Winter Wrecks 5 - a kids Movie Birthday party at Alamo Drafthouse Brooklyn
Because winter is essentially a thanksgiving baby, we’ve grown accustomed to spending her bday usually on a boat during vacation. But Now that winter is in kindergarten, coupled with P’s busy schedule, we were pretty much set to just celebrate low key. But these days with a built in social circle (kindergarten class) birthday parties are a thing - filling up weekend schedules between soccer practices and swim classes and catching up with busy friends. So it didn’t come to surprise when we started hearing “my birthday party” repeated a few times once November rolled around. Ay Yai yai.
We’ve had our fare share of kidville and kid play space parties. I can appreciate the ease of booking them. However I wanted winter to think about what she loves to do so I brought up some ideas. A) a quiet disco party b) a swim party or c) what about a movie party? Mind blown. Lol. She was like yes yes yes! I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing but this kid loves her some movies. She makes the perfect flight companion bc she literally buckled down in her seat ready for a movie marathon. So it was decided.
There was a slight hiccup. We decided on a party a mere week before her bday so I had to go into mommy party planner mode and scramble to organize. Regal cinemas is in our neighborhood but sadly they didn’t have any party packages and no one responded to my calls or emails. Next up ipic theaters - no response.
in Brooklyn hit the spot. Not only were they were quick to respond but they had specific birthday package available and tailored to kids! After sending a quick headcount email to family friends and parents of winter’s class, we locked in a date and time and was off running.
\We chose Disney’s New release, “Ralph breaks the internet” as the feature of our private screening as well as inspiration of theme: Winter wrecks 5: a birthday movie party.
Party flow: arrivals included checking children in and getting a parent phone number then heading to the lunch buffet of grilled cheese sandwiches or burger sliders and fries. I printed out ralph disney activity sheets for kids to color at each of their tables. An hour into the movie, popcorn was distributed. At the end, cake and dance party quickly closed out the evening before parents were back for pickup.
Decorations: kept at a minimum- we are in a dark room after all! A balloon for the cake table, and a winter banner.
Cake: shoprite pullapart cupcake photo cake (I love a fancy instagrammable cake but don’t sleep on these - they are DELICIOUS and no need to cut! You just pull it apart and serve)
Favors: emoji bags played on the internet theme along with wreck it Ralph wind up race cars, emoji watches, fruit snacks and candy!
Special touches: I put together a slideshow of winter video moments and photos on my iPhone and sent it to our Alamo party coordinator - this was our “preview” for the day. Also nice was being able to put the movie poster in front of the door.
Make it a dropoff! As the designated bday party attendee parent, sometimes it felt awkward to have to force-socialize with other parents at parties and I also had to bring Nyla so I spent 75% of the time entertaining her while she watched her sister have all the fun. Knowing several of winter’s classmates were likely in the same predicament - and because Alamo drafthouse is in the excellent
complete with dekalb food hall, century 21, target, and Trader Joe’s - I figured 2 hours of free time is a gift in itself. so I hired 2 of our babysitters to help me chaperone the kids allowing parents to drop off and go.
