Movie Night

I have decided to write a daily blog.  Writing makes me feel so creative and for those that care, I truly hope you will enjoy reading about our adventures as much as we love having them.

One of my greatest dreams come true is being blessed to be a mom of 5 children. With this enormous blessing comes extraordinary challenges.  However I feel very passionate about my belief that if you get off your tushy and spend some time planning activities for your hooligans, your day goes much better and the challenges are much less damaging to the soul. 

Writing this blog will challenge me to be a better writer but it will also challenge me to be a better mom.  So, for 365 days I will choose a daily activity to blog about.  My activities will be cheap enough and easy enough for any of my mom friends to try at home.  I hope you will find these ideas inspiring!

Tonight I will blog about movie nights.  In our house this is never "just a movie night".  This is a time to be in our comfiest jammies, have a special snack and bring ALL the mattresses in the family room.  Before I continue I will share that the mattresses are essential to fun.  It takes approx 10 min to pull out 3 mattresses.  It is also a wonderful time to quickly declutter under the beds.  Believe me, your children will be more than willing to lend a hand in order to speed up the bed process. 
On this particular night we took out the beds and chose the movie Clifford (not the big red dog....that is for lil ones).  Choice of movie is imperative especially considering all the ages.  Everyone has to agree and everyone has to participate.  The children all get their blankies and pillows to the family room and piled them up.  They know the rules...find a spot in 5 minutes and put your bottom glue on.  I usually repeat this no less than 100 times...c'est la vie.  The movie begins...

I will generally wait about 20 min before I get up to prepare a snack.  Tonight I made a smores trail mix.  I added pretzels, marshmallows, chocolate chips and teddy grahams.  I put it in a bag and pressed pause on the movie.  The kids came over to give the bag a good shake.  Each child got a cup of mix to bring out to the movie.  Again, there are well bred rules...if you make a mess, you lose the treat.  This does wonders for focus and attention!  Fyi...Tonight I also spent a lil extra ($1 each) to give the kids a glow toy.  This of course is always a hit! 

Throughout the movie I find a spot to snuggle.  Sometimes its with the child that needs extra attention.  Sometimes it is all of them in a great big pile.  Sometimes I am lazy and sit next to them trolling Facebook or writing a blog :)  Either way, movie nights are the time to cuddle, get comfy and close.  They are the days when I want to put a pause on life and freeze that love that won't last forever.

Some people can condemn TV and talk about the damage screens can do to young minds.  All I can say is that children are not damaged by screens, they are damaged by watching screens alone.  If they are loved, nurtured and played with it doesn't matter what you do.  It is the simple concept of quality time that makes every child feel loved and special!