Alice in Wonderland

I think I can take another 10-year break from Alice and Wonderland after yesterday! haha. I'll admit, Alice in Wonderland was never one of my favorite Disney movies. It's a little out there, and doesn't really make sense. I honestly don't think I've seen the Disney version in 10 years or more. But last week a friend in the ward called me and asked me if I'd help host her birthday party - Alice in Wonderland themed. Hey, I'm always up for helping plan a party. I thought it was funny when I found out she wanted to have the party at my place, even though it was technically going to be her party. But I love coming up with crazy ideas, and it was actually easier to have it at my place, so I was all for it.

She bought 4 decks of dollar store cards and I hole punched about two decks and strung them up everywhere. We still have cards hanging all over our house. The other two decks are splattered on various walls, windows, and doors throughout our main floor. We also still had a bunch of red hearts still up from our big Valentine's Day party and since we have the whole "Queen of Hearts" thing in Alice in Wonderland, we just left it all up. Why not reuse them? :P I also wrote about 12 signs saying "THIS WAY" and "THAT WAY" pointing both left and right, and posted them all over. We made all sorts of goodies and labeled them "EAT ME" and bought mini water bottles, put food coloring in them, labeled them "DRINK ME," and distributed them all over the living room and kitchen. I know this is bad, but I couldn't resist - I put one of the yellow colored "DRINK ME" bottles in the bathroom. hehe.

We also had various shapes and sizes of teacups and had a bunch of herbal tea and hot chocolate for people to choose from. We hid two "Queen of Hearts" cards just for fun, but everyone ended up getting really into it! They were looking all over the place for the two cards! Eventually, both were found and the two who found the cards had a duel in Alice in Wonderland trivia for the 'grand prize.' It was actually quite entertaining. We also had in attendance our very own Alice, the Queen of Hearts, and the Mad Hatter. Below are pictures.

At about 10 o'clock, my friend called to see if I was going to see the midnight showing of the new Alice in Wonderland with the group from my ward. I really wanted to (I LOVE midnight showings), but I'm trying as hard as I can to say "NO" to anything that costs right now - I am beyond broke. She then proceeded to inform me that her brother (whom I have already met) had an extra ticket that I could have if I wanted it. Seriously? I am so there! So I left around 11:30 to meet up with this other group, and watched the midnight showing! Woohoo!

All things considered, it wasn't that bad! I mean, this is Tim Burton we are talking about... he is always bound to be rather "off his rocker"; but this is Alice and Wonderland after all. What better story for Tim Burton to re-create? My favorite character by far was the Mad Hatter. I know it may sound cliche, but Johnny Depp really is an amazing actor. Who else could go from Edward Scissorhands to Gilbert Grape, to Ichabod Crane (Sleepy Hollow), to Jack Sparrow, to James Barrie, to Willy Wonka, to Sweeney Todd, and now the Mad Hatter? ... he is definitely not a typecast actor. Although, I found it rather amusing to see bits of Jack Sparrow and Willy Wonka come out of the Mad Hatter!

Anyway, it's definitely worth seeing at least once. I found it much more enjoyable than the 1951 Disney version. And maybe it was just me, but I laughed a lot in it...