The Spy Next Door Starring Jackie Chan

We took Kai and Shen to their very first* big screen movie experience today. We saw Jackie Chan in The Spy Next Door, in which Jackie plays Bob Ho, a retired international spy who is called back for one last job while he’s babysitting his next-door-neighbor’s three children. I think it is more than fair to say that Kai and Shen were VERY excited about getting to go see this. While I am writing they are busy acting out fight scenes with one another, and while they always love rough house play a lot, the energy level they are exhibiting right now has definitely been kicked up a notch!

The movie was about what I expected, it is definitely aimed at kids. I knew this going in, so I wasn’t expecting much for the adults. I got my enjoyment from watching the boys see the movie.

The opening credits play over a montage of action scenes from earlier Jackie Chan movies set to the song Secret Agent Man. The immediate gratification of seeing their man in action was immensely satisfying, but Kai found the following scenes that set up the plot and characters a bit tedious, “When is the Kung Fu?!” he whined to me after about the 10 minute mark. Fortunately he didn’t have to wait long. While Jackie had plenty of hi-tech spy gadgets, there were lots of classic examples of him using his environment and found objects (including a bike, ladder, folding chairs, frying pans and a refrigerator) in humorous ways to take down the bad guys.

A couple of things in the movie that Tina and I found quite touching were when Jackie’s character sang Chinese lullabies to put the 4 year old girl to bed, and when he explained to the 13 year old half sister who felt she didn’t belong, that he had been an orphan and had grown up in a group home. He told her that family wasn’t about whose blood you had, but who loved you.

The Spy Next Door is far from being a timeless classic, but Shen and Kai were thrilled with it so we were very glad to have taken them to see it. We were also presently surprised to see a preview for Jackie Chan’s next movie, a remake of The Karate Kid with Will Smith’s son, Jaden starred in The Pursuit of Happyness with his father. Interestingly this remake is set partially in China and the "Karate Kid" learns Kung Fu.



I have written before about our family’s fondness of Jackie Chan, who has a special place in our hearts because he built an entire new children's building at Kai's orphanage in Baoding, China. After we wrote and thanked him he sent Kai an autographed picture that now hangs in the boys' room. Yep, bonafide Jackie Chan fans in this house! To read what I wrote about that four years ago CLICK HERE.

*we took Kai to see Curious George in the theater four years ago when he was three, but he doesn’t really remember it.

Padden • Mindport • Rocket Doughnuts - Playday in B'ham!

What a Great Saturday! We had nothing mandatory on the schedule today, the new house is looking pretty well put together. Sure there's stuff we need to get done, but nothing we absolutely had to do today, so we made it a super fun play day! The boys let us sleep in a little, I made pancakes for breakfast and we had a nice lazy morning. Then we packed up Juno (the dog) and headed to Lake Padden to let her play in the dog park there. The place was pretty busy, with a lot of big dogs so she was a little overwhelmed by the pack, but she's used to big dogs and held her own pretty well. It was a beautifully warm day out for January, and we even had some sunshine! After Juno was done playing, Kai and Shen got to play on the climbing structure and run around in the main park. Now that we had all had some good outdoor playtime, we headed back home to drop off the dog and get some lunch before heading downtown to visit Mindport.

It's kind of hard to explain Mindport. We used to take Cam and Ben there all the time when they were younger, but we haven't been there in years, and Kai and Shen had never been before. It's kind of like a science museum, but it's more like an interactive art gallery. The exhibits feature many different science principles, but they are so beautifully designed and presented that they truly are art. While there are high-tech electronics featured in many of the pieces, most presentations are designed of wood and other natural materials. I was pleased to find that many of my favorite pieces from when we were last there years ago are still just as beautiful and fun to play with. Kai could have spent the whole time just playing in the stream of water. Shen was fascinated by the floating ping-pong balls. Tina and I both enjoyed watching the two of them explore the space.

When we were finally able to pull the boys away, we walked down the street for a doughnut at Rocket Doughnuts. This is another great little Bellingham spot, which I'm embarrassed to say we had never been to before. We are pretty hardcore fan's of Lafeen doughnuts which was very close to our old house, and while I still love Lafeen's, Rocket makes an excellent doughnut and a great cup of coffee!