Good bye Radiator Springs

It has actually happened. My kids seem to have lost their obsession with the movie Cars. Their obsession started about a year ago when they watched the movie going to Baby Jake's birthday party in California. It was the first movie they had ever quietly sat through and once Don and I realized that single movie could buy us a full two hours of silence, we latched on to it.

Who knew that encouraging the addiction of the movie would become so costly to us? I am sure Don and I have have purchased the full town of Radiator Springs as well as at least 8 Lightning McQueen cars and a bunch of random others. Somehow only a handful can be found any given time, but I bet if Don took his metal detector out to the sandbox, he would find most of the town hidden underneath a few inches of sand.

So goodbye, Sally. I am so thankful I no longer hear Wyatt whine about you every morning until I groggily walk into their room to lift up his mattress to find you where you must have been hiding from his drooly spot at night.

Good bye Lightning. All 8 of you. The kids fought over every one of you constantly. The "owie" Lightning, the Bug Lightning, the "hot dog" Lightning (Nana called him that when he did the tongue sticking out jump and it stuck), Dinaco blue Lighting, and all the original ones as well. Hopefully you never get recalled because I am sure Jaxon has eaten the paint off at least three of you by now.

Goodbye Chick and King. Luke lost his first green Chick during a garage sale where some kid stole it. That incident helped us get the kids to keep toys in the car from that moment forward, but it did cost us almost $4 to replace you. Ah, but I guess the lesson was priceless. As was the only one toy in the car rule we implemented because the boys would try to take no less than 4 of you into the car every time we drove anywhere.

I hope to never forget how excited Jaxon was when Don found his Nitro car in the sandbox one day. Jax came in screaming about how "Daddy found it, Daddy found Nitro!" and then Jax loudly proclaimed that "Daddy Rocks!".

So I have to admit, even with the obsession of this movie and the toys that go with it got overwhelming at times, it was such a major part of this past year. Don and I really enjoyed the movie (all 200 plus times we have watched it) as well as seeing the boys use their imagination with the cars while they played. I am sure as time goes by and the boys begin to uncover more of the lost Cars in the sandbox, each will be celebrated and the interested renewed a bit for a little while. But for now, I just wanted to document what has been such a huge thing in our house before it is completely gone.