With back to school upon us {whatever that looks like this year}, our unlimited family time is coming to an end. Well, sort of- my kids are still home and I’m constantly over their shoulder helping them log in to a handful of different websites, apps, and programs, but still.
Now that they’re focused on classwork by day and homework by night, our weekends are back to being our main together time. While weekends are also when I like to get the house in some sort of order, I also make family time a priority on the weekends because in our house, it’s the time when we can all just be together.
For years, weekends were our time to go places and do things, and of course now we’re spending that time at home. We’ll go hiking and go for walks when the weather is nicer, but right now we’re just looking for fun ways to spend time together inside.
After months of being at home, I was starting to run low on ideas- but then Zac came up with a great one. Last weekend, we played movie theater!
For our game, we pretended that our home was a movie theater. Zac made the game up and of course his first priority was making sure we had snacks!
The night before we played happened to be the night that I was placing our grocery pickup order, so I added a few of our favorite movie snacks: candy, popcorn, pretzels, and a variety of drinks.
Zac made up a whole menu and we even put together his lemonade stand to use as a concessions stand! We have this fun set from Antsy Pants play that he got for Easter. {It also turns into a puppet theater and a tent for more playtimes!}
You can’t go to the movie theater without tickets, so I printed out these free printable movie theater tickets and Zac passed them out to everyone {including the hamster, who unfortunately could not attend}.
When it was time for playtime, Zac stood at the stand and took our tickets. Then he took our orders, and he and I got everything together in the kitchen. Finally, we picked which movie to watch {which was the hardest part of all of this- there are too many good options on Disney+!}
All in all our movie night was a HUGE success. It was a fun game that was different than what we are used to doing. Everyone got a delicious snack and it kept us busy for about 4 hours from start to finish {including the movie}. And best of all, the kids got to use their imaginations and pretend they were doing one of our favorite activities that we {obviously} haven’t been able to do in months- go to the movies!
What Supplies Do You Need to Make Your Own Movie Theater?
To make a magical movie night at home, you’ll need:
{These links are affiliate links, which means I may make a small commission on your purchase at no extra cost to you. Thanks for your support!}
- Free printable tickets {Get them HERE– to print you can use regular paper or cardstock}
- Snacks of your choosing
- Movie {A classic fave or maybe something new!}
- Optional: Lemonade Stand Concession Booth {this particular one also requires this building kit}
- Patience, as finding a movie everyone agrees on can take awhile.
Want more fun family time ideas?
Looking for more fun things to do this weekend with your family?
- Start a topical community fish tank with your family
- Play Animal Crossing {these tips will help!}
- Make Rockets out of Toilet Paper Rolls
- Get the kids in the kitchen with these Shark Attack Cheesecakes
Also consider signing up for my newsletter, I send out weekend ideas every Thursday night!
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