Horror Show. Or, the Optimist Club.

Seriously, what are we thinking sometimes? Scratch that, what am I thinking? Jim tried to convince me at least a half dozen times this week that taking two babies to a drive-in movie that starts at 9:30 PM is the WORST IDEA EVER. But see, he’s a pessimist and I am his complimentary eternal optimist. Unfortunately for him, optimism is always trump in this household.

So Saturday night we loaded up the car with plenty of blankets, pillows, camp chairs and babies and headed out to the Compuware Arena Drive-In Theatre. Bastien thought it was awesome right from the get-go. Because anything that involves free reign inside the car is awesome. He also thought it was hilarious that we were going nigh-nigh in the back of the car. And it was all awesome and hilarious. For about three minutes.

But then the sun set and the killer mosquitoes began to swarm, appropriately setting the tone for the rest of the evening. Here are my babies, getting eaten alive by mosquitoes and here I am, the worst parent of all time (but still looking optimistic!).

I thought I had things under control with the Burt’s Bees natural insect repellent. Um yeah, judging from Hadley’s face this morning, that was an $8/ounce joke.

Also, the thing is, toddlers just DO NOT LIKE TO HAVE THEIR SCHEDULES MESSED WITH. And the other thing is, 2-month-old Hadley already thinks she’s a toddler. So picture two unhappy/wildish toddler babies, wondering why their parents are TORTURING them in the back of this car and why can’t we all just be home in our beds already? The beds that we are ALWAYS in at this time of night, with NO EXCEPTIONS. And then throw in teensy popcorn kernels ALL OVER THE BACK OF THE CAR, RED icees accompanied by incessant pleading for “drink, drink, drink,” spit-up all over with NO BURP CLOTH IN SIGHT, and instructions on how to tune into the (somewhat important) audio portion of the movie mysteriously VANISHING INTO THIN AIR.

Though optimism always rules in this household, it seems JIM IS ALWAYS RIGHT. Bummer.

We stuck it out for the first movie, Ice Age 2¹. Which at least Hadley watched most of. And she got in FREE! See how well that worked out?