A Backyard Drive-In

 

We have started our summer fun off with a bang. I borrowed a projector from work to set-up a backyard movie night for us and the boys. I kept it secret for as long as I could but Connor figured it out after I took him to the third store looking for a giant white sheet (that didn't cost $80!).

 

Thanks to the trusty thrift store, I found what I was looking for. On a side note, I sewed pockets on the bottom of the sheet to hold rocks that weigh the sheet down and I sewed fabric ties to the top as I didn't want to nail or staple the sheet. I took my sewing machine outside and I have to ask myself "WHY HAVEN'T I DONE THIS BEFORE!?"



 

 

Everything was set-up early to make sure there were no glitches. We rented E.T. off of iTunes and loaded it onto Connor's iPad. We hooked everything up and played some zombie smashing games - it all worked perfectly! I will note here that we did not test the actual movie.

Now the hard part, we had to wait until it was dark enough to see the show. The boys occupied themselves with our lemonade stand turned concession stand. Connor made a paper hat and they took turns being the shop owner and the customers.

And then it was time! Press play on the movie and we get a message that the movie we are trying to play is not authorized to play with a VGA cord. Stupid iTunes and their copy right protections. We jump into problem solving mode. I checked the message boards to see if there is a way around the error - nope. Brought our desktop computer outside and since it is newer there is no VGA connection - still no luck. Tried every cable we have in the house - nothing.

By now it is 9:30 at night and my stubborn-side was not going to let the opportunity slide. A quick call to London Drugs to see what they suggest and then a speedy trip (and $60 later) we have a VGA to USB adapter and are in business.

We started to watch the movie around 10:30; 2 of the 3 boys fell asleep about 15 minutes in.

BUT, the next night, we had the right connections knew what needed to be done, had a movie we all agreed upon and that all adds up to success!