Movie Night

When I was growing up we had special occasions where I remember having movie nights. We would bring up the jumbo sized orange pillows from the basement, get some blankets and watch movies on the family room floor in our pajamas with my parents. I am not sure what we watched exactly....The Wizard of Oz, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Little House of the Prairie, or the Muppets. But I do remember really looking forward to doing something so exciting and out of the ordinary.

This week I decided to give it a try with the boys. We picked a night. I got out their brand new sleeping bags that they got for Christmas. We ate an early dinner and had an early bath. We made a snack. The boys got into their jammies and were beyond thrilled to hop into their sleeping bags and watch their movie.

My sister helped me pick out a movie. She recommended the movie "Up". Her kids all saw it and loved it even though she said that the beginning was a little slow. Well, it turns out she left out a few other key details too!

My boys were SCARED out of their minds! They were confused by the opening scenes where the old lady DIES! Then there were the scary talking DOGS who ruthlessly pursued an endangered bird. Then there was the evil adventure man who chased everybody down trying to shoot them with a GUN! The only part that my boys didn't freak out about were the opening BORING scenes!

Wyatt asked my why I got him a "big kid movie and not a movie for little boys"? The next morning he lovingly helped me pack it up into the case to return to the Redbox. When we got into the van he checked to make sure that I didn't forget it either! He gave it a big thumbs down!

Later we made a trip to the library and picked out a Berenstein Bears movie that was more appropriate. We repeated movie night the next night with the new movie and it was a raging success!

The boys love movie night and I think that we are going to do it once a week. I am always looking for new traditions that the boys enjoy and may remember some day and this is one that truly fits the bill!