The perfect backyard movie night
It’s been more than a year of virtual schooling for the kids and I must say that they have been incredible troopers. We were brainstorming ideas for celebrating grit and tenacity that they have shown and decided to gift them the gift of experiences with their friends. With that in mind, we upgraded our backyard for an outdoor movie/gaming night experience. We have had two “events'“ so far and it has been such a hit! The kids get to hang out with friends while adults can have much-needed campfire conversation. We’re looking forward to a summer filled with these! We follow the CDC mandate of two out of three of this criteria fulfilled: 1. 6 feet social distance 2. Outdoors 3. All-masked (And we will relax those when kids get vaccinated). Who’s coming over? There’s sign-up sheet!
Meanwhile, here’s our list to get your own setup going.
Entertainment
Outdoor projector: You can’t go wrong with Optoma, Epson or BenQ. After some research and talking to friends, we went with Optoma HD147X with 3600 lumens and it worked great in our setting. Our budget was <$500 but I can imagine the higher you go, the better it gets.
Outdoor screen: The biggest issue with screens is storying and ease of set up. Mikee found this retractable screen to be perfect for our set up to hang over the slackline. Where you place it is key, look for a place in the backyard where you will have the least amount of light like trees shading etc. It has the added benefit of being able to be moved easily to our living room for set up. We love it!
Slack line to hang screen from: We had one lying around but I would double up to get a kids monkey bar slackline so you can get double usage of it.
Wireless speaker: We are big fans of UE boom series. Because of its rugged waterproof exterior we never worry about kids around it.
Long-range Roku stick for streaming Netflix. It is USB-powered and plug backs into the projector!
And don't forget an oudoor-rated waterproof extension cord.
S’mores station
Propane-powered Outland Firebowl fire pit: We were big fans of the Solo until we heard about this. It fires up immediately and has no smoke smell.
Solo Wood fire pit for if you want to start from scratch.
Extendable marshmallow sticks Best way to clean after is to soak in warm water for a few hours.
Seating
We went with mostly plastic so it was easy to adults and kids to move furniture around and reconfigure the seating arrangments
Adirondack chairs with cup holders: For this price, these chairs are unbeatable and they also come with cup-holders!!!
Stackable Kids Adirondack chairs: I haven’t been able to find these except at Ace hardware.
Stackable Side tables: I love these from Ikea and they are honestly hard to find.
Environment control especially for mosquito magnets
Coolaroo shade sails to keep everyone comfortable and provide additional shade for the projector. Ours has been up for years and still working great.
Murphys mosquito repellant incense sticks. We left this up burning for awhile and the smell was very mild. Kept the mosquitoes away and outperformed the candle version! We got our stick holder from target but plenty of options online. Consumer reports eucalyptus to be as effective as DEET.
Murphy’s Mosquito natural repellant spray, I was surprised at how well it worked!
and if you do get bitten, there is the chemical-free insect bite healer that I am testing now!
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