Love, Learn, Play: Filming

The boys just finished their first week of filming! Jon was able to take two days off this week so he could be here Monday for their first day. I am so very thankful that his district is so supportive of him traveling back and forth to be here with us. And when Matthew got a bit overwhelmed the first time we walked onto set Monday morning, I was over the moon thankful that daddy was here! It only took Matthew a few minutes to warm up and he was ready to roll. To be honest, I can't blame the kid- the number of people it takes to make a movie is truly unbelievable. I don't know how we'll ever learn who everyone is and what they do! But even more unbelievable than the number of people on set is how truly nice everyone is to the boys. The entertainment industry doesn't lend itself well to parenting, so most of these people don't have kids and you never know if you'll be working with people who understand how to work with young kids or if they even like kids. Somehow we have been blessed in that every project the boys have done has been with wonderful people who work really well with the boys. The director and the actors in this film have very appropriate expectations of them, they get down to their level to talk to them, and they keep everything upbeat and fun.

Every day the boys are on set, they bring their giant Swoop bag full of Legos and find a place near their dressing room to set up shop. They just play, play, play until they are called to wardrobe, hair, or make-up, and finally to set for filming. By now they are getting quite comfortable with everyone so they are building Lego structures to order- like the London Tower Bridge and Big Ben for Miss Alex from wardrobe! So far this week they have filmed three days. Monday was two scenes in a park outside and it was C-O-L-D! Wednesday was at least indoors and although it was just one scene, it took nearly 3 hours to shoot it from all the angles they wanted. We had gone to the location, a little cafe, the night before to let the boys see where they would be working and while there the boys asked why they didn't have any black and white cookies. The owner said he would bake some for them and sure enough when their scene wrapped he walked over with two giant homemade black and white cookies for the boys- it was so sweet! Thursday's scene was in the most adorable little town about a half hour north of here. While I love exploring the city, I could never actually live in it. But this place... this place I could stay forever. And I'm 100% certain we could set up our maple syrup production there, which makes it even better! When Jon comes this weekend we'll have to drive back up there because I think he'll fall in love too :)

Matthew has to film all of the scenes through Thursday because they have required some walking. Yesterday Caleb got to do a photo shoot with his fake movie parents for set photos and he got to film today because his character was just sleeping in a stroller. His foot is feeling much better and he actually took a few steps on it the other day- he is so ready to be up and running again! Poor kid! But the best news about it being Friday is that daddy flies back in early tomorrow morning!!! The boys are so excited to see him and we can't wait for a day in the city and some special time with daddy!

Saying goodbye to daddy. So glad he was here for the first day of filming!