Scared Stupid.

Fall has been off to an awesome start. I know quite a few adults who dislike the holidays but I am not one of those people. I feel energized by parties, and decorations, and planning gifts for others. I love this time of year. The newest challenge I am just beginning to reach, however, is finding activities that our whole family will enjoy. 

My high schooler doesn't exactly leap for joy when I say we are going to a farmer's market or pumpkin patch. He will go but doesn't try to hide his "enthusiasm". Last Saturday, it just worked out that the oldest had a birthday party to attend the same time as a "Pumpkin Walk". He got to go do big, cool, teenagery things, while the rest of my kids had a blast making beaded scarecrow bracelets, decorating cookies, and trick-or-treating through a craft fair. I guarantee we would not have lasted the two whole hours if I had lugged my fifteen year old with us. 

After Barry and Laycee left for rehearsal last night,  I offered to watch a "scary" movie with my other kids and my teenager actually looked excited. Then I popped in Ernest Scared Stupid. I grew up on all the Ernest movies. My brothers can attest that I watched Ernest Goes to Camp dozens of times! This movie scared me as a little kid, just the thought of being hunted by an evil troll with two seriously snotty noses- FREAKY! I've been dying to introduce them to this movie for years, but Barry has always refused because he lacks superior taste in film. With his absence, I seized the opportunity. 

My kids were majorly underwhelmed. Nostalgia forced me to love it, but even I'll admit... it was SO. SO. SO BAD! Grayson kept saying throughout the movie, "I hate this." When it ended, however, we just sat there and roasted the tar out of it. All of us were laughing so hard there were tears running down my face. When it came time for bed time prayer, none of us could contain ourselves long enough to get serious. I told the kids that no insults were allowed during the prayer and Jaye jokingly said, "Bless us all that we won't have nightmares from that scaaaary movie" and then we laugh-cried even more. When Dad and Laycee came home, we all agreed a second bedtime prayer was probably needed to make up for our poor excuse of one earlier. 

It's a difficult spot, having kids ready to watch truly scary movies and others who couldn't handle much more than an Ernest movie. But tonight, magically, we found some middle ground. Thank you, Ernest P. Worrell. For making such iconic B-movies that I must force my children to watch them and relive my own childhood.

Aw, the memories.