Revenge of the Sith

For Matthew's birthday a few weeks ago he received the book "Revenge of the Sith". We started reading chapters to one another, but I didn't want to know how it ended, so I stopped. I spoke with him the other day and he stopped too. I think it was too depressing and scary for him. :(

So..I went and saw the movie yesterday with my good friend Hung Le. We wanted to preview it before deciding whether our boys could watch it. I must say, I'm pretty torn about it. There are a few scenes (eg, the younglings, and the destruction of Annaken) that would really bother Matthew. So I haven't decided yet what to do about it. My initial thought is that he's not really ready for it yet. But I may change my mind over time. Any of you with young boys (age 6-9) feel free to weigh in on it with me.

Overall, I liked the movie. It was a wonderful piece of connecting the dots...how did Annie become Darth Vader? Is Chancellor Palpatine really Darth Sideous? How did Yoda end up at Degobah? Kenobi at Tattoine? How did Vadar not know about the twins? What happened to Padame? How did the Republic fall? What caused the rise of the Empire? What happened to the Jedi Knights? All these, and more, are answered quite satisfactorily. Additionally, its a wonderful treatment of how "good" and "evil" are mostly a point of view, and how no one is intrinsically "good" or "evil" but their choices make them so. I found it enjoyable and well worth the $7.50 for a matinee admission. Now the $10 popcorn on the other hand...

General Update

Oh my goodness it has been much too long since I've updated this blog. My apologies. First, all is well. We've enjoyed our spring semester in Malibu and the kids are nearly out of school (one more month!). We've not traveled anywhere or done anything exciting since our trip to Italy in December. But we're doing well.

Matthew is finishing up baseball season. He's had a tough year. We moved him up to Little League this year from TeeBall. We maybe should have kept him in Tee Ball one more year. He's the youngest kid out there and has had some difficulties with hitting "kid-pitch" balls. But he's improved a lot and will be much better next year when he's a little bigger and stronger.

Madison has devoted the spring to learning to read and her art. She comes home from school every day and begins working on some art project. She's absolutely adorable. Plus, like Matthew, her first book was "Green Eggs and Ham". She read it for the first time back in early April. She's doing great. We hope to get her into gymnastics or dance classes in the fall.

Marcus is really learning to speak. He is very verbal now. He talks all the time and sometimes people who aren't even in our family can understand him. Madison is the best at understanding him. She always knows what he's saying. He's too cute. I've posted a ton of pictures recently on the website. Check them out! Let me know if you don't remember the password and I'll remind you.