Backyard Movie Night

I know I said I would post the final reveal of the kitchen this week, but we actually did something a little different that I just had to post about.

I love seeing how all of you are being intentional about how you're spending time with your family. I have seen people put bears in their window for kids to find when families go on walks. There have been people painting their windows to look like stained glass, so much chalk art, and pictures of backyard nature. A lot of projects are being done at home. Aaron has started family worship, which we were going to start when Ollie turned three, but since the bible study for kids Ollie was going to is no longer happening because of the pandemic, we started it earlier.


Ollie and I were playing in the backyard and I noticed that there is a part of our fence that is blank. I immediately came up with the idea to have a backyard movie night!

I sent Aaron a formal invitation

But then I got too excited, I decided to do it that night, rather than wait for Saturday.

We conveniently had a white sheet I stapled onto the fence

I also found a board in our garage I painted with left over chalkboard paint. I was doing this while cooking dinner. Whenever I had a chance, I would run to the garage and add another coat of paint or use chalk to decorate it.

I even took Christmas lights down from the attic and hung them up, because if you aren't going to have a magical ambiance, what is the point? I initially tried using a tetherball pole Aaron bought for batting practice, but it was too short. So then I used string to tie it to a tree that was just a foot too far back.

This is Ollie's favorite PJs.

I laid down a tarp and piled egg crate foam, sleeping bags, blankets, and pillows. My best efforts to keep the grass off was no match for our dog.

I even included Ollie's tent.

Sunset was at 8:15, but I thought our projector was bright enough, we could get it to work around 7:30. We discovered that definitely wasn't the case. So, we did our family worship outside and then I went inside to clean the kitchen while Aaron and Ollie played on his playground.

Around 8, we were able to put the projector close to the screen and Ollie watched a 30 minute show. It wasn't exactly what I had in mind, but Ollie loved getting to watch his favorite show outside. It was so special to him! I took Ollie to bed and you could tell he had such a good time and it was so special to him.

By the time I had Ollie tucked in and the popcorn popped, it was dark enough to be able to watch a movie. So Aaron and I watched Beauty and the Beast (one of my favorite Disney movies) under the stars.

It was such a special treat and I can't wait to do it again on a weekend so Ollie can watch a full movie. Maybe even someday, when this pandemic is over, we can have grownups over to have a friend movie night. One can dream.