Family Movie Night ~ Spending Quality Time

With Summer vacation right around the corner, family time is definitely a huge priority! With kids getting out of school for the summer (YAY!) and hopefully vacation time for working parents, idea's for family fun are what families want! So I have come up with my perfect Family Movie Night, for those rainy days or those nights we are so tired from playing outside we just need some relaxing family time.

One of our favorite things to do on a rainy day is to make a tent in the house. You only need a few things:

• 3-4 chairs to lay blankets on
• Large Blankets
• Pillows
• Stuffed Animals (optional)

Arrange the chairs so that the blankets will lay easily over the top to create a "roof" of the tent, then fill in the sides with extra blankets. Lay a soft, fluffy blanket inside the tent for a floor and line with pillows. You can pretty much use anything to lay the "roof" blankets on and depending on how big you want your tent, you may need more than 4 chairs! Lastly, grab some snacks, turn on your movie, and climb in!

For the evenings, we love all cuddling on the couch with our spread of snacks on the coffee table in front of us. This is nice, especially with small kids, where the tent can cause a disarray of snacks and possible spills if not careful. For family movie nights we LOVE creating different popcorn recipes and having ice cream floats. My son's favorite is the Rootbeer Float. Personally, I prefer cherry soda in mine.

One of the newest popcorn recipes we created was Garlic Parmesan Popcorn. You only need a few things:

• Freshly popped popcorn
• 2 Tablespoons melted butter (more or less depending on your taste)
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
• salt to taste

As soon as the popcorn is popped (we do over the stove popcorn - you could also use microwave popcorn) place in a bowl and drizzle the melted butter over. Stir into the popcorn evenly then toss in the garlic powder and parmesan cheese along with some salt. Mix well and serve! You can adjust the seasonings to your family's taste. Also, try idea's like some chocolate drizzled in or even try this amazing Chocolate Peanut Butter Popcorn. Scroll down the page until you see this recipe! It is slightly messy, but OH SO GOOD!

Sometimes finding movies we can all agree on can be a task. My husband isn't too picky, it's my 6 year old that can be! He loves anything action packed and it can't be too sad or he won't even watch it. Another issue we have is finding a good, CLEAN family movie to watch. Too many times we have seen one that looks promising to only find out it has swearing or sexuality in it. Thank goodness for Parental Guidance ratings on IMDb. They are truly helpful so we don't rent or buy something that we don't want to be watching. As a mom, having age-appropriate content is extremely important. I was introduced to a great resource for this very thing; it's called Pure Flix. They offer family-friendly movie options which I truly appreciate. They have a few different sections including Educational, Faith and Kid's Choice. So maybe check that out on your next Family Movie Night! What's cool is you can get a FREE one month trial of Pure Flix here.

I hope I have given some good idea's on how to make the most of your next Family Movie Night or Family Movie Day! Spending quality time as a family, whether that be relaxing and watching a movie, playing games together, or being in the great outdoors enjoying each other's company, is extremely important for everyone's well being. My oldest always mentions how he loves having our whole family together, and after time spent as a family, that is when I see him at his happiest.

If you have any awesome idea's that you and your family do, let me know! I'd love to hear what other families do so we can up our Family Movie Night game! Thanks for reading.