Our Valentine's Dinner-Princess and the Frog Family Night

Did you have a fantastic Valentine's Day? We had THE BEST! 

I wanted to do something special for the family, so I started looking for inspiration. I found it here of all places. I just recently started following this blog because we are planning a surprise Disney Vacation later in the year...shhh! Don't tell the kids;o)

Anyway, I thought the Princess and the Frog movie night would be the perfect family night.

 I had a good bit of the decorations, but did have to hit Dollar Tree and Hobby Lobby for a  few items.

 I wanted the meal to be formal, but not "sit-at-the-dining-table" formal. 

So we ate at the coffee table. It's kid/frog sized:o)

I purchased green fleece from Wal-Mart and made lily pads for our seats, and the purple fabric for the table cover came from Hobby Lobby.

 The cute little frog princes came from Hobby Lobby as well and were in the spring section. The yellow flowers in the background were a Dollar Tree purchase as well as the green glass beads.

 Dinner was delicious. I knew that the hubs would have a fit over it. He loves Cajun food. Can I just say that those grits were the very best grits I have ever eaten!! And yes, those are homemade "man-catchin' beignets" in the back.

I wanted both of the kids to dress up, but the boy refused...for obvious boy reasons... I was able to get the princess of the group to dress up though:o)

I am sad that I didn't get a picture of their Valentine's gift baskets because they were really cute, but here are a couple of shots of them pulling stuff out. They both got the same things. I wanted to keep everything frog themed. I got them stuffed frogs from Hobby Lobby, a $5 gift card from Sweet Frog, the cute little F.R.O.G. wooden stand came from Hobby Lobby as well, and the little pink frog that S.R. is frowning over came in a Princess and the Frog party pack. She didn't know quite what to do with it..hence the frown. They also got some chocolate.

Before the movie, we snapped a few pictures of ourselves. This one was one of my favorites. 

Out of all the family nights we have had, this one has to be the best thus far. The bar has totally been raised now;o)

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Family Night-The Wonderful Wizard of Ha's

Friday means it's time to share our family night theme again. 

We watched the Wonderful Wizard of Ha's this week. It was a mix between the Prodigal son parable from the Bible and the Wizard of Oz...it was so cute, and the kids loved it.

For my weekly email to the hubs, he received the menu below. I found the picture from Christians Best, and used Picmonkey to add the menu.

  If you think you might want to re-use this picture, feel free to copy and paste...or go to the link above, and create your own.

Here is our delightful spread for the evening. 

 We had homemade strawberry lemonade in mason jars, and since we were watching Veggie Tales, I decided to add in a few veggies:o)

 We were supposed to have mini hamburgers for dinner, but I forgot to thaw the hamburger meat...we made a quick trip to visit grandparents on Wednesday, so I didn't fix the Ham and Cheese Sliders that evening. They were a quick and delicious fix! The hubs loved them!

For dessert, we had Bob the Tomato cookies. I used store bought cookies and cookie icing. They were fairly easy to make, and you can kind of tell who they are supposed to be;o) We also had a slew of unhealthy candy....we had veggies, so that counteracts all the sugar, right?;o)

 Here is a closer view of the Bob's.

 I also found these cute coloring pages from the same website from above. The kids loved this part as well, especially S.R.

Since the movie was short, we put in the real Wizard of Oz to finish the night off. 

Another great family night!!!

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Family Night-Shark Tale

It's Friday again, so I am sharing our Family Night theme with you all. Last night we watched Shark Tale.

I had originally intended for us to watch Big Miracle, (hence the whale themed family night)but apparently, there is a ton of language in it, so that was definitely a no-go....and it's rated PG...I don't get it:o/ Anyway, I had to find another movie to replace it, so we went with Shark Tale. I could still stick with my "fishy" theme:o)

For those of you who don't know what Shark Tale is or need a reminder, here is the trailer.

Every week I make a little sign for what we'll be having for dinner that night, and I try to make it match the theme. Last week I didn't get around to it, but this week I was on the ball:o)

I sent it in an email to the hubs so that he would know what to expect:o)

The food was pretty simple. It took a little more than 20 minutes to put everything together.

We had "fish & chips" which were Gortons Tilapia fish sticks & crinkle cut fries. I am not a fish fan, but since tilapia is such a mild fish, I was able to drown it in tartar sauce and it wasn't that bad:o)

I served the popcorn in these cute little cones. I found the idea HERE. I just googled whale art, and found this little cute guy. I used publisher and put the whale in the upper right hand corner of the page, tilted him a bit, printed, and rolled the paper into a cone shape. Easy Peasy:o)

For dessert, I purchased blue jello cups. You can find these in the refrigerated section in your grocery store. I used a little bit of whipped cream for the "foamy wave effect" and added a little red gummy fish in each bowl. It can't get any easier than that folks;o)

For the drinks, I bought blue kool-aid, and filled up these little clear plastic cups. We called this our "ocean water."

We had such a fun evening last night, and the movie was cute...there were definitely some laugh out loud moments:o)

I want to encourage you all to start taking time out every week to spend with your families. This took less time and preparation than most meals, and it's definitely more memorable.

For this free printable for your own family night, just click on the link below the picture.

HERE

Next week's theme will be:

The Wonderful Wizard of Ha's

Sharing this fun night at:
Design Dazzle

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Family Night-Despicable Me

 Almost every Thursday night we try to sit down as a family and watch a movie and eat lots of junk food. 

If possible, I try to have a theme where the food is concerned.

Since we were watching Despicable Me, I decided to try to make all of the food resemble minions.

When the movie first came out, S.R. referred to the minions as Tater Tots, so that was an absolute must for the menu.

 I found these cute little corn dogs at Publix, and thought they looked like little minions too.

 The minion Twinkies were the hit of the night. Can you tell which one was my first attempt;o)

I have seen these little guys all over the internet, but never took the time to find out how they were made. I did check for the list of ingredients, though. Through trial and mostly error, here is what I found out...

 *mini marshmallows, cut into thirds, are the easiest for the goggles, not the suggested SweeTarts.

*I used black gel icing, which I highly suggest against. It's way too runny.

 *It would have probably been easier if the Twinkies had been in the freezer a bit before icing them. That way the cake part wouldn't crumble as much. 

*On a positive note, the Betty Crocker pre-made blue icing was great to work with, and it tasted great! 

 I took very little time in putting these together, so they don't look all that fantastic. Thankfully the crowd was easy to please:o)

We had a fantastic night, and I am looking forward to many more family nights:o)

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