The Word On Entertainment – A Word From The Three Sisters

20 fun ways to stay occupied while social-distancing or self-quarantining!

By Simran Jayasinghe

In efforts to slow down the spread of COVID-19, people across the world have been encouraged to stay home and practice social- distancing. Schools have closed and/or gone online. People who can have started working from home. However, staying home all day for weeks can get boring and monotonous. Here are some ideas of fun things to do while you’re at home!

Read some books! – It’s the perfect time to read that book you bought but never had time to read. If you don’t have any new books with you, search online! There are thousands of books online, waiting to be read.
Do some puzzles! – Puzzles are a great way to pass the time. You could be on one for hours!
Learn a new language! – All you have to do is download an app like Duolingo or Rosetta Stone, and get learning! This will cure you of your boredom, and you will learn a new skill!
Play board games! – This is an activity you can do as a family!
Watch movies! – If you have iTunes, Netflix, Disney +, or any streaming service, pick a couple movies you’ve never had the time to watch, and get cozy!
Order and assemble some new furniture! – IKEA’s instructions on how to put a bookshelf together is sure to keep you occupied for at least a couple hours!
Typing! – Websites like NitroType, and Typing.com, are free and easy to use. Battle against yourself and see how fast you can type!
Get some spring cleaning done! – Since you now have all the time on your hands to do the things you would normally be too busy to do, get cleaning! Re-organize your closet, drawers, and shelves, and get rid of all the junk that may have piled up. Don’t forget to disinfect!
Get crafty! Websites like Pinterest have tons of DIY ideas! Try to recreate something you find, with only the supplies you already have!
Exercise – Enjoy nature and the outdoors! Maybe download a fitness app, or find workouts online! Run or walk around your neighborhood, maybe bring your pet! Just make sure to stay away from people!
Photo shoot! – Get a camera, or an iPhone, and stage photos around the house. Edit them, use filters, make it fun!
Learn calligraphy. – Calligraphy is a skill that only requires a Sharpie (if you don’t have a calligraphy pen), and paper. Use YouTube videos to learn how!
Invent a board game! – Brainstorm a game you would love to play, and make it happen!
Play charades! – Use a charades app or find categories and prompts online!
Film a cooking show! – While cooking, record it! You can add commentary using VoiceOver, and edit however you want. Watch it later and laugh.
FaceTime or Skype friends! – Even though you shouldn’t physically be hanging out with people too much, you can always chat over FaceTime or other social apps.
Bake or cook some food. – Think of something you can make, a snack, a meal, a dessert, with the ingredients you have. Doesn’t have to be fancy, but when you add some music and dance while you cook, it can be fun!
Change your decor! – Move around your furniture, do a mini room makeover! Giver your space a new feel.
Music/Podcasts – Listen to music. Curate a new playlist, and find new music on apple music or Spotify! Listen to new podcasts too!
SLEEP! – By far one of the best things to do (we think), when you are stuck inside, is sleep! Most people don’t get enough sleep on a day to day basis, so when you get the extra time, take some naps! Go to sleep early and sleep in!

Star Wars: Rise of SkyWalker – A Movie Review

by Kiran Jayasinghe

Over the weekend, we watched the new Star Wars, The Rise of Skywalker, the last installment in the saga. It was a great ending to the series. It introduced new characters and brought back some of the old ones, bringing everything together for the last movie. The movie was about tracking down Emperor Palpatine, completing Luke Skywalker’s mission, and finally defeating the First Order. The movie focused on Rey’s training with the force and her journey to find her family. It also put more attention on Kylo Ren.

We rate the movie a 9 out of 10. It wasn’t our favorite movie (our favorite is Little Women, go check out our review) but Rise of Skywalker was definitely really good! We all agreed that it had several amazing fighting scenes. It also had a little bit of romance that we thought could have been left out, but all in all, it wrapped up the series nicely.

Little Women – A Movie Review

By Simran Jayasinghe

Little Women is a classic tale written by Louisa May Alcott. The book is about four sisters in the March family, Meg, Jo, Amy, and Beth, and follows the struggles their family goes through over the years. The sisters have their own ideas of what women should be seen as. In a time where women have limited jobs and opportunities, they have to find ways to earn money to support their family. The book follows each of their lives as they leave home, and go out into the world trying to make do. I really enjoyed reading the book, and the story it portrays.

The book was recently made into a live action movie, released December 25th, 2019. Last week, we went to watch the movie with our family. I liked the movie. It is set towards the middle of the book, but it goes back every so often to their childhood or the events leading up to the time it is set in. However, if you have not read the book, or do not know the general storyline, I can see how it might be confusing. I really liked the movie and if you have read the book, I definitely recommend seeing it!

The Huntington Library

by Svara Jayasinghe

On the weekend of the 24th-25th of August, my family and I drove to Pasadena for the weekend. On Saturday (24th), we decided to do a little sight-seeing at the Huntington Library. The Huntington Library, is a museum that consists of many different buildings including gift shops, art exhibits, rose gardens, etc. Its official name is The Huntington, Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Most of the land the library is situated on used to be the home of Henry and Arabella Huntington. The European Art Gallery, part of the Huntington Library, used to be the mansion that Henry and Arabella lived in.

Henry E. Huntington was born February 27th, 1850. Henry was an American railroad baron, who owned the Pacific Electric Railway. He also enjoyed collecting art and rare books. He and his second wife, Arabella, developed most of Los Angeles. Before Henry and Arabella died, they both signed papers to turn over their property to the city, to become a public museum. They left specific instructions in their wills so that the property would be preserved and maintained the way they envisioned. Henry died on May 23 1927, and Arabella died on September 16th, 1924. Their estate was then turned into what is now, The Huntington Library.

by Kiran Jayasinghe

We made our first stop at the Huntington library. The library includes a giant collection of books that were all bought and kept by Henry Huntington. The library also houses several exhibits, such as one of the first printed Gutenberg Bibles. We also took a look at the contract Henry and Arabella Huntington signed to make the library into a public attraction.

Then we walked to the Huntington Art Gallery, which was originally the Huntington family mansion. Huntington’s full collection of art includes 36,000 different pieces, including artistic objects, photographs, and paintings. The mansion had been converted to house over 1,200 pieces of European paintings, including the original The Blue Boy painting that is currently being restored. While displaying several paintings, the house was also kept in its original layout. We got to see the Huntington’s dining room and reading room in the same way the Huntington’s used it!

by Simran Jayasinghe

Rose Gardens at the Huntington Library! (Image by the Jayasinghe family.)

After viewing all the artwork, we walked to the Rose Gardens, as we had made a reservation earlier that day, at the Rose Garden Tea Room. The Huntingtons had planted a large collection of different types of roses, and some other flowers on the grounds of their estate, with walkways, fountains, and benches here and there making it a great place to stop and take a photo or two! The rose gardens seem to wrap around the small shop that is the Rose Garden Tea Room. We spent our tea time in the little tea room, relaxing and spending time together. We all drank multiple cups of tea, and had sweet and savory scones, cucumber, salmon, and egg sandwiches, and delicious desserts! After we had finished, we strolled back through the gardens, our dad stopping to take pictures of random flowers every now and then, back to the entrance to the grounds before they locked us in! We spent some time browsing around the gift shop located at the main entrance, before we walked off to our car, having spent a relaxing and fun evening together at The Huntington Library!

Tea at the Rose Garden Tea Room! (Image by the Jayasinghe family.)

To visit The Huntington’s Website, click here.

Small Foot – A Movie Review

By Svara Jayasinghe

On the 6th day of our trip to Sri Lanka we decided to watch a movie. Our family rarely watches movies, due to lack of time, and when we do, there is always the issue of which movie to watch! After some arguing, we decided to watch the movie, Smallfoot. Smallfoot tells the story of a yeti named Migo. Migo lives in a secluded, and secret, village, with his fellow yetis, up in the Himalayas. The yeti village is based on a foundation of stones. Laws are carved into these stones and the stones are unquestionable. If a stone says something it is right, then no yeti will be known to question it. What happens when Migo sees a small foot, which the stones say, do not exist? Is that stone wrong? If so, are more stones wrong? Will seeing this creature known as the small foot, tear down everything their community is built upon? You’ll have to watch the movie to find out!

I rate this movie a 10 out of 10, because it is humorous, and the songs in this movie/musical are amazingly great! Smallfoot is an animated movie, not a live action movie, but I don’t think that it took away from the movie. I highly recommend this movie and you should definitely watch it!

Moana – A movie review

By Svara Jayasinghe

On my twin sisters birthday we went and watched the movie Moana at the theatre. The main character in the movie is a girl named Moana. She lives on an island called Motunui, where her father is the Chief of the village. Her grandmother tells Moana a legend about how the goddess Ti Fiti lost her heart. In the legend someone has to find the demigod Maui who will be able to return the heart of Ti Fiti. In the movie the sea chooses Moana to find Maui and together they return the heart of Ti Fiti and save Moana’s island. Moana and Maui have to go through a lot of adventures to carry out their task. I liked this movie because it was funny and adventurous. My favorite character was Moana because she’s very brave. At one point she goes back and fights the lava monster all by herself. Moana is also very funny. She does and says a lot of funny things to get Maui to join her on the adventure. The moral of the movie is that if you believe in yourself you can do great things. On the scale of one to ten I would rate this movie a 10 because it was a great, funny, and adventurous movie.

Epic Rollertainment – A Review

By Simran Jayasinghe

Some time ago, we wanted to go rollerblading, but the nearest one to our house, Skateworld in San Diego, only had a session from 7-8 p.m. We decided that we didn’t want to go to such late session, so we went to Epic Rollertainment in Murietta which had a public session from 5-8 p.m. Epic Rollertainment is located at 39809 Avenida Acacias, Murrieta, CA 92563. It cost $7 to skate since we took our own rollerblades. If you need to rent rollerblades or roller-skates it will cost an additional $4. This cost is about the same as the other rinks we have been to.

The inside was huge! The roller rink took up the whole right side of the building, and on the left, was the skate rental counter, the snack bar area, and the game arcade. They also had a lot of chairs for people to sit and relax. There was a big screen on one side of the rink playing music videos, the music was good! The session that we attended, was a little crowded, but that might have been because there were a couple birthday parties. Every so often, they would stop the skating and play games, and the winner(s) got glow in the dark necklaces, bracelets, and earrings. We all agreed that Epic Rollertainment is more modern than Skateworld in San Diego. I hope I will be able to visit Epic Rollertainment many more times over the summer!

The Jungle Book – A Movie Review

by Svara Jayasinghe

the_jungle_book_poster_key_art One day we were coming back from swim practice. Simran (my sister) and I were with my dad in his car, and Kiran (my other sister) was with my mom in her car. Suddenly we got a phone call from Kiran, it was a message from our mom, when we got home we were supposed to quickly wash and change into our dresses. There was a surprise waiting for us! Our mom and dad were taking us to see the new movie “The Jungle Book”. When we were all ready we raced to the car. We were so excited! Mom and dad also bought us dinner there including a big, huge, tub of buttered popcorn, and Raisinets. They were so good.

The movie was about a little boy named Mowgli. He lived in the jungle and his family is a pack of wolves. When he was a baby he was found by Bagheera the panther. Mowgli is about ten years old and Bagheera is taking him to the man village because he is growing up. On the way, Mowgli gets lost and finds Baloo the bear, and they become very good friends. The tiger Shere Khan wants to kill Mowgli, but his friends protect him. There were some very scary, and sad parts in the movie, but there was a very happy ending. I thought the show was fantastic! You should watch it!

Disney California Adventure

By Kiran Jayasinghe and Simran Jayasinghe

P1070690 The cold can be ignored when having tons of fun. That’s exactly what we did at Disney’s California Adventure a few months ago. As cold as it was, it didn’t matter to us if we had our jackets on or not! Disney’s California Adventure was simply too entertaining! After we parked in the Mickey and Friends Parking Structure at 7:00 A.M., we took two escalators down to the tram, which took us to Downtown Disney.

If you’ve never seen Downtown Disney, you’re missing out on something big. Your mom or dad will never get bored strolling through the shops and looking at all of Disney’s merchandise. You yourself will be fascinated.

At the entrance was an area where we got our bags checked, and although Disney has added much more security since we last went, the bag check didn’t take much time. We walked over to the California Adventure entrance. We got our tickets scanned, picked up three maps, and off we went on our California Adventure!

First, we walked to Cars Land. It was still 7:30, and you wouldn’t imagine how crowded it was already! We waited for about 45 minutes in a line for the ride, “Radiator Springs.” The ride was completely engaging as we rolled along in our six-seater car. After seeing some of “Ornament Valley,” we raced against another car at full speed. We rolled over hills, performed sharp turns, and zoomed along to the finish line! The race felt a little like being on a roller coaster, but we can’t really say that because we’ve never been on a roller coaster!

After that fabulous ride, we walked to the other end of Disney’s California Adventure, to arrive at our mom’s favorite ride, “Soarin’ Over California!” We waited in line for about 25 minutes. We were taken to a huge room with rows and rows of seats. We sat in these seats and watched a movie while our chairs were suspended in the air, so that it looked like we were actually soaring over California! If you ever go on this ride, you will smell the scent of oranges as you ‘soar’ over groves of orange trees! We also flew over the Golden Gate Bridge, Los Angles, Orange County, and San Diego, and also a golf course. But be warned, if you’re afraid of heights, this would not be a very good choice for you!

Where should we go now? At the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail (Image by the Jayasinghe family).

Next, we made our way over to the ride, “Jumping Jellyfish”. On our way, we saw a sign saying, “Redwood Creek Challenge Trail.” It looked interesting, so we spoke to a Disney employee dressed as a park ranger. He gave us a map, and we saw that beyond the sign, were a series of trails with six challenges for us to complete. The challenges included animal tracking, bravery, rock climbing, howling like a wolf, finding your animal spirit, and puzzle solving. We had lots of fun doing this, and highly recommend stopping here!

Taking a break with Aunty Lisa (Image by the Jayasinghe family).

We continued on our way to the “Jumping Jellyfish” ride but had to stop again to have a snack; we were quite hungry after all the challenges we had done at Redwood Creek. We,(Kiran, Simran, and Svara) each had a moist, delicious chocolate croissant, while sharing a hot chocolate. Our mom and dad had tea and a plain croissant. Aunty Lisa, our mom’s friend, had a gingerbread cookie and a mocha. When we were finished licking the crumbs off our fingers, and drinking the last drops of hot chocolate, we entered the line for the Little Mermaid ride, another stop before the “Jumping Jellyfish” ride! We sat in a slow-moving clam shell and listened to the story of Ariel, while watching beautiful toys acting out the tale. It was mesmerizing!

Jumping Jelly Fish! (Image by the Jayasinghe family)

After that relaxing “Little Mermaid” ride, we finally walked over to the “Jumping Jellyfish” ride. The ride takes you high up on a tower while seated in a contraption that looks like a jellyfish. With two of us to a jellyfish, we rose up and down three times. We rose pretty high up!

Up next was King Triton’s carousel. King Triton’s carousel didn’t have horses. Instead, it had sea creatures. One of us picked a dolphin, and the other two picked a fish with purple scales. Along the way to the carousel, we stopped at a shop, admiring the keychains, Elsa and Anna pens, and other trinkets and souvenirs.

It's a parade! (Image by the Jayasinghe Family) — It’s a parade! We watched the Viva Navidad, latin-themed holiday street party, while having lunch (Image by the Jayasinghe Family).

We had been having so much fun, we had forgotten the time! Amazingly, it was already four o’clock, and since our stomachs were growling, we went to eat lunch at the Boardwalk Pizza and Pasta resteraunt. We (Kiran, Simran, and Svara) had ravioli and chocolate milk. While we were eating lunch, we caught a glimpse of the Disney Viva Navidad parade. The parade is supposed to show Mexican traditions, including dancing and singing.
There were many dancers, and they all wore colorful and bright costumes, which really made the show very interesting.

Snow in California?!! (Image by the Jayasinghe family). — Snow in California?!! Playing in the “snow” at Oalf’s snow fest (Image by the Jayasinghe family).

We let our lunch digest a little and went to the Frozen (movie) Sing-Along Celebration. At the Sing-Along Celebration, we sang many songs from the movie Frozen, with Anna and Elsa-including Let It Go! As we sang, fake snow fell from the ceiling. Then, we headed to Olaf’s snow fest, where we met Olaf, tobogganed, and played with artificial snow.

After playing in the snow we made our way to the Aladdin show at the Hyperion theater. We were a little late to the show, and we were assigned balcony seating. Oops! Our favorite character in the Aladdin show was the Genie. The Genie is a comical character and his script included many jokes about recent events. The rest of the cast is great too, but the Genie was, to us at least, the funniest character.

Although the show was very enjoyable, we wanted to get back on some rides. We made our way to “A Bugs Land” and went on a ride called Flik’s Flyers. On this ride, we went in a hot air balloon who’s top was made of leaves, rising up and down. Then we went to Heimlich’s Chew Chew Train ride where we ride in a caterpillar car through foods. The caterpillar pretended to eat it. We wanted to see the the 3D movie called “It’s Tough To Be A Bug”. Unfortunately, Disney had temporarily replace it with the trailer to a new movie called “The Good Dinosaur”. This new Disney movie was going to be released the following weekend. Though we were disappointed at the change, we watched the trailer anyway.

It was time to leave. On our way out of the park we stopped at “The Fidler, Fifer, & Practical Cafe” and had a large gingerbread man cookie each. We also caught the last part of the night parade. Our mom spent some time looking through a couple of shops, and then we left for the tram.

Our visit to California Adventure was memorable. We managed to go on a lot of rides, including a couple that we had never done before. We had so much fun that we didn’t feel tired until we came back home. We are sure that you will enjoy your visit as much as we did too!

Ringling Brothers Circus – A Review

By Kiran Jayasinghe and Simran Jayasinghe

The Three Sisters At the Circus — At the circus! (Image by the Jayasinghe family)

Imagine a place where you can see dogs, elephants, tigers, and people perform tricks. The one place you would be able to see all of these is at the Ringling Brothers Circus.

The Ringling Brothers is a traveling circus. The circus was in Orange County a couple of months ago, and we went to see it! It is most definitely the best show that we have seen (The website also says it is the greatest show on Earth!). The show we went to watch was at the Honda Center in Anaheim. In the show, there were horses with riders that stood up on the horses’ backs, two humped camels with riders that did the splits while riding the camels, poodles, elephants, snakes, and tigers.

Elephants at the ringing brothers circus — Elephants at the Circus (Image by the Jayasinghe family)

The elephants each got fed a whole loaf of bread for a snack! The elephants were amazing, and they were so friendly looking in their purple coats and headdresses that said “The Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey. The Greatest Show on Earth” in sparkling white letters. They performed an act where an elephant placed its two front legs on the back of the elephant that was in front of it, while walking on its hind legs.

The tigers performed one act where they all laid down in a row and when their master whipped the floor, they all stood up on their hind legs and roared. The tigers looked like they wanted to eat the man directing them right up! Although the tiger show was exciting, we think the tigers were a little mistreated.

TigerMovie

First of all, about 15 tigers had to perform in one, small, arena. The man directing them cracked a whip when a tiger did not listen. The tigers looked scared, and would not have obeyed the master if not for the whip. The tigers were also caged up in pretty compact cages.

The poodles were adorable and funny. After a poodle performed a trick, it sped off the stage at a run, and at the same time another poodle, who was hiding behind the curtain, came speeding out! There was a cute little white poodle that kept jumping into a fake trash can and then jumping out! Though sometimes it would get stuck, and then the clowns had to go pull it out.

There were marvelous acrobats. One tight rope performer did the splits on the tight rope while balancing two people on her shoulders. That must have taken a lot of practicing! The people sitting in the front rows were moved so that if a tight rope walker fell, they wouldn’t fall on top of the audience. Luckily, that did NOT happen.

There were people that performed tricks on bikes. One person gathered speed, and did a somersault on his bike. There was also an act where people jumped from towers, fell on a trampoline, bounced back up, and landed all the way up on the tower again. There was one girl that got blasted out of a fake cannon, who landed on a inflatable cushion, perfectly fine. There were a couple of stilt walkers too. There were also people that hung from structures that were attached to the high ceiling.

If you go to this show you will want to go back, and see it again. It is hypnotizing how they transform regular tricks into a spectacular, dazzling show. This is one show you just should not miss!