busy road}. And yes, we brought home 3 gourds because they wouldn’t think of putting them down!!

Lucy-and-Zach-Pumpkin-Patch-2013

There was lots of wrangling & smiles, but sadly, not quite the perfect family/group pictures we’d hoped for.

Pumpkin-patch-2013

Since we plan to go to VA & another patch this upcoming weekend, stay tuned for take 2 next week!