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
 

Family Movie Night Featuring: FINDING NEMO

100 DAYS TIL DISNEY!!

((okay, it's actually a few days less than that now))

 

When deciding how I wanted to countdown to our Disney vacation, I began searching that ever-so-popular site, Pinterest. Can you believe how many ideas are on that thing? I must admit...I'm a Pinning Junkie. Especially with an iPhone, it's so easy to just tap on the app and pin away. A recurring theme I found was Disney Movie Nights. I think this is a unique way to prepare and introduce my daughter to some specific movies that play a big role in the magic of Disney World. Obviously, most of the rides and activities there are fashioned after the wonderful films Disney and Pixar have created. 

 

To kick-off our Family Movie Night Countdown, I chose to feature Finding Nemo. From Finding Nemo the Musical to Turtle Talk with Crush and The Seas with Nemo & Friends...the story of the lost clownfish is quite prevalent at WDW.

 

Below are the ideas that came to life during our first Family Movie Night. As we all know, a trip to Disney is anything but cheap. My plan is to keep all our movie nights under $10.

 

Table Setting

 

I got the blue table cloth and blue plates from Dollar Tree for $1 each and already had the green napkins and orange cups. I can use the leftover plates in the future. The treat bags (which really served no purpose...) were an awesome find at the local Party Supply store that day for 54 cents with tax!!  I discovered the very cool "tickets" on Pinterest but they can be found here. If you look at her blog, you can see that her Nemo movie night served as the main source of inspiration for ours.

 

Menu: Octopus Hotdog, Marlin's Anemone,

Seanut Butter & Jellyfish Sandwiches & Dory's Delightful Dessert

 

Plated Meal

 

I just found a nice sized image on Google and added the menu in Paint. I don't have any fancy editing software so I just do what I can with that. I hung it on our front door and Lil was so excited to see it when we pulled into the drive way. She shouted, "There's something on the door!" I had given her the ticket when I picked her up after work so she knew it was going to be a special night. Dory's Delightful Dessert didn't turn out quite as well as I had planned. I made blue Jell-O with swimming Swedish Fish and a Cool Whip topping. Lil also enjoyed blue Mondo "Ocean Water" as her drink.

Dollar Tree Clownfish Craft

Fish Stickers! 

Fishing

 

Our three activities of the evening were purchased for $1 each, again from the Dollar Tree. I love that place! While I was preparing dinner, I let Lil work on the clownfish craft and do a little fishing. She thought that was so cool as did our kitten - she jumped right in! The clownfish craft also came with a sea turtle and an angel fish (I think??) like the black, white and yellow one Nemo meets in the fish tank at the Dentist office. I thought that was pretty neat...especially for $1. Lil picked out the fishing activity when we were at the store and of course I let her get it...it worked perfectly with our theme! I did splurge a little and purchased the Finding Nemo shirt from Walmart for $5-6. I hadn't intended on spending that additional money but boom there it was so I scooped it up.

Table

 

You'll have to forgive the crappy picture of the table set up and jellyfish. I snapped the photo as I was walking out the door to pick Lil up. I knew by the time I was able to take another picture, it wouldn't look quite as nice so I just took one on my way out. The jellyfish was just made with two of the blue plates and some blue streamers I purchased from Dollar Tree as well. I can use them again for future movie nights too.

 

If you're keeping track, that was about $13 spent plus the cost of food which wasn't very much. I would have come in well under my $10 goal had I not picked up that shirt but I couldn't help myself. You don't see many Finding Nemo items anymore and it was still pretty inexpensive. Lil said she had a lot of fun and she's already asking when our next movie night will be. I'm glad she enjoyed herself even though she only watched about 10 minutes of the movie that night because she wanted to watch Dumbo instead (lol). She did pretty much finish it the next morning though.

 

The planning is already underway for the second Family Movie Night. No countdown to Disney would be complete without Cinderella! I hope to write a none-countdown post between now and then though...perhaps one with a little Disney family history...mine, not Walt's! Thanks again for visiting!

 

See ya real soon!

Casey