Drive-IN Birthdays

The Fall has become the season of Birthdays!! I love it!! Seriously one of my favorite things about being a stay at home mom  is planning birthday parties for my kids. Anna turned 7 in September and Quinn turned 5 in October.

  So this year Anna and I came up with the idea of a Drive-In movie. We are so lucky to live in a neighborhood filled with little girls...14 of them Anna's age. However our small home isn't quite conducive to the ever growing number so we decided to host the movie in the garage which actually worked out perfect.

The cars were made out of Costco boxes. Anna chose the color for the cars. One lesson I learned...make sure the box doesn't have some sort of waxy finish on it. Spray paint won't stick! This particular car could have used a second coat...i was too tired:) The wheels were just cut on the cricut and hot glued to the box. The steering wheels were spray painted silver and glued on. 

When the girls began to arrive I had them decorate a license plate. They all did different things which turned out pretty cute. Once they were done we glued them to the back of their cars. 

Anna had the idea of "buying" candy at the movie so we came up with this idea of a concessions table. There was popcorn, candy, and soda. 

Each car had a little purse with tickets inside.

Everything at the Concession Stand cost 1 ticket. They could spend it all at the beginning or they could wait for later. The girls had a lot of fun playing "store" and I know they loved all of the candy.

When they came to the table they each got a tray that matched their little purse. On it was a little cup with a 3-way divider to hold the different candies. 

 The Theatre

The kids watched the Lorax. 

We turned of all the lights and decorated with Christmas lights. The kids loved it. Simple and fun. 

  I have to say that my favorite thing about this party {in my current 8-month-pregnant state} was the minimal interaction with all of the kids. They came, decorated license plates, filled their tray with food, and then watched a movie. We opened presents and sent them home with a milk shake- Anna is not a fan of cake! The kids were all quiet and happy and the mess was minimal. I guess all of the work was before hand getting everything ready but I enjoy that part. Overall I would say huge success -- so much so that Quinn had the exact same party 3 weeks later! Score!!