Celebrate July 4th With Movies and Music!
Happy Independence Day! I hope you’re all out enjoying yourselves at parks, barbeques, parties, ballgames, movie theaters, and the like. For those of us who are more likely to spend the holiday at home, I thought it would be nice to piggyback off of Amanda’s super fun post from yesterday with some easy entertainment ideas for you and your family members! I’m not reinventing the wheel here, just having a little fun.
Five summery or patriotic movies you can enjoy with the kids:
- The Sandlot – summer classic about friendships, baseball, and a big scary dog. Includes a great 4th of July scene.
- Field of Dreams – quintessential baseball fantasy with great family relationships and sweet moments to treasure.
- My Girl – sweet, simple story about an important summer in young Vada Sultenfuss’ life (with a Home Alone-era Macaulay Culkin; remember how cute he was?)
- An American Tail – great family animated film about a little mouse who gets separated from his family en route to the States. Lots of history, too!
- Mr. Smith Goes to Washington – “It demonstrates democracy in action,” the trailer declares. Experience again this movie classic and tell your children all about the late, great James Stewart. I first saw this in a high school government class. Loved it.
Easy music idea:
If you’re looking for some fun with background music for your holiday dinner, look no further! Make a playlist or mix cd with “freedom”, “summer”, or “America” as your theme. This is especially fun to do with tweens & teens; give them $10 and have them buy 10 songs from an online store to make a mix for the family. Here’s a small sampling of what I found in my iPod with those words in the title:
I played my list at dinner last night and it sparked lots of fun conversation with my dear hubby. Crank it up and enjoy!
Any other film or music suggestions out there? Are you inspired to decorate your house like the one in the picture above? (Yes, that is an actual house in my neighborhood.) Have a great holiday, and for grins, I’ll have Bill Pullman take us out:
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That is funny. I really thought that was some stock photo until you told us it was in your neighborhood. So, yeah, no our house won’t be decorated like that (or at all).
I. LOVE. The Sandlot. I can’t tell you the number of times I have seen that movie – Wendy Peffercorn!
Great playlist, Dawn!
I did watch the Independence Day video. Nice Touch!
“You’re killing me, Smalls.” I must say that at least once a day.
I like the playlist too.
[...] also put together a sweet list for the 4th of July over at The Mom Crowd. you can hear the songs there or just peruse the titles [...]