Family Movie Night: Ponyo

I read lots of reviews before we watched this movie because it seemed a little weird. And it was. But it was clean and the kids liked it!

It is supposed to be a adaptation of the Little Mermaid story and got great reviews for the animation by Hayao Miyazaki. I, personally, thought the animation was pretty basic and the story was a little strange - especially how the Mom left the little boy (only 5 years old) at home during a hurricane because she needed to take care of the elderly at her work and how it almost seemed if the little boy and Ponyo were pledging themselves to get married... at 5 years old. There were a lot of good elements as well.

For treats, I started by turning red plastic cups in to "buckets".

Then, I filled the "buckets" with water (blueberry Jelly Belly jelly beans) and put a fish inside (a chocolate foil fish). I really have to thank our local Enstrom's Candy store which let me in at 6:10, even though they close at 6:00, to by the blue Jelly Belly jelly beans. They also pointed out the colorful fish chocolates (which were much cooler than the Swedish Fish I was planning on).

Family Movie Night: Cool Runnings - in honor of the Winter Olympics

Obviously, I am a little late getting this up...

For our movie night on 2.19.2010, we watched Cool Runnings since it was in the middle of the Winter Olympic games.

I always liked this movie as a kid and was hopeful that my kids would as well. We had a visitor for the movie night this week, our cousin's son. JJ is only 4 so he lost interest very quickly.

I thought I came up with a good idea for treats. I used twinkies, cut out an area on the top and used Dots for the bobsledder's helmets. K-man said I needed something to look like the front "wing" of the bobsled so I made "wings" out of tinfoil and inserted them into the front of the twinkie.

Unfortunately, the kids weren't as thrilled with the treats. K-man doesn't like coconut (this week), V-girl said she "wasn't hungry" (which I thought was very suspect) and JJ took cues from the other two and didn't want his either. At least Mike thought they were good.

I had really wanted to get Rasta hats for the movie night this week but I was unable to find any in town and I didn't have enough time to order them.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

This was one of my favorite movie night in awhile. The movie was really cute and the treats were great. I have to thank Heather Ann Melzer because I stole her idea for the treats (she always has the greatest ideas!).

We started off the night with a spaghetti and meatball dinner and then had spaghetti and meatball cupcakes for dessert!

The cupcakes looked so real that I had to ensure the kids and Mike that they were edible and not spaghetti and meatballs!

Heather got the recipe from the book, "Hello, Cupcake" which is now on my wish list of books. The recipe was simple:

- Vanilla cupcakes in white liners

- Vanilla frosting tinted with 3 drops of yellow food coloring and 1/2 a teaspoon of cocoa powder

- Ferrero Roucher hazelnut chocolates (meatballs)

- Low sugar strawberry preserves (pasta sauce)

- Grated white chocolate (parmesan cheese)

I piped the frosting on from a ziplock bag (I didn't want to dirty frosting tips) to look like spaghetti noodles. I put the chocolates in a bowl, spooned the jelly on them and then mixed it around so they were all covered and them placed the jelly covered chocolates on the "noodles". They turned out great!!

Family Movie Nights - Christmas Movies!

We did a whole bunch of Christmas themed Family movie nights this year. It is hard to find new Christmas movies so we did repeat one - Elf - at the kids' request (which I didn't mind at all!).

Santa Buddies

The kids loved this movie! It was kind of an impromptu movie night and the kids thought Christmas cookies would be the perfect treat. And an even bigger treat... store bought cookies! :) V-girl went to the store with me to pick out the cookies and K-man begged for egg nog - so we had both and it was a big hit!

Ernest Saves Christmas

I really liked this movie as a kid and thought our kids would like it to. They thought it was funny but in their opinion it didn't hold a candle to Santa Buddies. There must be something extra funny and special about talking dogs.

For our treat we have chocolate covered marshmallow Santas. L-Monster got in on the action in this picture. V-girl and I found a baby sized hat for him at the store and couldn't resist.

Elf

This is one of my favorite Christmas movies! I have seen it many times and every time it just warms my heart. I love the idea of a 6 foot elf, his worldly innocence, eating sugar for every meal and that singing spreads Christmas cheer.

We did this for a movie night last year and I still had the elf hats that I made so we wore them again. Even L-monster got in on the action (and boy did he look cute!). Last year we did a candy buffet and that is what the kids wanted to do again this year. I would like to come up with a new treat but the kids really seem to like the all-you-can-eat (just don't get sick) rule that goes with the bowls of candy.

Polar Express

This is K-man's favorite movie and although we own it, we have never done a movie night with it. Well this Christmas season was the perfect time.

I took my cues for the treat from the book (my favorite book as a kid!) and from the movie. I wrapped nougat candies in green cellophane and tied them with ribbon and big jingle bells. And we had decadent hot chocolate with whip cream, chocolate and caramel sauce and sprinkles. And of course, we all wore our pajamas!

Prancer

I had never heard of this movie before but when I did a search for good family Christmas movies this one was on many lists. And they had it at the video store!

I was able to find M&M figurines that were filled with mini M&Ms and had antlers - just like Prancer! ;)

I made antlers for all three kids out of brown construction paper and pipe cleaners (to keep them stiff). You could also use thicker paper but it might be harder to cut out. I just free handed the design for both sizes but they also have templates online. You could also make it into a craft and use hand outlines.

It was fun watching so many Christmas movies this year. I would like to repeat the tradition and try to watch a lot next year also. Of course, there aren't that many different movies so we will surely have some repeats. Do you have any good Christmas movie ideas?

Family Movie Nights - Imagine That and Up

I am way, WAY behind on posting about our movie nights. Eek! So to make it a little easier, I am going to lump some together.

We did a movie night for Imagine That which stars Eddie Murphy and Yara Shahidi. Mike and I were both a little skeptical about it since we aren't big Eddie Murphy fans (how many times can he play the same character in different movies?) but we were pleasantly surprised and the kids liked it a lot.

There is one scene in the movie when Eddie Murphy is trying to get his daughter from a birthday party and gets attacked in the ball pit. So for our treat I made mini popcorn balls (using this yummy recipe!) to look like the balls.

The next day was our turn for treats for V-girls soccer game so I made extra and packaged them the same way and they were a big hit!!

UP was a really funny movie - although it is a little heavy at the beginning (I don't usually tear up at the beginning of animated movies).

The kids actually saw this movie in the theater but they loved it and luckily like to see movies more than once.

Knowing that the main premise of the movie is a house being carried by a huge bunch of balloons, I was determined to make a treat that incorporated this. I made mini gingerbread houses out of graham crackers and frosting and then uses floral wire to attached the floating "balloons". I would have liked to have had more balloons but I ran out of time.

Next up: Christmas Movies!

Star Wars, Episode II and III

We have had 2 Star Wars movie nights recently as we make our way through the 6 part series.


As I predicted, it has been a little tough coming up with new Star Wars themed treats each time. Since I have been slacking a little, especially on Episode III, I am going to need some really fantastic ideas to finish the series.


For Episode II, I bought both the kids lightsabers at Wal-mart for $5 each. They had a lot of fun playing and fighting with them.

For Treats, I found Star Wars Pez dispensers at the Dollar Tree. Of course, Pez are always a big hit. Even Mike and I enjoyed eating them!

For Star Wars, Episode III, I was even more unimaginative. I still wanted to use the cupcakes from Babycakes Online that were left over from our Baby on Board movie night. So to make them work, I bought Star Wars yo-yos and stickers at Party World. I put the stickers on the plastic cupcake cups and the yo-yos on top. Luckily the kids didn't seem to mind the pink and blue frosting and the yo-yos were a big hit!

I think we might take a break from Star Wars for the next couple of movie nights. The kids have some other movies that are coming out that they really want to see. I still have Episodes IV, V and VI to go (the original movies). Any ideas are greatly appreciated!