Granny and Grandpa Mia

We always try to do fun things with them like going to the circus or visiting a farm, but it never occurred to us that sometimes it’s just nice to chill out and watch a film together in the comfort of our own home.

Grandma and Grandad Ireland

When my mummy was little Sundays were ALWAYS film days…usually epic Westerns or swash-buckling adventures would be on the telly and the family would sit and watch them together, socialize and hang out. This was loooooong before mobile phones became popular and commonplace. Nowadays its harder than ever to get the younger generation to interact with their peers and the older generation.

So over the weekend, we put away our phones (hence no photos of us sprawled out on the sofa), closed the curtains, pulled up a rug and snuggled down on the sofa together. Grandma Ireland, my mummy and me. 3 generations of females together watching a classic film. One rediscovering, one discovering and me….well just taking it all in. I am a toddler after all!

My mummy was sent a film kit for our family movie experience courtesy of the Sunrise Of Winchester‎ as part of their ‘Retro Night’ campaign. This campaign aims to get different generations together and to have a movie night. Something which we found out are a regular occurrences at Sunrise Care Homes with residents’ families being encouraged to attend too. Sounds like our kinda place….however don’t think my grandma is ready to retire just yet though *she made me write that bit*. There are plenty of quality carehomes in Hampshire though and that is reassuring for our folks! The kit for our movie ‘day’ included a DVD, some retro sweets and popcorn and we bought some extra snacks too. We decided to have it during the afternoon so we could chill and wind-down before bath time.

We watched “The Wizard of Oz” and throughly enjoyed it. I even liked reenacting the scenes with the Wicked Witch of the West and Dorothy’s red shoes. I loved watching Toto and the Munchkins!  Not so sure about the flying monkeys though. My grandma was happily humming away to the songs. My mummy loved the retro sweet bags and devoured them through the film (she has a massive sweet tooth) …yes she did share!

We had a lovely Sunday afternoon and all of us felt that it was something we’d like to do again at some point.  There are lots of other classic films that my folks can’t wait to introduce me too like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Mary Poppins as my folks are massive fans of musicals, so I think we might start a Sunday movie tradition once again. It’s really made us think about the quality time we spend with our family and extended family and we’ll definitely be a bit more pro-active about getting the grandparents involved….I mean who’s going to introduce me to Casablanca? We wonder what they watch at Sunrise…might pop down and see! I’m sure they’d love a crazy toddler causing havoc! I might even give them a rendition of my Wizard of Oz! 😉

For more information check out Sunrise Care.

Sunrise Senior Living Winchester

Stockbridge Road,
Winchester, Hampshire,
SO22 5JH

Sunrise Senior Living Bassett, Southampton

111 Burgess Road,
Bassett, Southampton,
SO16 7AG

Sponsored post: We were sent the DVD, popcorn and sweets by Sunrise Senior Living and reimbursed for additional snacks purchased in return for a review of our film day.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.