Nate's Drive-In Birthday

This weekend we had a pre-celebration of Nate's 5th birthday by throwing a fun outdoor movie party.  It sounded like a fun and simple idea when Nate and I first started talking about it but once I started planning I quickly realized logistics were a little more challenging than I thought they would be!  We obviously had to have it late in the evening to be able to see it so I was worried about everyone having the kids out late...and would the kids even sit still to watch a movie!  But, I have to say...it went off better than I had hoped.  I wish I had a photographer taking pictures for me because, once again, I have missed so many details and photo ops just by having fun at the party!

When the kids got there, they found their "car" and went to town with the stickers and markers decorating them.

I had a "concession stand" set up and my only mistake was putting the movie treats - popcorn and candy - out with the hot dogs...the kids went straight to the scoops of popcorn and M&Ms and Twizzlers before they got dinner in, but I think most of them eventually were forced to eat a little food!

We were actually pretty fortunate that there was a threat of rain because the overcast cloudiness let us start the movie a little earlier than I thought we might have to.  I made the boxes really to have an activity to kill some time before showtime and wasn't sure if they would care anything about them, but most of the kids actually sat in their boxes for the movie and almost all of them insisted on taking them with them when the left.  I was so happy! :)

So all of the kids pulled their cars up and we started the show - Nate chose "Up" a couple of weeks ago and never wavered from that decision so we obliged.  It had their attention for a while and then it got dark enough for the bucket of glow sticks to come out so some of the attention shifted.  But they came back and, for those that stuck around, even started a 2nd movie afterwards!

Nate looks a little crazy in this pic but I think it was because he was trying to watch a movie and the paparazzi was flashing cameras in his face.  I just loved the two of them laying on the beanbag together....

Given that the party date fell in between Michael and Nate's birthdays, I tried to include Michael in on the celebration...I admit to him that I got caught up in the kid stuff and faltered on making it special for him but we did have LOTS of barbecue and beverages for the grown ups and we stayed up (too) late enjoying ourselves so I hope he knows we were celebrating the last of his 30's as well!