SuZan Klassen

Our family loves pizza. It was a natural for us to choose a Stay-Cation idea that involved this food.

Pizza Movie Nights occurred regularly on the Fridays my husband worked. It was an activity I could handle alone.

Each child was allowed to invite one friend for the evening.

I made a large batch of pizza dough. All of the children rolled out their own dough and added their choice of toppings.

We spread a large picnic blanket on the floor in front of the TV. We all ate our pizza on the blanket while we watched the movie. This was a BIG deal. We didn’t usually eat in our living room.

Stay-Cation Tips
For the Pizza
My children helped me make the dough.
They also fried hamburger and grated cheese.
These were all good skills for them to learn.
Plus this gave them the privilege of preparing for their company.
We used sauce from a jar, but you could plan another activity around making your own sauce. Pepperoni was a favorite topping. So were pineapple and ham, but the onions and peppers were all mine.

For the Movie
The kids took turns selecting the movie for these nights.
They made their choices earlier in the week or even the week before.
Planning ahead gave us time to reserve something from the library.

• We were on a tight budget.
  We did not have cable or satellite TV.
  The library was cheaper than rental programs, too.

Movies had to pass our parental approval and be agreeable to the parents of our guests as well.

Stay-Cation Humor
The kids watched the first part of the movie while their pizza baked. Then they ate their pizza while they watched the next part. About mid-way through the movie, they all ran off to play.

The first few times it happened, I followed the kids. They were all happily playing in their rooms, in the basement or outside.

“I thought you wanted to watch a movie,” I said.

Someone usually answered, “We did, but this is fun-ner. You want us to play with our company, right?”

I walked back through the house, past the TV. The movie played to an empty room. Always made me smile.

What are some of your favorite Stay-Cation activities? What favorite food would your children like to make? Summer’s a good time to learn new skills.

Until next time…Travel Light,
SuZan
© 2016 SuZan Klassen