Movie Night

Updated: Mr Leaven tells you how to create your own backyard movie theater in this post!

The first hint of autumn arrived this morning, after a miserably hot and dry summer that has been going on at least 6 months. Today, the temps were under 80 at 8am and even now at 3pm we can sit outside without whimpering. I know that the heat will return, again and again, before we really get to enjoy autumn, but today has been nice.

It makes me anticipate even more the next Movie Night at our house, when we can all sit outside comfortably and watch a movie on the big screen. Last month we decided to give Movie Night a try, and despite the heat it was a blast. After I suggested creating an outdoor 'dive-in' movie theater, Mr Leaven went to town, creating an enormous screen out of PVC pipe, drop cloth, rope, and clamps. He set up our digital projector and the computer on the patio, I found some family-friendly movies, and we were ready to go.

Of course, it also gave us a chance to spend some time in the kitchen, whipping up some munchies. In addition to popcorn from the popcorn maker (thanks, Marcia!) we had brisket, bruschetta, deviled eggs, cucumber cups with spicy crabmeat, and squash hush puppies. Oh, and 2 homemade ice creams - chocolate peanut butter from The Perfect Scoop and basil sorbet from Weight Watchers (thanks for the suggestion, Nelly!). It turns out, the evening was quite Pinterest-inspired - while I've wanted to have an outdoor movie night ever since Mr Leaven brought home the projector, it was this image found on Pinterest that sealed the deal. And the small bites were mostly found there too. 

Popcorn, anyone?

There are almost no food pictures - that's the sign of a successful evening, I guess - but thanks to Jess, my wonderful sister-in-law, there are several of the movie in progress, as well as one of the delicious bruschetta (oh my goodness was that ever good!) that was Mr Leaven's pride and joy. He also put together a fantastic watermelon margarita.

Portabella mushroom bruschetta with rosemary aioli. Fancy-schmancy. Also, divine.

We're hoping to make Movie Night a monthly tradition (Mr Leaven says twice monthly. He gets excited about these things.) - come on over for Despicable Me and Autumn in The Woodlands this month!!

hahahaha I love this photo - I posted it on Facebook and someone asked what kind of a crazy, psychotic clown movie we were watching!! Toy Story 3 has some creepy moments!