A Family Drive-In Movie Night

Jack Larmore

After seeing Nate & Anita Larmore's FB post about their Drive-in Movie night, I asked Anita to share the details along with her pictures.   I know her post will spark your imagination and inspire you to create your own drive-in movie night for your family, playgroup, school group, or church's children's ministry.   Welcome our guest blogger, Anita Larmore & read on - you are in for a treat!!!  

Deni Corbett

Create your very own Drive-in Movie   

Any 21^st century mom living in America today has boxes.  It is the day we live in… wireless internet, free shipping, and ‘no kids anywhere’ kind of shopping!

Our project today involves boxes.  Big ones!  CHILD-SIZED ONES, as a matter of fact!  If you are like me, boxes abound.  I can’t wait for recycle day just to get rid of them!  Here in CA, they’re in the garage and for all you lucky folks with basements and attics, you have them there!  And if you can’t find one big enough, there’s always your local grocery store. 

It is time to hold a drive-in movie night for your kiddos.  One they won’t soon forget.  Send out invitations. The sky is the limit on what you can create.  And soon your living room or your church or even your deck on a warm summer night, will be full of cars, giggling children and popcorn galore.  

Once you have found a box large enough for your child to sit comfortably, here is how you assemble it so that your child can see out of the top.

1. Cut off three of your box’s lid flaps, leaving the fourth flap to become the windshield of the car.
2. Use the flaps that you cut off to shape two triangular pieces that will secure the sides of your windshield into the position you like best.
   
   
3. Use duct tape to secure the box into shape (duct tape is also easier to paint over than standard packing tape).
4. Prepare a well-ventilated outdoor area to spray paint your box.  Apply several even coats until the car looks right to you.  If you run out of time like we did one year, construction paper will work in a pinch!
   Once the painting is done, here are some ideas for those extras that will make your car pop!
5. 
   Wheels:  You can attach wheels made from paper plates or cut out four large circles from construction paper.  Draw rim details onto your wheels or glue a colored printout of wheel rims from the internet.

Windshield:  Glue a windshield cut from construction paper to the front of the angled flap on top of your car.
Headlights/taillights:  Draw lights or glue colored printouts of headlights and taillights to the front and back of your car.  You can even have working headlights by cutting out the center of your headlights and inserting flashlights that can be turned on at your event. 

Katie Larmore

Hood emblem:  Draw a hood ornament or glue a colored printout to the front of your car.

License plates:  Draw a license plate or glue a colored printout to the front/back of your car.

Decals and décor:  Your child will have fun with stickers, markers, and decals to further decorate the exterior of the car. Many details can be drawn with thick-point permanent marker or printed from photos found on the internet for more realistic detail Dads will care more about the realism than you probably will.  When my husband was involved in the finishing part of this project, it was all about replicating his favorite car.  Googling key words like “wheel rim” or “hood emblems,” he meticulously created his dream car (since he’ll never own it).  Perhaps the purple was not his top choice, but it was for his little girl. 

Steering wheel:  Using a pencil skewered through a paper plate decorated for the part, you can add a steering wheel. 

Dashboard: Cut out and decorate pieces or print out color decals for dash instruments such as Speedometer, Tachometer, Radio, etc.

Mandy Larmore

When you are done, all that’s left is throwing in a pillow or a stool, dimming those lights, popping in that movie, filling up those popcorn bowls, and you have added yet another “Once upon a time” memory in your child’s life.  

Anita Larmore
Fireflies Guest Blogger