Outdoor Movie Night ~ SuperMom Monday

This year I have fully embraced the new trend of 'Staycations.'  If you are not familiar with that term it's staying home, or close to home, for your vacation.  And with our Twins just turning 6 weeks old last Thursday we are all about Staycations this year.  My SuperHubbie and I lost our minds for a minute and planned a surprise overnight trip to the coast for the 4th of July, which was awesome by the way.  But it also did us in and took days to recover from.  While racking my brain focusing on the 'Stay' in Staycation I came up with this...an Outdoor Movie Night!


The Drive-In.  I LOVED going to the Drive-In as a kid.  My dad making us lay down in the back seats and covering us with the blankets to sneak us in.  Eating hot popcorn on a cool summer night while sitting out side made the movie seem just magical.  Listening to the sound on one of those scratch metal speakers.  Oh the memories!  But the Drive-In Theater has become all but extinct...until now!  

Enter the white sheet and binder clips.  Or any other clippy-do-dad that you can hang up a sheet with.  I found these guys at the local Dollar Store.  Score!  Also you'll need some kind of projector that you can plug into a lap-top.  We found one similar to this projector at a garage sale.  Score again!  I used it to paint the custom mural in the Twinkies room too.  Totally worth the $20 bucks.

Next thing you'll need is a place to hang the sheet from, or on.  I already have a rope strung between a grouping of trees where I have my Mason Jar Lanterns hanging so that worked out easy for me.  But it wouldn't take long to tie a rope or clothesline up.  Or you can magnet your sheet down the side of a Van or SUV.  Or how 'bout projecting right onto the side of your house?  Improvise SuperMom's!

The next step is the hardest, but still simple as can be.  Hang the edge of your sheet from the rope, and clip clip away.  

It was a little windy so I grabbed a few big rocks to hold down the bottom of the sheet movie screen with.  

Done.  Hard part's over.  By now the kiddo's were flocking and wondering what the heck Mom was doing now.  I kept silent amongst all the questions.  Letting the drama and suspense fill the air.  It was movie night after-all!

Ok, maybe I lied.  I guess the hard part was setting up the projection-station.  So what did I do?  I grabbed a big cooler for my impromptu table to set my lap-top, projector and external speakers I swiped from the desk-top on.  The speakers aren't necessary but I wanted to play the movie loud.  Like way louder then would ever be allowed in the house.  Like move theater loud. Couple of camp chairs later and we were in business.  

Oh yeah.  And blankets for the kiddo's to lay down on.  But not Walter.  He had to stay off the blankets at least until the movie started.  Then he could join us.

Once it got darkish, around 9:30 for us, we were ready.  The kiddo's got their PJ's on, grabbed their blankets and picked a spot.  I popped some popcorn of course.  I also splurged and gave them some treats too.  

We decided on Hoodwinked for our first Stay-In Movie Night.  Next time I'll let the boys pick something "cool" like Star Wars or Spider Man.  

All I can say is this was a HUGE hit with the kiddo's.  They had so so so much fun.  It was easy to set-up and once you have your viewing area in place it doesn't require any planning ahead, which made it a HUGE hit with Mom.  SuperDad on the other hand...well it went something like this.  "We have a new $2,000 TV and you want to go watch a movie on a sheet?!!?"  But once he got his candy and I handed him the bug zapper he settled in and had a great time too!

Making memories.  Isn't that what life is all about?  =)
Do you have any other Staycation ideas?  I'd love to hear them!