It’s Friday, which means family movie night in our house.  This is a relatively new but much loved and highly anticipated weekly tradition.  Roughly 98% of the movie nights we’ve had have featured one movie:  Cars.  It’s Benjamin’s favorite (by a mile . . . in fact, I don’t think he even really likes any other movies, although we’ve tried a few) and Liam loves shouting, “Cars!” at the screen at regular intervals.  Luckily, Dan & I also find it entertaining and pretty pleasant for a near-weekly rewatching.

In fact, the only downside to watching Cars almost every time is that it doesn’t hold the kids rapt with attention like it used to.  They know who wins the races, what happens after the chase scenes, and how it ends.  (The plus side of all of this is that they don’t feel the need to always watch the movie all the way through, so sometimes we get to go to bed a little early.)  Tonight, after they lost interest in popcorn, they quickly turned to racing and wrestling to keep themselves busy.

It really was more fun than it looks like from their expressions.

In a flash of inspiration, trying to keep it a fun activity, rather than one requiring a subsequent emergency room visit, I arranged the play tent with a good vantage point of the tv and suggested we all have a campout while watching the movie.  It was fantastic.  We had sleeping bags, all manner of stuffed friends and a light-up music cube standing in for a campfire (over which we roasted imaginary marshmallows and made s’mores).  We snuggled, we cuddled, we watched the movie.  Bailey even played the part of bear/raccoon/moose at one point.  (I think Liam would have actually slept in the tent, quite happily, if he’d been able to get comfortable enough.)

My kids are awesome.  It was so sweet to watch Benjamin get himself all snuggled up, make pretend s’mores and set up a spot for Liam.  I loved seeing Liam flop himself down on his sleeping bag while saying, “Night!  Night!” over and over.  Movie night is great fun.  Camping while doing movie night is even better.  How often do you get to camp and watch a movie at the same time?  Well, it turns out, I get to do it anytime I want.  And I get to snuggle with my kids at the same time.  I love camping movie night.