#TBT: Bringing The Big Screen To The Backyard

I can't believe how quickly this summer is flying by. We're lucky, in my neighborhood, that the kids who live here like each other and play well together.

All the kids have almost every day of this summer, from sun up to sun down, outside, playing on their bikes, running through the sprinkler, building forts. They even had a little lemonade stand at one point.

Very few hours have been spent in front of the TV, on a tablet, or playing video games. We kind of try to keep summer as we got to experience it when we were little; fun.

We allow them to just be kids for a minute. And not try to overschedule or over-plan.

A few years back, as part of that "summer" experience, we started a tradition of sorts of our annual "Summer Backyard Movie Night."

The first movie we showed (of course, being an 80s kid, this was a no-brainer) was The Goonies!

We gathered up all the kids...

We bagged up a bunch of popcorn and candy. (I think the snacks may have been one of their favorite things about the night--mostly because they were free!)

Then we waited for dark.

And then the show began.

I'm not sure who got a bigger kick out of the experience, the kids or the parents. But it was really neat to hear the next generation laugh at all the silly parts of the movie that we thought were funny.

It was good to all be together. And just as The Goonies got through rough times by working as a team and supporting one another, that's what we want to pass along to the next generation: with good friends, you can overcome anything.

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