Fall is in full swing and we’re finally getting used to the new routine. We’ve got two kids on different school schedules and we’re all on different sleep schedules, so what that all adds up to is that the kids really don’t even see each other much in the mornings. When they get home from school, John’s still at work. In fact, on weekdays, there are only about two hours in the evening when the entire family is together. Even then, we sometimes have events at one school or another, classes for one of the kids, or some other interruption. It’s nice to sit at home and relax with a movie night and some pizza.
It’s even better that we don’t have to go out and rent a movie. Our local rental place is only a couple blocks away, but getting the kids ready to go, then herding them through the store, trying to agree on a movie (that’s not already gone), and then getting back home takes FOREVER. By them time we arrived home with a movie we wouldn’t have time to watch it and get the kids to bed on time. I love that we can just turn on our Roku and have access to a ton of movies and they have great stuff the kids love, making it easy to agree on a movie. And there aren’t any worries about the movie being taken out by someone else!
When we’re planning a movie night we like to set the scene a little – make sure the room is set up so everyone can be comfortable. A blanket fort is a great way to do it! You can make your entire living room into a blanket fort with this blanket fort tutorial.
Of course, we need some pizza. The kids love making their own pizza, but we also order out sometimes if we have limited time. A quick alternative to making your own pizza is this pizza nachos recipe. Yum!
I opted for a smaller fort just for the kids. I pulled out a small folding table and had the kids throw a bunch of pillows under it, then I threw a giant blanket over the top, and lifted the blanket in the front so they could see the movie. And we haven’t tried pizza nachos YET (believe me, we will!), but we did make one of our favorites quick pizzas – tortilla pizzas.
We use flour tortillas, pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, and pepperoni.
The kids love these and can even help with making them, plus they’re really quick. I put a little sauce, then pepperoni and lots of cheese on one tortilla and put another tortilla on top. I heat it in a pan on the stove, flipping halfway through, until the cheese melts and each side is a little browned.
Of course, they’re always a hit!
Not sure what to watch? Here are some great suggestions from Netflix:
- Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2
- Disney’s Pirate Fairy
- Hoodwinked
- Angelina Ballerina
- Bob the Builder
- The Muppet Movie
- Strange Hills High
- The Avengers
- The Smurfs 2
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars
- Free Birds
- Mako Mermaids: An H2O Adventure
- Clueless
- The Breakfast Club
- Friday Night Lights
- The Vampire Diaries
- Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
- 13 Going on 30
Netflix also recently added new episode of Turbo: FAST, the first ever Netflix Original for kids!
If you’re kids really like Turbo, you can download these fun, printable activities for them:
What’s your favorite family movie for movie night? What do you eat while watching it?