Once a month or so, the kids and I declare a movie night. I realize this is nothing unique, lots of families have movie nights, but sometimes we like to take it up a notch and incorporate a full blown family meal into the evening festivities. Many times it’ll be a grazing supper with things like our snickety snacks , Turkey Meatballs or Alex’s Secret Recipe Chicken Strips and a dessert of strawberries and whip cream. Other times we make our own personal pizza’s with a cool fruit smoothie.

Whichever menu we choose, another important detail is the presentation and serving. Sophia loves doing ‘table scapes’ (a la Sandra Lee from the Food Network). For Movie Night Dinners we always eat picnic style–Soph spreads a blanket on the floor and then sets ‘the table’ for our meal. We have those lap table things that you can get at Michael’s Craft Store; They’re great T.V. trays for the kids, so sometimes she’ll use those in her set-up. The coffee table serves as the buffet, holding the food so we can easily retrieve seconds. I’m amazed at how well she’ll clear the ever-cluttered table to make sure her vision is met for Movie night, especially since most of the ‘ever-clutter’ wouldn’t be there if she’d put it away when I asked her originally ;D

By the time we’re 15 minutes into the movie, our bellies are full and we’ve moved from our picnic blanket to snuggle on the couch for the duration. We don’t talk a lot during the feature show, but cuddling up with a love bug on each side while relaxingly viewing a movie is, well…the best.