It’s time to put on makeup.

It’s time to light the lights.

It’s time to get things started.

Why don’t we get things started.

In the most sensational, inspirational…

…Muppet Show tonight!

The song lyrics above signaled the beginning of a very special time for my family. As you know, family time is special to me. With a Kid, a Preteen, and a Teen, time seems to be slipping through my family hourglass at a rate too rapid to measure.

• My teen is well in to her high school career. Varsity volleyball player. No holds barred online shopper.
• My tween became a teen…sshhhh don’t tell anyone. Now back to yearround swimming after a great summer season. And a budding photo journalist.
• My kid is still a kid. Loves Lego. Still plays with race tracks and trains. An avid reader of anything to do with…well anything.

We were invited to a screening of the new Muppets Movie this past weekend. And I won’t hesitate to say that a “fun time was had by all!” My husband and I grew up watching The Muppet Show — he watched in the U.S. and I watched in the U.K.

The movie’s opening theme song signaled that a fun time was ahead for me and my family (the teen was home sick). In fact, my husband and I are such diehard Muppet fans that we were there at the opening night of The Muppet Christmas Carol…even though we did not have children back in ’92. We loved it and The Muppet Christmas Carol is part of our family’s holiday viewing traditions.

A short synopsis of the film directed by James Bobin…

On vacation in Los Angeles, Walter, the world’s biggest Muppet fan, his brother Gary (Jason Segel) and Gary’s girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams) from Smalltown, USA, discover the nefarious plan of oilman Tex Richman (Chris Cooper) to raze the Muppet Theater and drill for the oil recently discovered beneath the Muppets’ former stomping grounds.

To stage a telethon and raise the $10 million needed to save the theater, Walter, Mary, and Gary help Kermit reunite the Muppets, who have all gone their separate ways: Fozzie now performs with a Reno casino tribute band called the Moopets, Miss Piggy is a plus-size fashion editor at Vogue Paris, Animal is in a Santa Barbara clinic for anger management, and Gonzo is a high-powered plumbing magnate. With signature celebrity cameos, Disney’s “The Muppets” opened Nov. 23, 2011.

• Rating: PG
• Run time: 98 min
• Website: www.disney.com/muppets

I was invited to attend a screening of The Muppets Movie with my family. The views expressed in this post are my own. I follow the tenets of Blog With Integrity.

BlogHer was a whirl. A veritable blur of activity. I had my family with me, which added to the chaos. Although really I was so much in my own world of BlogHer that I hardly noticed my family. I don’t mean to sound like I didn’t care about them. Far from it. I texted my husband each day to find out about their adventures. When I spotted my husband’s tweets about Shamu or the beauty of the San Diego Zoo, I would smile knowing that they were happy doing their thing and I was happy doing mine. I chatted to whomever was awake when I left the room each morning. I watched as the kids chose which swag items they wanted.

In short, BlogHer was fun for me and San Diego was fun for my family. It was the best of both worlds. And to think I was worried about bringing my family to BlogHer!

My oldest had a couple of brushes with all that is BlogHer. Leaving the San Diego Marriott Marquis & Marina one day she spotted a group of women in the hotel, she said to her dad “Those are mommy’s type of people!” At first I wondered what she meant, but then I pictured myself standing with a group of women…eyes alert, swag bag on shoulder, phone in hand, casually dressed by day, formally dressed by evening…so yes I can see that I fit in with the blogging women that my daughter saw at the Marriott.

On another day she was waiting for the elevator with her dad and siblings when the elevator doors opened to reveal men in matching shirts surrounding the Jimmy Dean Sun Guy. I WISH I had been there to catch her expression of surprise!

Our celebrity sightings weren’t limited to BlogHer, though. After BlogHer, we journeyed to Anaheim. On one of the days of our stay we took our lives in our hands on the LA freeway. Yikes it was busy and it was only 10:30 a.m. What must the roads be like at 8 a.m.?

Anyway, after buying our passes to the Starline Tour’s Hop On Hop Off Doubledecker Bus City Tour, we spotted commotion outside the Graumann’s Chinese Theater where the Starline Tour’s City Tour bus drops off and picks up. Trucks were bringing in panels and walls and barricades. I could see the name of a movie on one of the screens. Workers were setting up for the movie premiere of 30 Minutes or Less with Jesse Eisenberg.

I couldn’t believe my luck. Me? A Hollywood lover. A celebrity watcher. A TMZ sneak peeker. I might actually get the chance to watch celebrities arrive for the movie premiere. This was extremely Squee-a-licious to me!

Anyway, we headed on our Hop On Hop Off City Tour. We purchased the 24-Hour tickets since we knew that we would not be back the next day. A 48-Hour Hop On Hop Off City Tour is also available. We saw Beverly Hills, La Brea Tar Pits, the Kodak Theater, Rodeo Drive, Melrose, Hollywood Forever Cemetery, and a couple of brief glimpses of the Hollywood sign. The Hollywood sign is hard to see as tour buses cannot get close, plus the sign was shrouded in mist the day we visited.

Upon returning to Graumann’s Chinese Theater, a small group of people were lined up behind a barrier on the opposite side of Hollywood Boulevard. I made my way to the barrier — I was in the second row. My family were tired from a long day, but I insisted that we wait. And wait we did even though the kids were a little whiny and the husband was definitely not as starstruck as I am.

2.5 hours later the first limos arrived. Exciting! The limos…actually black SUVs…were not for one celebrity, but instead were crammed with 4 or 5. Is this a green measure? I’m not sure, but the celebrities were not recognizable to me at all. My teen, on the other hand, spotted a guy from one of her TV shows…I don’t recall the name of the show or the guy. What kind of a celeb watcher am I anyway? My tween spotted Joe Jonas. We all spotted one of the Kardashians…Kim, I think?…I’m not sure, but it was a young woman with jet black hair.

In the sea of celebs we didn’t know, we spotted one of the costars. He bounded out of the limo, raced across the road, and ran past the crowd shaking hands. I have to tell you that it was quite an exciting event even though I didn’t know who the guy was. Just being on Hollywood Boulevard, standing in front of the Graumann’s Chinese Theater all during a movie premiere was a special, unexpected moment of celebrity in the city built on movies and stars.

I did some digging and found that Alexa Vega was at the premiere as was Fred Ward. Vega was in all three Spy Kids movies as well as the new Spy Kids 4 flick. All exciting, but nothing compared to the last star we saw bound out of a limo and cross the road…

Ben Stiller! That’s right Ben Stiller was there at the premiere. I didn’t know that he was the producer of 30 Minutes or Less. We love him in the Night at the Museum films. I took the most awful Flip video of blurry crowd and then completely missed filming Stiller as he passed where I was standing. I won’t be asked to film an event any time soon that is for sure. Oh well, my husband got a nice shot of Ben, which I will post once I gather all my SD cards and flashdrives and photos from my old phone to collate my pics.

Oh, and I almost forgot a funny moment. As I waited in the crowd it was hard not to eavesdrop on people’s conversations. I overheard a young mom who was standing with her kids and what looked like her mom talk about a blogging conference in San Diego. I couldn’t stop myself from letting her know that I was a blogger who was also at the conference. We exchanged cards. Found out that she just moved to LA from where I live and her mom lives close by me still. Small world, isn’t it?

I was given a complimentary ticket for the Starline Tours Hop On Hop Off City Doubledecker Bus City Tour. We purchased the other 4 passes for my kids and husband using a $5 off code my husband found on the internet. The views expressed in this post are my own. I blog following the tenets of Blog With Integrity. Some of the links in this post are to my amazon affiliate account.

Sugar Ray Leonard choreographed the boxing. Hugh Jackman is the star. With these two stars on the cast, Real Steel is sure to be a hit. I just know it.

This morning on Good Morning America Sugar Ray Leonard explained the premise of the movie. Dreamworks Pictures’ Real Steel is set in the future where boxing has gone high tech. Charlie Kenton, Hugh Jackman, is a washed up fighter who lost his chance at fame when bots took over the ring. Kenton is now a small-time fight promoter. Piecing together a living, he reluctantly agrees to team up with his son to create a contender bot. Against all odds the father and son duo get a last shot at a title.

Leonard gave each of the bots a unique fighting repertoire. I can’t wait to see how the fight scenes work in this movie. Real Steel opens in theaters nationwide in theaters October 7.

Go to YouTube to watch the Real Steel trailer — Charlie & Max. Come back and leave a comment.

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This giveaway is open to residents of the U.S. and Canada only. Giveaway ends October 17, 2011, at 11:59 p.m.

As a kid in England, technology meant nothing to me. I was as far away from being a tech geek as you could be. My neighbor was super cool as he had an Atari system. Even the little kid I babysat for had a simple computer through the TV. I remember a handful of kids doing a “computer” class. I am sure the computer was housed in some warehouse! But, my family was not techie at all.

The funny part is that my dad is a nuclear engineer. If I wanted to read up on power plants or nuclear fusion, I had scads and scads of books and binders at my disposal. Back in the early 80s we didn’t have a microwave, a VCR, or even a game system even though many of our neighbors had them.

My Walkman was silver.

My children would be hyperventilating to hear about a life before…

• ipods…I was given a Sony Walkman “4″ that played only cassette tapes in 1983. I lugged this somewhat portable device that came with a shoulder strap to college in Amish Country, PA, from my hometown in England along with Duran Duran Rio, Wham, and another tape I care not to remember.
• cell phones
• smartphones
• CD players…as late as 1981 I had a record player without a built-in tape deck or radio. To record music, I played a 7″ single or 12″ album while dangling a microphone over and recorded it to a small cassette player. And yes, you could hear all the noises of the room I was recording in…breathing, scraping of chairs, my mother calling me for dinner…
• personal computers…the Mac was introduced my freshman year of college.
• wireless internet…anyone else have a 100-foot cable to connect your personal computer to the home phone line? Just me?!

Tech wise my family was decidedly untechy. Today, my family is the very epitome of techy-ness. We have a number of itouches, a couple of smartphones, a regular cell phone, game systems galore, and several digital cameras.

Readers of this  blog know that I am all about family time. With a teen on the cusp of adulthood, I grasp at family time any way I can. Even my youngest is now 8. Still a little boy, but his preteen years are not far off.

If I see a movie in the theater, I plan a family outing to the movies. When a show comes on TV that looks promising, I turn dinner time in to movie time. Dinner on movie night becomes pizza rolls, bagel bites, and taquitos. It may not be gourmet cooking, but if I can get my family to watch a movie together…I’m all for it.

Walmart and P&G have teamed up for Family Movie Night. You might recall that I posted about another Family Movie Night, Who Is Simon Miller? From the intensity of espionage to the play-by-play of high school football, Family Movie Night is enabling families to gather to watch a movie together.

I watched Game Time: Tackling the Past online two days ago. I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the movie. The storyline is a good one. Now that I have a high schooler there is no way that I could avoid getting immersed in the world of high school football. I’m not a sports fan, but there is a certain energy to a football game that I like.

High school football is the antithesis of what I experienced at high school in England. We had no school mascot, no football team, no interschool rivalries except for perhaps a tennis match.

American high school football is just as intense and high energy as the pros. Kids take the game seriously. So do parents. Game Time: Tackling the Past centers around a football family. Dad is a curmudgeonly, “we must win” high school coach played by Beau Bridges. Is it me or was Beau Bridges always an old soul? He never seemed young to me even though he played youthful roles.

The film begins with Bridges having a heart attack during family dinner. The stress of seasons past and present has finally caught up with Coach Walker.

In times of crisis families gather. The Walkers are no different. Mom — Catherine Hicks who you will remember as a the mom in Seventh Heaven — becomes the family rock and mediator between silent, brooding Dad and their two sons who are at war with each other. Mom has her work cut out for her as she tries to quell anger between her sons: returning NFL star Jake and “never left his hometown and now coaches with Dad” Dean.

Jake and Dean have never seen eye to eye as adults. When Jake returns home, he has to evaluate more than his relationship to his family. He must find a new job as his NFL contract is over. What will Jake do? Play for another NFL team? Stay in his hometown and mend fences?

Do you know how many times I find a movie on Netflix or Fios Flex View that I think will be a great family movie only to find that the movie has an R or PG13 rating? Almost every movie that I think my teen will be interested in turns out to be a no-go due to an R or PG rating. A good resource for finding the skinny on movies is Common Sense Media. I love finding movies, like Game Time: Tackling the Past, that are free of offensive language, violence, or sexual content.

You can catch a sneak peek of Game Time…

Don’t forget to watch the premiere of Game Time: Tackling the Past on Saturday, September 3 on NBC at 8pm ET/7pm CT.

To find out more about Game Time: Tackling the Past, click here. Also, Like Game Time: Tackling the Past on Facebook.

I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of P&G and received a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.

I posted about the new Duran Duran tour and album a few days ago. It got me reminiscing about the 80s.

I had a Duran Duran t-shirt at one time. My last DD t-shirt was purchased in the 80s and sadly even if it fit it would be faded and worn out. It might be stashed in my keepsake box. I keep a Rubbermaid tub of tees for that day when I (a) learn to use a sewing machine and (b) have time to make a quilt of my tees from the 80s, vacations, concerts, and even a couple from the 70s. Until then I have a tub of tees collecting dust!

I bought the tee at my first large arena concert. I saw Duran Duran at the Philadelphia Spectrum with my friend, jeff, a fellow English New Waver. I remember how in awe I was of the stage show and pyrotechnics. The stage show would be tame by today’s standards, but in the 80s it was high tech.

Duran Duran was my second concert, but first concert at a large arena. Even though I was born and raised in England (Manchester to be precise) I had not attended a concert until I saw the B-52s on my college campus. I remember thinking that the B-52s was a loud concert until I saw Duran Duran. Duran Duran is back with a new album — All You Need Is Now — and an upcoming concert tour.

Back when DD was hot, I was a sophomore at small liberal arts college in PA. As you can imagine, English New Wave music wasn’t exactly streaming out of the speakers in college dorm rooms. Heavy metal and Grateful Dead were more the music of choice back in 83-87! I had a radio show on the college radio station where I ONLY played English music…my listenership was small, but devoted .

I was a devoted fan back then. I went all out to get my music on the airwaves. I was in the know about music and pop culture in the same way that I am in the know about blogging and brand promotion. Back then, my mother would buy 7″ singles (records) of the groups I loved and send the singles packed between steel baking trays to me at college.

I can only imagine how out-of-place my very English mother must have looked browsing the racks at HMV or Virgin Records for the latest singles. I would “premiere” these new singles from groups like Duran Duran, The Thompson Twins, The Cure, The Smiths, and many other groups on my radio show.

My radio show was titled “Technical Difficulties” for a reason…I once locked myself out of the studio. The record played on and on and on until security arrived with the master key. Remember it was the days of records so skips and scrapes were an integral part of my show. Oh and I once put a PSA in the 8-track-like PSA player only to have the machine eat the PSA. The PSA as played to my listeners sounded like the adults on the Peanuts…Waaa, Waaah, Waaaahhh!

The links in this post are to my amazon affiliate account. To join PopSalad…it’s in beta…click here.

As a new, fresh off the boat…uh plane…from England college freshman, I had 3 cassette tapes. I’ll let that sink in. Cassette tapes. Not CDs. Not digital downloads. Not ipods or itouches, but good old-fashioned cassette tapes. Back home in England, I even had a record player. Ahh…the 80s.

My beloved but tiny music collection consisted of a double cassette tape of Simon & Garfunkel in the Park — to this day I have no idea why I bought this; Wham first album, and Duran Duran’s Rio. I played Duran Duran over and over again on my Sony Walkman…think ipod for the 80s but much heavier and clunkier. My Sony Walkman even had a shoulder strap!

I’m nothing if not a child of the 80s. Last week I had a brush with the 80s in the form of the PopSalad peeps at BlogHer. PopSalad is a new site…in beta…which is all about being in the know about pop culture. Ahem that would be me! I’m all about TMZ, the Real Housewives of Wherever, and People Magazine. Call me shallow if you want, but I thrive on getting the scoop. Popsalad is all about contests, scoop, and who’s hot. To get on the list for the beta of PopSalad use my link.

But, back to the hot topic of the 80s…Duran Duran. Duran Duran have a new album out — “All You Need Is Now” and an upcoming North American tour.  In the 80s I saw Duran Duran twice. Awesome concerts! So, keep on top of all that is hip and happening — why yes the 80s are still hip! — by joining PopSalad.

I voted for Team Orange…but Team Pink won. I need to find my pic. I think I posed with Justin or maybe it was Robert? Links go to my amazon affiliate account.

Just found out that “Who Is Simon Miller?” will be out on DVD soon. Great family movie from Walmart and P&G. #seizingfamilytime
You wonder sometimes don’t you? The vagueness. The unanswered questions. The notion of something not quite right about a person. Could be that you work with someone who is a little evasive about their life, work, or family. You might have a neighbor who has many house guests or travels a great deal. Or perhaps your neighbor’s story about what she does just doesn’t add up. Could your neighbor be up to something clandestine?

You can ask your neighbor to tell you the truth. Probe him with questions til the cows come home. But what if your neighbor sticks to her story? You would probably go about your business. Wondering about your neighbor. Accepting the explanations even though you have doubts. Believing the stories even if the stories don’t ring true. If someone doesn’t want to tell you something about themselves, you’re stuck.

Now imagine if the person holding back the big secret about who they really are is your spouse or your parent. You would probably go through life believing the cover story. Your spouse or parent would always have an explanation for why they were late for dinner…called away repeatedly for phone calls…frequently sent out of the country on business.

A new movie asks the question Who Is Simon Miller? The Miller family is all-American. Mom. Dad. A couple of teens. All is well with the Millers until Dad goes missing Mom and the kids set out to find, but instead find trouble. Trouble comes in the form of finding out who exactly Dad is. Tune in to Who Is Simon Miller?, Saturday night at 8 p.m. on NBC.

Loren Dean stars with Robyn Lively. Another bonus is that Christine Baranski is in this movie. Love her. Did you see her in Mamma Mia? All in all it is a great film for the whole family. Seize family time by watching a family movie together.

To find more information about Simon Miller…

• Like the Family Movie Night Facebook page.
• Follow Family Movie Night on Twitter.

I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of P&G and received a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.

Are you like me? Do you remember everything about your child’s first movie experience? Did you fret over whether your child was ready for a movie in a theater? I’ll bet you waited until your child would sit still for a movie at home. My daughter loved watching videos.

Some of the Golden Books videos were her favorites. But most of these were 30 minutes, 40 tops. My husband and I knew that most full-length movies were close to an hour. Our daughter at 3 had not asked to see a movie in the theater, much less requested to see Tarzan. But, we wanted to take her to the movies. Tarzan was the most recent release back in ’99. So, we took her to see it.

It was…not a good idea at all. We didn’t read any movie reviews. Now I would head to Commonsense Media to read up on what the movie was about and what age of child should see the movie. Back then we entered the movie theater blindly and were blindsided when Tarzan’s mother and father were killed — off screen but dead nonetheless — by a tiger. Our daughter did not register what had happened — a true blessing. We all got through the movie…just barely.

For our younger children, we waited until both were 4 years old for the first movie experience. Our younger daughter saw Lilo & Stitch. She loved it. Not scary. Good music. A successful experience for all of us. With our son, we weren’t on a timetable of any sort for his first theater movie experience. He was 4, but with sisters who were almost 5 and 7 years older than him he had watched many full-length movies at home.

One weekend while his sisters were at their grandparents we decided to treat him to a movie. He was starting to notice that his sisters got to do things that he didn’t get to do as he was not old enough…like stay overnight with the grandparents. We made a big deal out of the fact that we were taking him to a movie. We knew he would absolutely love Cars. What we didn’t know was how much we would love Cars. In fact, he talked about Cars so much that his grandparents took his sisters the next month. His grandparents wanted to see it as well!

My son is now 8. He’s talked about Cars 2 since I brought back some Cars Online stuff from Disney Online’s booth at Toy Fair ’10. In fact at this year’s Toy Fair, I saw a huge Lightning McQueen made out of thousands of Lego pieces.

Until Cars 2 releases, June 24, here’s a few things to keep you busy…

• Lightning Puzzle Book itunes app
• Enter to win in the State Farm Agents on a Mission Sweepstakes
• and finally here’s a Car 2 trailer

You know where we will be on June 24!