- 1 package of tickets
- popcorn bucket
- smaller popcorn buckets
- Glow-in-the-dark bracelets
- boxed movie candies (7 boxes) : sugar babies, marshmallow poles, tootsie pops, runts, sweedish fish, sweet tarts, cotton candy
- Bazooka gum for a bubble gum blowing contest
- sparklers
- popcorn, could get a nice popper for a large group
- bottles of bubbles
- Printables (Mad Libs) made to fit the movie picked
- Props for the photobooth : Â 1 phony lollipop, gag glasses & clown nose, mustache and nose
- backdrop for the photobooth & table runner 3 plastic tablecloths
- yellow baskets to hold movie treats
- 2 metals tray spray painted
- bubble gum blowing contest
- Mad Libs type printable to fill out and take turns reading
- photo booth with props
- Glow-in-the-dark bracelet chase
- movie of your choice
- Red Tickets: Â Each of the kids, upon arrival at the party, will get a ticket bow tie (for the boys) and a tickets bow cuff (for the girls). The ties on the bow cuff were made from strips of the white plastic tablecloth. The bow ties and the cuffs were made from the double stripes of red tickets. There is a small safety pin on the back of the red ticket bow tie to fasten onto a shirt. Who would have thought that a new fashion statement was tickets ;).
- Plastic Tablecloths: Â My favorite project is where I used 1 red plastic tablecloth and 1 white plastic tablecloth and cute them into 108″ long and about 7″ strips and used my ruffle foot on my sewing machine to create ruffles out of these strips. A ruffle foot gathers the fabric as you go, instead of stitching and cinching the fabric. It really saves you a couple steps. If you don’t have a ruffle foot, you can also make a ruffle by making a zig zag stitch over a piece of embroidery thread, then cinching it along the embroidery thread. I used a giant picture frame that I purchased from an estate sale 3 years prior as the the frame to hold the ruffles for the photo backdrop. The strips were used and layered by color. To go along with the photo backdrop, I bought the props for the photos, the gag glasses and the fake lollipop. I love how these look and go together in the pictures. I also used the ruffle idea for the front of the tablecloth for the concession stand.
- metal trays: Â These I purchased from the dollar store and used painter’s tape to tape stripes for spray painting. I used red and white spray paint to make them fit into our theme and to match our backdrop. These can be used as treat trays, however, I am using mine as a sign that says “NOW PLAYING……”. These can also be used as surfaces for filling out the MOVIE LIBS sheets.
- Movie Libs DOWNLOAD BELOW: Â On photoshop, I made printables called MOVIE LIBS. Theses are like Mad Libs except the story is catered to our movie party. It’s a short story about a kid that is in a movie that decides that going to the movies is much more fun than being in a movie. These are so fun to fill out and take turns reading aloud. I have made these before, and they are such a hit at any party and for any age of person.
- Cute popcorn containers: Â I purchased these for $1 for the big bucket, and 2 for 1, for the smaller ones.
- Soda pop bottle bubbles: Â there is a darling printable attached to the bottle of bubbles that says, “Thanks for ‘poppin’ in!.” They get this when they leave.
- Glow-in-the-dark bracelets: Â When it’s dark one of the games that can be played is to have each person close their eyes, and after activating all the glowing bracelets, one person throws the glowing bracelets into the grass and everyone scrambles to pick one up. After each round, one bracelet is taken out so there is always one less bracelet than players.
- darling yellow baskets: Â These will be used to hold the candies that they choose from the concession stand.
- PRINTABLES: Â
- candy
- gum
- popcorn
- bottle of bubbles
- glow-in the dark bracelets
- bubbles
- each child will get a thank you e-mail with their photo attached
- ticket cuff & bowtie
Whitney says
Kirsten, that is so cute! Great ideas for such a budget!
Kara says
This looks like so much fun! I totally wish I was your neighbor. But since I’m not that lucky, I guess I’ll have to throw the party myself. 🙂
Kirsten says
I wish you were my neighbor as well!
Kari-Ucreate says
Simple and fun…my kind of party! Awesome job Kirsten!
Kirsten says
Ah thanks Kari….simple is the best way.
TiffanyS says
This sounds like a lot of fun! Our favorite summertime activity was camping in Goblin Valley (Utah) but we have since moved to Washington, so I guess we’ll need to come up with another tradition…maybe the beach or camping in an actual forest! When I was a kid, my parents took us kids crabbing every summer. I would love to share that with my husband and kids.
Thank you for this great idea!
Kirsten says
ahhhh crabbing, that sounds SOOO fun! I don’t even know how you do that! I too went to Goblin Valley when I was a kid, and in Washington, that would be super fun to camp on the beach if they would let you…or in a real forest, how cool! Thanks for sharing!
Donna says
What a fabulous family party idea. Love it and will definitely tuck this idea away for later!
Pam@behealthybehappywellness says
This is SO cute! We often watch movies outside in the summer – just take a projector and show them along the side of the house. The adults sit around the fire pit and the kids lay on the ground in sleeping bags. You really took this to the next level though!!!
Kirsten says
Really, that’s what we do :), but when asked for a summer party idea, I couldn’t help but embellish this one. We may pull out all these fun things every once in awhile, but the best part is being together 🙂
Miriam says
Great idea!, i am planning on doing a mini playdate for my son’s daycare. This theme fix perfectly my budget and the theme. Thanks!
erica says
we are having movie night in a few weeks! I was going to do this last year but we ran out of time! 🙂