My mother is a fanatic about planning events so it was safe to say that my younger sister’s sixth birthday was going to be a big event. The theme– a drive-in movie party! Kids and parents both absolutely loved this party theme so I’m going to share with you how you can throw this very same party for your child. It was a blast!
First we had to check with all the local stores and ask them to save cardboard boxes for us! You will need two boxes per child you intend to invite and you might want to get a few extra in case some bring brothers and sisters or friends. After all the boxes were collected we set about inviting the kids.
There had to be a twist on the invitations that would make them unique to the theme of the party. So what better than movie tickets? And what do you think the kids will want once they get to the drive-in movie? That’s right– popcorn and sodas! We google image searched a movie ticket and found a template (http://www.wpclipart.com/blanks/ticket.png) saved this image, opened it in the ‘paint’ program and added party details. We then printed the right number for invitations off on colored card stock and cut them out. Next, we included monopoly-type money– that you can usually buy at 99 cent stores or you can make it yourself– for the kids to buy their popcorn, sodas, hot dogs, candy and/or ice cream with. To simplify, we made everything a dollar.
Then we got to work on our card-board boxes. It is after all a Drive-in Movie Party and they had to have something to ‘drive in’ to the party. We printed of an outline from a clip art of a Volkswagen Beetle onto a transparency and borrowed a projector from our local library. We cut half the boxes and opened them up to make a flat, solid piece of card-board (as much as possible anyway). Then we stuck each one to the wall while we projected the outline onto the cardboard and traced it with a pencil. Using box-cutters (very carefully) we placed them on the ground and cut out each car shape. You have to make sure you cut out holes in place of a windshield.
We then attached the cut-out to a still-in-tact cardboard box for the child to sit in. Bigger boxes can be used for more than one child! We bought crayons, markers, glitter, stickers, decals, etc. for the kids to decorate their very own cars. We also cut out yellow circles for headlights and red circles for lights on the back of the car.
For the marquis we used the same method with the clip art, transparency and the projector to make an outline. We then cut it out with the box cutter and wrote the name of the movie playing– in this case it was Curious George– on it and placed it at the end of the driveway with balloons attached. We used a refrigerator box for the concession stands and cut out one side and a hole in the other for a window. We made a menu on the outside of the concession stand where we would exchange popcorn, sodas and hot dogs for monopoly money.
For the entertainment we borrowed a projector and used our dvd player to project Curious George on the big screen which was actually a giant piece of white cardboard attached to our front porch.
As the kids arrived and we handed out packets with decorating materials for their cars. This was probably the most fun part of the evening. After decorating all their cars the kids formed a line at the concession stand and we handed money out to those who had forgotten theirs. Once seated the kids were asked not to get up. We watched for hands and got them refills as needed while they enjoyed Curious George.
