All My Kids Have Ever Needed to Know (So Far) They've Learned From the Movie 'How to Eat Fried Worms'

I think I've mentioned here before that Grace's and Johnny's favorite movie is 'How to Eat Fried Worms.' The 2006 movie was made from the book of the same title by Thomas Rockwell. David and I have thanked our lucky stars that this movie, with real kids, real humor, and real gross-out scenes, is the one they love most than, say, 'Elmo in Groucholand' or 'Dora Does Dallas.' We don't get tired of watching this movie any more than they do.

It's a classic tale of middle-school kids and the trials that occur when a new boy arrives at school and upon being challenged by the school bully, claims he can eat 10 worms in one day. Each character has a distinct role: Joe is the Bully, Billy, the new kid, Bradley's the timekeeper, Benjy, the cooker. There's only one girl name Erika that is tall and smart and the boys call her"Erk." Grace and Johnny bust out into 'Fried Worms' characters quite frequently and sometimes it takes me awhile to figure out that they're playing. When Johnny pushes Grace down the floor and she doesn't object--I realize they're enacting a scene from the movie, and that, therefore, the act of aggression is "play." When I kiss Grace in the morning and she hisses, "GET AWAY YOU BIG GIANT!" I am not at all offended...it's a line from the movie. When Johnny asks to wear my rings on his fingers (the bigger the better), I understand that he's playing Joe, the bully, with his intimidating death ring...that when used to punch out 10-year-olds, it will cause them to die...but not immediately...in the 8th grade.

A favorite scene in the movie is when "Adam" dances to Crazy Frog's 'Get Ready for This' on the dance dance revolution video game. The kids flipped out when they saw the video game at the bowling alley a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, the 'Adam' song wasn't one they could choose from on the game, and the kids were disappointed. David went home and fixed that with this video. It's my favorite video that he's done so far but apparently a 14-year old kid who found it on YouTube wasn't as impressed. David got his first comment (which he deleted) from this movie clip that said, "This is just dancing and bowling. You suck." Classic.