Family Movie Night In The 'Hood

I've mentioned more than a few times over the years how much we love our neighborhood. We moved into this house over 8 years ago and I remember being so very excited to move into a family oriented neighborhood. Over the years some of our neighbors have changed and the neighborhood has transitioned from older original owners to younger families. One thing that has remained the same is the family friendly activities offered by the HOA board. Every year we have the Spring Festival, the Summer Pool Party, the Fall Festival, the Holiday Party...plus we have monthly movie nights in the park during the warm months.

That's where we went this past Friday night. Movie night starts at 8pm and all we have to bring are chairs and blankets. The HOA provides snacks (popcorn and candy) and drinks (Capri-Suns, Water & Sodas) and the movie (Epic, this month). We are lucky enough to live close enough to the park to be able to walk- excuse my blurry iPhone pics please.

Of course the first thing that happens when we arrive is the scattering of children. Ty immediately pretends we are not his parents and heads for his group of friends. Basically it's a group of boys who stand around and stare at the group of girls who are pretending not to stare at the group of boys. Oh middle school...I do not miss you. This is the first year that Maia has also wanted to go sit with her group of friends. She's always been a little shy in social situations- clearly she is her mother's child- and has always wanted to sit with us. Not anymore. She has a great group of friends in the neighborhood who I like and who spend a whole lot of time at our house.

Fortunately the little kids still like to sit with us. We set up our super comfy camp chairs- and we all know I do not camp, these are the chairs we use at swim meets and soccer games- and settled in to watch the movie with our popcorn and candy.

Even the little kids saw their friends and Matt and I saw our friends too. They looked as tired as we did. Haha! Our neighborhood always has a great turn out for movie night in the park. I figure there were probably about 150 people, including kids and parents, there to watch the movie this month.

It was nice to see all the moms from the neighborhood. It was also nice that all my kids can make to the end of the movie now without us having to pack up and leave early. We saw so many families with younger kids have to pack up and leave after 45 minutes or so because their kids were ready for bed. Ours are old enough now to sit and watch the whole movie and enjoy themselves. Just another reminder for my uterus why we are done having kids!

We had a great time and I'm so thankful we live in a neighborhood that provides so many fun family activities. Does your neighborhood do anything fun for families?