Are we insane?!
That's pretty much a solid question. Taking three young kids all under the age of seven 45 minutes away to a drive-in movie theater with the first movie not starting until 9 p.m. ish? Yup. But I just really wanted to go!! I debated this last year but we knew Dom wouldn't survive (or we wouldn't with him along) and although my parents offered to have him over for a sleepover I just can't leave my babies over night. Sorry, can't. So we passed on it for the year. But not this year!
Gotta lower those tailgates. They did come around and check and brought string so we could tie it down. Just as an fyi. And we saw a rainbow on the way there!
So this theater was in Dillsburg (Kerri's hometown!), and it is called Haar's. They play two movies a night on the weekends and the ones showing when we went were Despicable Me 3 and the newest Michael Bay explosions/machines/slow-mo running boobs-filled Transformers whatever number sequel. We told the kids if they were good we would try to stay for the second but we all know where this is going...
I feel like we came pretty well prepared but soon learned that we were slacking in the snacks department. People set up chairs and tables (!) and brought coolers and umbrellas and man! Next time! Which will be when the kids are a year older. The kids brought their sleeping bags and pillows and I brought their pjs and bags of snacks and candy. We laid down all the seats in the van so it was open season in there and Matt and I set up chairs right under the tailgate. We got there two hours early because we were afraid it would fill up and man were we right! The line even to get in the place was nuts. So we did right by being so early. I also brought our little pink training potty which is honestly always with us in the van and set up a little potty stall inside the van complete with privacy curtain/blanket and it worked out so well so the kids didn't have to deal with lines/dirty bathrooms/port-a-john's.
By the time the movie started Dom had already examined every inch of the inside of the van and all the kids were sweaty and sick of being inside the car. I'm just glad no one put the van in gear (don't worry I had the emergency brake on too). Letty's eyes never left the screen... David whined every time the villain appeared (he's so sensitive)... And Dom like I said was busy investigating the van. Again. They munched on snacks and popcorn and as soon as the movie ended we packed up and headed home, all of the kids falling asleep by the time we hit the highway....
So some tips for next year! Bring allllll the snacks/drinks from home. The line for concessions was bananas for the hours leading up to the start of the movie. It would have been nice to have cold beverage for us. Maybe even some vodka, who's to say? I don't think we would have had too many snacks. Even bringing popcorn from home would have been wise. We also should have let the kids wander around the grounds instead of sitting inside the van. Maybe even bring a ball for them to kick around. We had their ipads and even turned on our hotspot for them but that didn't seem to cut it after an hour or so... Glow sticks could have been fun too but I had used all of ours up for the Glow Run. What am I missing seasoned drive-in movie goers?
Anyway while it wasn't perfect it sure wasn't horrible and I'm so glad we got to go! To me childhood summers just need a drive-in movie experience right?
