"Back Yard" Movie Night

Before we moved (Oh, hey. We moved!) from our last apartment, we hosted a movie night for our neighbors. We had the perfect location, as our first floor apartment backed up to a nice grass walk way & rock wall. We set up speakers & a projector on our patio & projected The Incredibles on to a sheet we hung on the rock wall. It was a fun night and made us wish we would have done a movie night way earlier & often! We invited our church family to come out & knocked on neighbors doors to invite them over. We popped some popcorn, picked up some old school Little Debbie's snacks & stocked up on water. We set up our Tiki torches, laid out some pillows & blankets and waited for the sun to set. It was cozy, intimate and just fun.

Check out these awesome POPZ popcorn boxes I found! They were only $1 each and effortless! You just pop (No pun intended) into the microwave, set the timer & let them pop. When they're finished, you have a delicious box of popcorn. No bowls required! They were the perfect addition to our movie night and helped set the mood.

Chara, of course, joined in on the fun, but only from our patio! We tried to let her out, hoping she'd be an angel and snuggle up next to someone and watch the movie, but there was way too much popcorn falling on the ground for that. Girl was persistent to help "pick up" every fallen piece. So, to the patio she was banned.

See our little dinky sheet? Would you believe that's a Queen size sheet?! It looks so small hung on the large rock wall. To hang it, Zachary hiked up from a lower area of the wall, and tied ropes to trees & the corner of the sheet. While he was up there, he discovered a huge, untouched area of trees, grass and rocks. Ha. We knew there were trees up there but we didn't know just how big the space was. Later that week he was sure to take his hammock up there to read undisturbed in what felt like his own little slice of camping paradise.

With Nicole home from China, it's always fun to get together with her! We don't see her nearly as much as we'd like but when we do see her, it's just like old times. As you can see, Chara loves Nicole and always remembers her!

We got to choose which apartment we wanted and we knew this was the one when we saw this nice grassy view from our patio. It was so nice living here, working on the patio and letting Chara have the occasional off leash time as we threw her Frisbee, or one time french fries, up and down our little grassy knoll.

Isn't this the cutest picture ever? She's always ridiculously happy when Zachary gives her attention.

We chose an adult & child favorite! You can't go wrong with The Incredibles.

We had a treat that weekend by having Sebastian, my nephew, be able to join in on the movie watching. Though being a 2 year old, ensures that you don't watch the movie at movie night, at all. ;)

Leave it to Soph, to take a ridiculously cute picture when you just ask her to say cheese.

Once the blankets were laid out, the snacks ready and the sun had set, we gathered with friends for the start of the movie! It was actually so relaxing to be laying out in the grass, steps from our back door, with loved ones for a good movie! Often "back yard" movie nights in the neighborhood are so crowded that relaxing isn't usually the go-to word you'd use to describe them. They're tons of fun and a great way to spend an evening, but again not necessarily relaxing. This night was relaxing and just perfect.