Movie night

A few months ago we started having movie night on either Friday or Saturday (depending on what's going on) with Jeff, me and Porter. Normally Porter's bedtime is about 8pm, but he's getting older so we let him stay up late one night each week to enjoy a movie with us. We choose a movie that we all wouldn't mind seeing. But it's not just an automatic thing because Porter needs to earn his movie night. Each day all week he needs to earn, and KEEP, three stars. He earns stars by staying in bed when it's time to be in bed, picking up his toys without complaining or without even being asked, helping me or his sisters, or just going the extra mile to do something nice for someone. He loses stars by whining, being mean to his sisters, getting out of bed when he's supposed to be in bed...you get the picture. By the end of the week if he has at least 3 stars per day then he gets a movie. If not than mom and dad get to watch a movie while he goes to bed. It has come pretty close a few times where he didn't get his stars and ended up having to do some pretty awesomely helpful chores at the last minute.

But movie night isn't only looked forward to by Porter, but by Jeff and me too. It's fun having that special time with just us and Porter, and I love seeing the excitement in his eyes when we do it. We each have our specific "jobs" to do in getting ready to watch the movie, and Porter loves that part. After we put the girls to bed Porter gets the seating arrangements all set up and comfy, I get the movie ready, and Jeff gets the treat ready. Of course you have to have treats on movie night, that's just a given. We each get our own bowl of popcorn topped off with some random little candies:
Hey, we can have a splurge once a week. To show how old Jeff and I are, sometimes while watching the movie we will both fall asleep while Porter is all wide eyed watching the entire movie. Movie night is a fun little family tradition that we will continue doing for as long as we can. It will be fun when the girls are old enough to participate. These are little family traditions that are simple yet fondly looked back on as you get older. And what's awesome is that during the week if Porter starts to whine or misbehave we just ask him if he wants to lose a star and not be able to have movie night with us and he will usually calm down and become his fun loving self again. Some may call it a bribe, but it works and we all have fun.