Family Movie Night Featuring: THE LITTLE MERMAID

**17 Days til Disney**

OMG!!

 

I'm right on time; that's a first!! We leave in just over two weeks...that hardly seems possible! I am SO very excited for our vacation. The closer it gets, the more surreal it seems! Our countdown calendar is filling up quite quickly! Isn't it pretty?! My aunt made it for us!

 

 

If you look at the title of my blog, you can clearly see that The Little Mermaid is a favorite of mine...and if you haven't, you can read here why it holds a special place in my heart! Even though this was a VERY quick movie night that didn't even entail watching the movie, I certainly can't let these beautiful decorations go unpublished! We've watched the movie a hundred times but somehow couldn't find it when it was time to watch it tonight. I told Lil we would watch it again before we leave for Disney...in 17 days! Actually 16 now, because we're leaving a day early to stay in a hotel before our morning flight. Anyway...here we go!

 

Under the Sea!!

 

Used some of Lil's Little Mermaid stuff to decorate, too.

Lil has been sick with a nasty virus and is unable to go to daycare for the next week - she should be better by Disney! My parents kept her today while Husband and I worked. They were having a marvelous meal of Hamburger Helper and Lil wanted to stay and eat. Since we didn't have dinner with her tonight, I wanted to have a special dessert. My cousin had given me some cupcakes this weekend from her daughter's birthday party (that, again, Lil was sick and couldn't attend), so I used one to make this Ariel cupcake:

 

 

Super Cute Cupcake!

 

 

Whosits and Whatsits Galore!

 

"King Triton's Trident"

She wanted red for Sebastian!

 

I love The Little Mermaid. I love everything about it and I'm so very glad that Lil does too. I'm anxious to experience the new LM attractions at Disney World...when we go in, oh 17 days. Can you tell I'm pumped!? Because I am...and I hope that if you're on a countdown you are too! We only have a couple movie nights left and I'm not exactly sure what they will be - I need to figure that out soon! Until then...

 

See ya real soon!

-Casey

 

 



Family Movie Night Featuring: TOY STORY

**30 Days til Disney!!**

 

One of the biggest, most popular rides at Disney's Hollywood Studios is Toy Story Mania. There's certainly a lot of hype over Woody and the gang but I've actually never ridden it! I can't wait to give it a try! Along with TSM, Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin at Magic Kingdom is also a ride we'll be checking out.

 

I set up our own little Pizza Planet in the kitchen for our Toy Story night.

I simply ordered a pizza on special and did some decorating!

 

Woody & His Gang...pizza and some intergalactic décor!  

 

I made this awesome alien and rocket ship...

I swear Lil can draw better than that Wanted picture!

She LOVED her rocket; she kept spinning around saying, "To infinity, and beyond!"

I actually added red streamers to the bottom to represent the flames...those were cool!

 

Remember on my last post I said that these next few would be short and sweet. Well, this is it! Sorry there's not more!! I've really cut down on the photo taking...been too busy living! I've definitely noticed that the closer we get to our trip, the lesser our movie nights become. It makes me kind of sad, though I do plan on continuing the movie nights on a monthly basis once we get back. You can bet those will be quite the party!!

Next is The Little Mermaid!!

 

See ya real soon!

-Casey

 

Family Movie Night Featuring: DUMBO

**40 Days til Disney!!**

 

These next few posts are going to be short and sweet. I want to get all of our movie nights up before we actually leave and in real life, that's a mere 17 days away! I have some catching up to do!

 

With the new and improved Dumbo attraction at WDW...showing Dumbo during our movie countdown was obvious! I can't wait to see an elephant fly and walk into the big top! To prepare for the evening, I bought some circus snacks and decorations from the Dollar Tree. I already had the popcorn buckets and my boss let me have some balloons! 

 

  

Our Table Set Up

 

 Hotdogs & Peanuts...and you can see my awesome balloon animal back there!

 

I gave Lil 5 tickets that she used for balloons, cotton candy, and to play a carnival game.

She won a prize but to be quite honest, I can't remember what it was - ha!!

 

Yum!

 

Craft Pom Clown!

I had to draw it because my laptop is having issues.

 

I look forward to checking out New Fantasyland and seeing as how the Dumbo ride is one of the most iconic rides at Disney, I imagine having twice the flying elephants must be twice as fun!

We will soon find out...up next, Toy Story and The Little Mermaid!

 

See ya real soon!

-Casey

 



Family Movie Night Featuring: LION KING

**48 Days til Disney!!**

Sorry I'm so far behind...better late than never!

 

It hardly seems possible that we're getting this close. I might be behind in posting but our Family Movie Nights have been going strong! Originally, we had a Lion King family suite booked at Art of Animation for our trip this fall so it seemed obvious to pick this movie. However, that has since changed...more on that later. Also, one of my favorite attractions at Animal Kingdom is Festival of the Lion King. It's a Broadway style show that I highly suggest you check out...and in the meantime, take a look at our Lion King Movie Night!

 

Lion Cub Sandwiches, Tiger Tails,

Mufasa's Mac & Cheese with Trees.

For Dessert: Zebra Cakes & Rafiki's Banana Pudding

Of course our movie tickets, compliments of Momma's Playground.

I got a cool lion mask craft from Dollar Tree.

I sure love that place and Lil loves doing foam crafts!

(Side note: check out our ferocious feline on the couch) 

 

Roaaaar!

 



Timon & Pumbaa's Bugs & Grubs On a Log, snack during the movie

 

 

 If only I had more time and money, I would have a huge party every time! But alas, my $10 budget must be kept and I only spent about half of that...including food! This was a cheap one with so many other possibilities. As with every movie night we have, there are tons more ideas online. I encourage you to do some searching and see what activities and foods your family would enjoy.

Our next family movie night, coming soon...DUMBO!!

 

See ya real soon!

Casey

Family Movie Night Featuring: LILO & STITCH

*55 Days til Disney!!*

Eek! It's getting closer!

 

 

Aloha! What a fun movie night to plan and take part in! We have an ADR for 'Ohana before our Epcot day and I'm so very excited about meeting Lilo & Stitch. I've heard such great reviews about the restaurant located inside the Polynesian Resort and decided we just had to try it! Unfortunately, we probably won't be doing Stitch's Great Escape at MK, as Lil is a shorty and won't meet the height requirement for the ride. I'm also slightly concerned the noise and darkness would scare her.

Here's our Lilo & Stitch family movie night!

 

 Table settings...notice the grass (table) skirt!

 

Our menu included Hawaiian Pork & Rolls, Stitch's Salsa & Chips, Jumba Juice,

this awesome fruit tray, Tropical Trail Mix and the Pineapple Delight cake below.

 

 

Sweet move during her hula.

We had Hawaiian Ice like in the movie.

For Dessert: Pineapple Delight cake with Cool Whip frosting.

 

 

I've noticed we haven't been able to do as many activities or crafts as I would like, due to a lack of time, but it's still been quite enjoyable. Tonight we did some hula dancing and as you can see, Lil really had fun with that! We also listened to some Elvis while we ate dinner, since Lilo is such a big fan of "the King". I designed the printable menu and had the tickets ready to print but somehow didn't end up printing them that evening. I'll probably print them later, so I can keep them for our countdown "scrapbook" of sorts. I came in under budget for this night, at just about $8 for decorations. I'm hoping to write up some planning and preparation posts this weekend so check back often! Our next movie night will be, drum roll please...LION KING!!

 

See ya real soon,

-Casey

Family Movie Night Featuring: MULAN

*65 Days til Disney!*

Way less now...I've been busy!

 

 

Geez, it's been over a month since I've posted!! If you remember, I work because Disney doesn't pay for itself. Recently, my schedule has changed so we've been adjusting to my new hours and our countdown is a little off. I've also been unable to find the time to actually update my blog as I've been busy planning for Disney in my spare time.
 

For our next movie night, Lil chose Mulan. It wasn't on my list of movies to help us countdown to our Disney trip but who I am to argue with my Disney loving little girl. It was a nice little lesson of culture that I hope to discuss more as we visit China at Epcot.

 Husband couldn't wait to open a fortune cookie...how true it was, too!

 

Don't mind the garbage bag small table cloth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lil using chopsticks!

My favorite part of the night, dessert!!

Dipped fortune cookies with red sprinkles and swiss roll sushi!

 

Fortunes!



I usually get my movie tickets from here...
but I couldn't find one for Mulan so I made this lovely one myself.

We made Chinese lanterns and ate popcorn out of Chinese takeout boxes!

  

 

 

  Such a fun night! I'm really looking forward to visiting Epcot. There's just so much to do and I know Lil will love meeting all the new people and learning about other cultures. She's such an adventurer!

The next movie night we had was Lilo & Stitch and then Lion King...Stay tuned!

 

See ya real soon!

-Casey

Family Movie Night Featuring: BEAUTY & THE BEAST

**75 Days til Disney!!**

Last night we had our 3rd Disney Family Movie night which featured one of my childhood favorites, Beauty & the Beast. Disney first introduced us to Belle and the gang back in November 1991. Hard to believe the movie is nearly 22 years old!!

With the recent expansion of New Fantasyland, Cinderella isn't the only one with a castle at Walt Disney World. The Enchanted Forest includes Be Our Guest Restaurant, where according to WDW's website, you can "feast in one of 3 incredible dining rooms in the middle of Beast's Castle." Also included in the experiences are Enchanted Tales with Belle and Gaston's Tavern. Along with all these new attractions, MGM Hollywood Studios still has Beauty and the Beast - Live on Stage. It was pretty much a no brainer to include this movie in our countdown...

And now I invite you to relax, pull up a chair as I proudly present - our dinner!

I had a lot of fun decorating for this movie night. I purchased a small bouquet of fake roses from Dollar General for $3 which is more than I would have liked to but that's all I had. I plucked the blooms off the stem and placed them under some wine glasses to represent the rose in the West Wing. I borrowed a teapot from my Grandma and I already had the old books. Belle is a bookworm, after all!

Sorry about the low quality pictures.

When I edited them to add my blog address it seems they got a little blurry.

For our menu I chose a few items Lumiere sings about in Be Our Guest:

Hot hor d'oeurves (honey bbq chicken bites and loaded baked potato puffs)...

I added the French bread and champagne Sparkling Grape juice.

Notice some of the hor d'oeurves are missing... 

I made these chicken cordon bleu crescents but they got a little overdone. 

Try the grey stuff, it's delicious!

I attempted to make this strawberry rose shortcake. Not too bad but I didn't realize I was out of cool whip...

Lil got to decorate a mirror I bought for a $1.50 from DG. She put some Belle and princess stickers on the back. I printed a picture of the Beast and taped it onto the mirror. The image wasn't quite big enough, as you can see.

She really thought that was cool. It came with another mini mirror that she carried around most of the night.

And here are the movie tickets we love to use!

I have really enjoyed doing all of these movie nights. I can't believe we're less than 3 months out from our first family trip to Walt Disney World!! I'll soon be posting about some items to make sure you include when packing for Disney...some great Dollar Tree finds! I'm still trying to decide which movie to do for our next movie night. I'm a member of the Disney Movie Club and should soon be receiving Lilo & Stitch so I'm planning on using it. We'll see!

See ya real soon!

Casey

Family Movie Night Featuring: CINDERELLA

**85 Days til Disney**
(and a few less than that now, again!)

 

Cinderelly, Cinderelly
Night and day it's Cinderelly
Make the fire, fix the breakfast
Wash the dishes, do the mopping

                                                 -Work Song (Cinderelly)
 

Ah, Cinderella. One of the classics.
This was one of the first Disney movies Lil started watching...and watching. Almost every night before bed, she requests I sing "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes" and it warms my heart.

For our second Family Movie Night, Lil requested we feature Cinderella and I could not agree more.
Arguably the most iconic landmark at Walt Disney World, for years Cinderella's Castle has brought tears to the eyes of kids and adults alike as they enter Magic Kingdom and stroll down Main Street USA. I'm so excited to announce that I have made ADRs (Advanced Dining Reservations) to dine at Cinderella's Royal Table, located inside the castle. This is a pretty big deal and I'm really looking forward to it, especially because we are going first thing in the morning, before the park opens, which will allow for some great photo opportunities.

To prepare for our movie night, I had to figure out what to put on the menu. Cindy went from being a peasant to royalty so it was a hard decision to make. Do I choose an elaborate feast, fit for a princess or stick to a simple meal a servant girl would eat? I picked the decorations based on her signature color and looked at my favorite store, The Dollar Tree, for craft and activity ideas.

Thanks to Momma's Playground for these movie tickets!

 

 

The table set up...

Candy jewelry, princess sponges, costume necklaces,

steamers and table cloth all $1/ea from Dollar Tree!

One of the crafts...Cinderella stamp.

We also got the princess sponges wet and stamped paper but that got soggy real quick!

 

Another activity...dressed Lil up in her Cindy outfit, including

the tiara she won from a baby pageant when she was only 6 months old!

Decided on a Royal Feast for the Menu:
Turkey Mignon, Baby Bakers, Gus-Gus' Golden Corn, and
Ham & Cheese Carriage Wheels (made with crescent rolls, ham and shredded cheese)
For Dessert:
Cindy's Strawberries and Fairy Godmother's Marshmallows, both dipped in white chocolate.


As I prepared dinner, Lil also got to play outside in bubbles, just like the Sing Sweet Nightingale scene in the movie. During dinner, we tried to stack as many corn kernels as we could, like Gus does. I got up to five before my hungry Lil mouse snatched mine and ate them! When Fairy Godmother first appears, she can't find her wand. I purchased a glow in the dark wand from Dollar Tree and gave it to Lil during Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo to enjoy throughout the rest of the movie. I had a lot on hand already so I only spent $6 other than food, well below my $10 budget.

I'm not exceptionally pleased with the details of this movie night but Lil still had fun. Stay tuned for our next Family Movie Night Featuring: Beauty and the Beast! Our nights are a little off for the countdown but we're still enjoying them and will continue to do so until we leave for WDW!
Thanks for stopping in! Feel free to share your family movie night ideas!

See ya real soon!
Casey