Recently my daughter and I talked about some fun end of summer to do’s we had on our list. She wanted her own car to drive which of course made me think DRIVE IN MOVIE NIGHT! We had to make our own cars for this! Boxes from our garage were recycled into fun with the help of my littles. I always try to incorporate the kids and their ideas in our fun so that they feel ownership, effort, and pride in what we do together as a family. I hope this inspires you to frugally make for a fun end of summer activity with your littles!
We have a collection of Amazon boxes that have been tucked away for some time now waiting to be morphed into something new! Luck would have it, I had the perfect size Amazon boxes for both littles on hand for our DIY drive in movie cars. My daughter’s car was morphed into a rainbow car with rhinestones, glitter & flowers just like she wanted. My son’s car was transformed into a retro aqua convertible complete with a touch of white stripe accents on the sides of his car.
In making the cars, I used scissors to cut half-oval shapes for the headlights leaving the headlights attached to the box and discarding the excess cardboard that was cut out. Next, I free-hand traced windows on the side flaps on the boxes using a rounded rectangular shape that angled off towards the front as seen in the picture of the complete car. Once the headlights and windows were complete on both cars, I just simply cut off the back flap of the box and kept to use for the grill on the car at a later time.
My littles and I painted the car boxes the colors they wanted using leftover acrylic paint found at the local craft store. It took two coats of acrylic paint for each car. It was so fun to just sit and talk or play music while painting together! My son who recently turned one year old played and helped me paint a little, too! I used a gray color of acrylic paint for the windows and headlights. When all of the painting was finished and dry, we added rhinestones to my daughter’s car and also used foil and construction paper to free-hand and cut out the tires, fenders, and light pieces for the cars.
The cars were in need of steering wheels so we used inexpensive paper plates we had on hand, glued them together using Elmer’s glue, and painted the steering wheels black. We chose not to attach the steering wheels to the car so that the kids could get in and out of the cars with them and run around the backyard as if they were driving their cars.
The final touch to our drive in movie night was to decorate the backyard. I used Hobby Lobby pom garland, a wooden cake stand to a striped box which were both from Hobby Lobby, a tablecloth & leftover Fourth of July balloon garland alongside battery powered candles. The charcuterie board of treats included some sweet and salty favorites of ours from the pantry. We popped kettle corn, had peanut butter m&m’s, gummy worms, goldfish crackers, and Ghirardelli sea salt caramel chocolate squares.
It was a fun night that the littles loved and that we will all remember for a long, long time! I hope you leave here today inspired and joyful. Be sure to hashtag #festivefancyfrugal your backyard drive in cars and movie nights on Instagram. I sure do look forward to seeing any summer fun you create with your families soon!
xo,
Brittnie
