It was supposed to be an easy evening, where my son G- (13) would be at his friend’s house for the night while the girls and their friends would have a sleepover at my place. Two 17yo girls and two 10yo girls. I had two movies teed up, My Fair Lady for everyone, then, when the younger two went upstairs to bed, Rush for the 17yo’s and myself. Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison for everyone and Chris Helmsworth for the teens. What could go wrong?
It started out smoothly enough, with G- heading to his friend’s place directly after post-school basketball practice, presumably to spend the night, while the older girls headed to the movie theater to see Endless Love (which they agreed was “meh” and “predictable”). Which left me with the two little ‘uns. So we made our own pizza for dinner, which was fast and easy. I love that you can buy a pre-cooked pizza crust, makes it ridiculously easy to make a pizza with 3-4 ingredients total.
Flipped on My Fair Lady and oh, how I love that movie, even though the original DVD that I have is based on a print that’s really showing its age with dull colors and a lack of crispness that was noticeable. Still, those songs. And Audrey Hepburn. Ahhhhh…. even with her weirdly tiny waist, she was so lovely.
The older girls showed up, a whirlwind of activity. They quickly joined the movie watching after whipping up some stuffed mushroom and feta cheese snacks. All was going smoothly and the timing was even good, with the first movie wrapping up around 9pm, just in time for K- (10) and her pal to head upstairs to have some time pre-sleep to chat.
Then the phone rang. G- and his friend had apparently not communicated clearly with the other Dad and he was now saying that since he had to go to work early in the morning, my son couldn’t spend the night. Oh, ok. So they wanted to know if the boys could come back to my place and spend the night with us.
Six kids. One dad. UUuhhhh ok.
After a few seconds of frustration with the change in plans, I drove out and brought the boys back. They were so tired at that point that they could probably have both just gone to bed at 9pm (after basketball practice and a busy week) but we got Rush going instead, though all of the kids were skeptical of the movie since none of them had heard of it.
“Trust me. This is a cool movie with some wicked good racing scenes.”
Okay, they let me put the Blu-Ray disc in and start it (thanks Christian). And they really got into it. If you haven’t heard of the film, I’m not surprised as it’s a sleeper that left the theater incredibly quickly. Rush is about two championship Formula-1 drivers who famously had a lifelong antipathy towards each other. Hunky driver James Hunt is played by Chris Helmsworth and unlike films like Thor here he gets to show off his considerable acting skills. His foil and nemesis is the completely self-absorbed but technically brilliant world champion Niki Lauda, played perfectly by Daniel Brühl. For eye candy, us guys get to enjoy both Olivia Wilde and Natalie Dormer. It’s a fascinating movie about the love-hate relationship men have with other men, and I highly recommend it. Not enough motivation? It’s directed by Ron Howard. Now I’ve got your interest, right?
Anyway, the teen contingent really enjoyed the film and A- asked us to back up so she and her pal could enjoy an early scene with Helmsworth’s naked butt 🙂 They were all zombies by the time we ended the film at 11.20 or so but it’s a holiday weekend, I let ’em stay up.
Then they all piled into my daughter’s room and, rather to my surprise upon learning this today, stayed up until almost 2am talking. I was up before anyone else this morning, that’s for sure. And when everyone did get up, the morning went surprisingly smoothly, and I even whipped up French Toast (or do we still call it “freedom toast” 🙂 ) for the gang while they not only did their individual household chores but somehow shanghied their friends into helping them too.
All in all, it went better than I expected though it was a tiny drag when my son said “everyone has a friend except Daddy!” Oh well. Next time I’ll invite a pal over too…
Sounds fun! Lucky kids.