It's in the books

I almost pulled it off.

We celebrated my grandson's seventh birthday this weekend with our annual family party.

My favorite party theme to date has been "Squatchin'" — complete with plywood cutouts of Big Foot and we all dressed as bearded hillbillies donning headlamps to hunt the mythical creature. Fun times!

Last year's intended theme was rained out which meant the festivities were moved indoors so we all built birdhouses in my dining room. It was my plan B, but still plenty of fun.

This year I recycled my intended party idea from last year, a drive-in movie night in my backyard. We kept a close eye on the weather for weeks, but I had decided regardless of the rain, we were going with the theme, even if it ended up in my living room.

Here was the plan ... each participant — which included my three kids, their other halves, my grandson and myself — was to construct and decorate their "vehicle" out of any number of cardboard boxes we managed to hoard over the past several weeks. The boxes ranged in sizes from large refrigerator and oven boxes to smaller, manageable sized ones.

I scrounged up wrapping paper, markers, construction board, streamers, decals, glue, tape, scissors ... anything I could find from years and years of kids' crafting projects still shoved in closets or the basement at home.

Once everyone arrived, we got busy building the "automobile" where we would spend 90 minutes watching a movie on the projector Mick had laboriously set up in the yard.

Some of us designed our cars around lawn furniture, making sure we'd be comfortable during the movie. My grandson found not only a small Adirondack chair for the fire-breathing truck his dad and my stepmom helped him build but a huge blanket from the house and a sneaky stockpile of snacks for the movie.

By the time the construction was completed, it was time to eat.

I'd prepared foods fit for an evening at the drive-in. We had brats, giant pretzels with hot cheese, hot dogs, boxes of candies, nachos, large pickles ... I tried to provide enough variety that no one would go hungry.

By this time the wind was picking up and once the cardboard Volkswagon one of the kids built became airborne, some of the grownup kids decided it was getting too cold to willingly sit outdoors to watch a movie ... blankets or not. It was only 6 p.m. and we had hours to wait before we would actually be able to see the movie that was playing on the side of our shed.

Although we didn't actually sit in our cars and watch an entire movie, I'm still going to call it a success. It was fun for the birthday boy as well as the rest of us.

The payoff comes when you know you've planned something they all will remember.

It's also a good sign when the party sort of morphs into a sleep-over and a couple of the kids end up spending the night, including a very happy little 7-year-old boy.

Contact Dana King at dking@shawmedia.com