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Tag: family movie night

  • Star Wars Activities

    Star Wars Activities

    No Spoilers here – just good old round up of Star Wars inspired fun to round out your year. Mark and I got to see the new movie for date night last week. It was awesome, because it’s the first date we’d had in 4.5 months and was a movie we were both excited to see. 

     

    First date in 4 months – totally worth the wait #starwars #datenight #movies

    A photo posted by Adelina Priddis (@adelinapriddis) on


    It was magical I tell you, absolutely magical! Han and Leia back on the big screen..OK I’m not saying anymore. Has anyone else seen it? Venice is a bit dissappointed we didn’t take her along, as she’s our Star Wars nut. Maybe one day next week we’ll grab a 2nd showing. 

    Star Wars Activity Sheets

    While she waits though, I’ll print out this Star Wars The Force Awakens Activity Packet. It will give the kids something new to do, and of course keep their excitement up until we let them see the new movie. Who knows, maybe we’ll have a Star Wars day while their home from school and whip up some of these other fun activities. 

    Star Wars Princess Leia Cupcakes

    I mean how awesome are these Princess Leia Cupcakes from Paintbrushese and Popsicles? They’d be the perfect treat to have while cutting out these Star Wars themed Snowflakes or Christmas Ornaments. 

    I’m still looking around for ideas for Venice’s personal space we’re creating in her room, but I think I just hit on a theme! While we probably can’t pull off the Star Wars Shelf and Hyperspace Wall from Her Tool Belt in our rental, adding little touches like the R2-D2 Pencil can from Crafts by Amanda and this Lighted Canvas Art Print from The Casual Craftlete. 

    DIY Star Wars Canvas Art  

    Are you doing any fun Star Wars activities this week? Which movie is your favorite?

  • Yellow Sticky Rice for a Minions Movie Night

    Yellow Sticky Rice for a Minions Movie Night

    This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #MinionsMovieNight #CollectiveBias

    The Minions movie is here! We didn’t have a chance to see it in theater so we were counting down the days to it’s DVD release. I surprised the kids with Minion Yellow Sticky Rice for our pre-movie dinner excitement, and Donut Goggles to eat during the movie. 

    Minions movie night with Minion Yellow Sticky Rice and Donut Goggles #ad #MinionsMovieNight

    The day had come. I sent the girls off to school, and Lincoln and I ran over to Target to pick up the Metalpak Minions© 2015 Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved. With 40 minutes of extra Target exclusive content!, movie night was about to get serious! Since we had the day, we did a little browsing and found a load of other minion inspired products to add to the excitement. Minion bowls, a Minion card game, Minion Imagine Ink (love that Dollar Spot!) and Lincoln’s favorite, Archer Farms Donuts to act as Minion Goggles. 

    Everything you need for a Minions Movie Night at Target #ad #MinionsMovieNight

    We headed home to start prepping for our movie night. Lincoln had a hard time waiting for sisters to get home, so he may have gotten his own little pre-screening of the movie before anyone else – but shh, don’t tell the girls! 

    Fried rice is one of our favorite meals. It has a little bit of something all my kids will eat. I wanted to shape the rice to look like our little minion friends though, so I slightly changed our recipe to sticky rice, but with the fried rice components. Yellow Sticky Rice is surprisingly easy to make. All you have to do is combine all your ingredients in a pot, bring to a boil, then let simmer covered until the rice is cooked. 

    Cooking Yellow Sticky Rice #ad #MinionsMovieNight

    While the rice cooked, I whipped up some Minion Goggles with eggs and a purple onion. To do this slice your onion 1/4-1/2 inch thick. Fry in a little butter on a non-stick cooking pan, on both sides for about 30 seconds per side. You still want them stiff, but not raw. Crack an egg into each onion slice, cover, and cook through. 

    Sliced Onion #ad #MinionsMovieNight

    Minion Goggles aka Fried Eggs in an onion #ad #MinionsMovieNight

    It’s perfectly OK if some of the egg spills out the onion, just try to keep the yolk intact for an eyeball effect. Once the rice and eggs are done cooking, it’s time to start assembling. The kids were all surrounding me, telling me just how to shape a minion. “MOM, it needs arms! Where are the feet? Wait, it’s NAKED!”

    Once I had the Minion shaped, we added it’s Goggle eye, and then some clothes. For the overalls, we fried up a couple pieces of ham as the last component and added them on top. Voila! The kids were ready to dig in!

    Minion Yellow Sticky Rice #ad #MinionsMovieNight

    Minion Yellow Sticky Rice
    Make it a Minions Movie Night with Minion Yellow Sticky Rice.
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    Ingredients
    1. 2 cups Market Pantry Jasmine Rice
    2. 1 1/3 cups Water
    3. 1 1/3 cups Coconut Milk
    4. 1 Archer Farms Bay Leaf
    5. 1 tsp salt
    6. 3/4 tsp Turmeric Powder
    7. 1/2 tsp Lime Juice
    8. Purple Onion Sliced
    9. Eggs
    10. Sliced Ham
    Instructions
    1. Combine rice, water, coconut milk, bay leaf, salt, turmeric and lime juice in a medium pot.
    2. Bring to a boil, then reduce to low.
    3. Let simmer until rice has absorbed the water and milk.
    4. Shape rice like a Minion. A small slice on the sides for arms, and 2 little knobs for feet.
    5. For Goggles
    6. Fry onion slices in a little butter for 30 seconds each side.
    7. Break egg into each onion slice.
    8. Cover and cook until egg is done.
    9. Lay one egg on top of minion rice. Serve the rest on individual plates.
    10. Fry ham slices. Cut to form overalls and lay on top of minion rice. Serve extra slices with individual eggs.
    Notes
    1. Periodically stir the rice to keep it from sticking and burning on the bottom of pan.
    Adapted from WikiHow
    Adapted from WikiHow
    Home Maid Simple https://www.homemaidsimple.com/

    After we finished our Minion Yellow Sticky Rice, we moved to the family room to watch the Minions movie, eat donut goggles, and have some good family fun with the extra goodies I picked up at Target – my one-stop-shop for the perfect Minions movie night.

    Find exclusive Minions metalpak at Target #ad #MinionsMovieNight

    The kids and I just adore the new Minions movie from Illumination Entertainment. They thought I had tricked them with the Metalpak from Target, because it looks like no other movie case in the house. At first glance, one of the girls gave me a look and said “That’s not a movie, it’s just the book”. Oh it was sweet when they finally figured out the case and their excitement just kept on growing. 

    Have you seen the Minions movie yet? Get more ideas for your watch party.

  • Adjusting after a move #MyGoodLife

    Adjusting after a move #MyGoodLife

    This shop has been compensated by #CollectiveBias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone.

    Well we’re in North Dakota, the house is still covered with boxes, full and empty, but the kids have been in school for almost 2 weeks now. I was worried about how they would adjust to this move since we’ve moved more times than any normal family does, and as some people like to ask – no we’re not in the military. 
    When the kids were old enough to start school, I thought for sure we’d settle down, and never move again, but of course that was not in the cards. So here we are. Things have settled down some, but it was crazy for awhile there! Moving is just hard. Physically and emotionally draining. We left behind a lot of friends and family, and tears were shed. So naturally I was worried about the kids adjusting. 
    When our first Friday night rolled around, the kids asked for pizza like we normally do. How could I forget?! Up until the move, we made every Friday night our pizza and a movie night (come on, right, I mean I’ve talked about it on here a lot!). I blame it on my own stress, and not knowing what day it was for a solid two weeks. 
    Anyways, I turned to Mark and said “We HAVE to have pizza tonight!” Sure it meant I didn’t have to cook something, but mostly it meant keeping something the same for our whole family. Perhaps this would bring my stress levels down, and help the kids adjust to their new school?

    While the older Princesses were at school Friday morning, I took Princess R and Little Prince to Walmart (thank heavens our new town has a Walmart!!) to pick up our Friday night Pizza.

    I let Princess R help me pick out our family favorites. She got a cheese and a pepperoni, while I decided to be a bit more adventurous and try Tombstone’s limited edition chicken fiesta and beef ranchero. Before leaving the store, we thought we might need a good dessert as well. So we grabbed some of Edy’s Outshine Fruit Bars. 

    If you can’t tell, she was totally excited about getting to pick all the flavors without sisters barging in with their opinions – we picked up grape, mixed berry, and Coconut Water with Banana. Once we got everyone home and settled in for the weekend, we had to pick our movie. I was tossing out choices like Planes, Cinderella, or Brave? 

    Nope, my kids chose Lord of the Rings. I don’t know where these gals came from, because they have never had interest in this series before. They must have been feeling adventurous themselves.  Of course the movie is so long, they all fell asleep before we made it to dessert. So I tucked the Fruit bars to the back of the freezer for another special occasion – 

    Walking home from school of course! I did this once before at their old school, and it really helped brighten the day before getting home and checking off homework. The kids were thrilled when they saw the box attempting to hide in the back of the stroller. Of course I don’t care that they’re eating Popsicles because these are made with real honest 
    I’d say the kids, and to be honest all of us have adjusted to this move quite well. It’s still hard being so far from family that was so close, but it’s not bad. The kids already have friends, and they have a pretty first rate school to attend. 
    If you are planning a big change in your life, I suggest finding something that you currently do, and make a commitment now to keep it a habit throughout the change. One constant can make the difference when everything else may seem like chaos. 

    This is #MyGoodLife 
    What’s yours?
  • The Bare Necessities of Life and King Louie’s Coconut Banana Smoothie #JungleFresh

    The Bare Necessities of Life and King Louie’s Coconut Banana Smoothie #JungleFresh

    I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This content has been compensated as part of a social shopper amplification for #CollectiveBias and its advertiser.
     
    Celebrate the release of The Jungle Book and Party Baloo style #JungleFresh #shop
     
    I love when Disney releases their old classics from the vault!  The Jungle Book was released February 11th on Bluray/Combo pack Diamond Edition. I have to admit, we were so excited, that when we showed up at Walmart to purchase it they were just finishing putting the display out.  We were not going to miss the limited supply of Jungle Book Lunchboxes that you can get exclusively at Walmart!
     
    The Jungle Book Walmart exclusive, #shop, #junglefresh
     
    I have a 7 year old daughter who for some reason has loved The Jungle Book ever since we found an old copy of the large Disney Book at a library sale a year or so ago. She has laid claim to it, and considered it her favorite – even wanting to do her science project on jungle animals. We don’t own a VCR anymore, and my parents only have the VHS version, so she has never seen the movie. 
     
    Reading Disney's classic The Jungle Book in preparation for the movie
     
    Friday nights are our movie nights, and we’ve been meaning to invite my niece and nephews over for a long time. What better way to introduce them all to The Jungle Book movie than a party with cousins?  Perfect! I really wanted to make this a night to remember for everyone, so we grabbed some #JungleFresh fruit while we were at Walmart grabbing the movie. 
     
    Oh so many ideas! We decided to party like Baloo and enjoy the Bare Necessities of Life – Food, family and shelter.
     
    Food
    Of course we had to have Baloo’s Claw Kabob. Though no prickly pears available, we did find plenty of other fresh fruit, including some special Asian Pears. Also on our menu were Kaa’s Hypnotic cupcakes, Fancy Ants (raisins on celery), Scaredy Cat Chili, and King Louie’s Coconut Banana smoothie
     
    Make Baloo's Claw Kabob for your Jungle Book viewing party #JungleFresh fruit #shop
     
    We made Kaa’s hypnotic cupcakes using Duff Goldman’s Zebra cake mix and some swirled chocolate and vanilla frosting on top. 
     
    The real treat came in the form of King Louie’s Coconut Banana Smoothies. Yum yum yum!!  I’ll be honest though, these were a little tricky to make, but so worth the mess.  Check out my awesome husband cutting open our coconuts. 
     
    Use a miter Saw to create flat bottoms for your Jungle Book Coconut Smoothies #JungleFresh #shop

    Yes that is a coconut on a miter saw. Since we were going to be putting our smoothie inside the coconut shell, we wanted some pretty flat bottoms, and smooth edges. To be honest I’m sure there is an easier way (like the ways suggested on wikihow), but I let my husband have his fun. Plus we got some awesome coconuts out of it.

    Coconut Banana Smoothie Recipe at the bottom of the post!!
     
    Family
    We were ready to party with all that food, but we still need some family.  I was telling my friend about the party, and she jumped on our bandwagon and had her husband blow us up some balloon animals. Definitely a highlight for any party with kids are the balloons. Just check out the birds, snakes, monkeys, elephants and of course, Baloo!
     
    #JungleFresh #shop Party with Balloon Animals
     
    During the movie some kids were pretty entranced with their coconut smoothie while watching, and others had fun making paper plate masks. We were going for jungle animals, but I’m sure you know what happens when you give kids markers and paper plates – they take their own liberties. 
     
    #JungleFresh #shop mask making, coconut drinking
     
    After the movie was over we had some extra wiggles we needed to get out before sending everyone home, so we reenacted Shanti as she tried to carry the water from the river where Mowgli first meets her. The kids wanted me to put water inside the bowl…but not in my house kids! Maybe another day during the summer when we’re outside. 
     
    Jungle Book games #JungleFresh #shop
    I’m not sure if it helped get the wiggles out, or just riled them up some more, but they did love it immensely. Even Uncle M joined in with some bowl balancing and hip waving.
     
    Shelter
    We added some Jungle flair to our party by hanging dark green crepe paper around the television. It really gave the feeling of watching it in the Jungle!
     
    If you ever find yourself lost in the jungle, you could almost completely recreate this smoothie. It will probably be a bit chunkier since you’ll use a rock to mash up all the fruit, and your coconuts may not sit on a flat surface, but you’ll still enjoy this treat.

    Coconut Banana Smoothies in a Coconut Cup for any Jungle Book party #JungleFresh #shop

     

     
    Coconut Banana Smoothie in Coconut Shells
    Yields 4
    Celebrate the Jungle Book with King Louie’s Coconut Banana Smoothie
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    Ingredients
    1. 4 whole coconuts
    2. 3 frozen bananas
    3. 8 oz pineapple (or 1 cup)
    4. 2 15oz can papaya chunks (if you can find fresh, even better!)
    5. 1/2 cup Honeydew Melon chunks
    6. 2 cup coconut milk
    7. 2 cup apple juice
    Instructions
    1. Drill 3 holes in your coconuts and drain out the milk. You can save this to use in your smoothie – we used a can of coconut milk.
    2. Use your preferred method to open your coconut. We used a miter saw to smooth out the bottoms so they wouldn’t roll around, and then sliced 1/2 inch off the tops. Rinse well.
    3. Take your remaining ingredients and toss in your blender.
    4. Blend until smooth. You may need to do this step in 2 batches to fit in your blender.
    5. Pour smoothie into the coconut shells.
    6. Add a straw and enjoy.
    Home Maid Simple https://www.homemaidsimple.com/
     
    good to the last drop, #JungleFresh #shop
     
    Are you ready to party Baloo Style with The Jungle Book?
     
    Download The Bare Necessities Party banner and Food Labels to create your own party.
  • Studio C Blog Tour and Giveaway

    Studio C Blog Tour and Giveaway

    studio c tour  
    Studio C Review:  I can’t say enough good about Studio C. There is a lot of comedy out there, but very little of it is family friendly.  I love that I don’t have to wait for my kids to be asleep before I enjoy a little comic relief.  The kids are even enjoying it too. Though they don’t completely understand the comedy part, the kids are still able to laugh at things like Shoulder Angel and Captain Literally. 

    I got a bit more of a laugh during the P90X sketch when my kids thought it was a real exercise video and jumped up and started following along. 
    Mark and I have been watching Studio C on youtube for a couple months now. We usually take a Sunday night and search out any we hadn’t seen yet. I was thrilled when I found a few exclusive sketches on the DVD, as well as a number that I had not seen before. 
    As a fun side note, I’m totally jealous of my sister. She works as a janitor in the BYU Broadcast building, and gets to see the Studio C set multiple times a week as she cleans. How cool is that? I may tag along to work with her one day…
     

       

    Studio C

    Seasons 1 and 2 of the hilarious BYUtv sketch comedy series, Studio C, featuring Whitney, Mallory, Jason, Matt, and the rest of the cast pulling out all the stops with two full seasons of enough rip-roaring hilarity to make you spit milk out of your nose. Travel back to the moment it all began and watch some of the very first Studio C sketches, plus two never-before-seen features!

    Includes popular episodes featuring

    • Presidential Shoulder Angel
    • Facebook Friends Song
    • Flirting Academy
    • Captain Literally
    • The Center for People That YouTube Made Infamous
    • Candy Land Character Conference
    • Bollyside
    • Dana’s Dead
    • And many more!

    Special Features

    • Exclusive Feature: “Just Jeremy Date”

    Exclusive Sketch: “Substitute Miss Frizzle”

    • Season 2 Outtakes

    Studio C is a hit sketch comedy series that the whole family can enjoy. Like the popular TV show Saturday Night Live, the cast performs original sketches that parody American culture and the hilariously awkward moments of everyday life; but with a refreshingly wholesome yet hilarious spin. With their huge fan-base and increasing popularity, Studio C aims to produce clean, family-oriented comedy for a national audience.

     


    Purchase
    Amazon * Deseret Book
     

     

     

      

     
    Tour Giveaway 
     $25 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash

    Ends 12/31/13

  • Movie Night with DreamWorks and a Giveaway

    Movie Night with DreamWorks and a Giveaway

    I mentioned back in this post, about how I should get Mother of the Year Award. I mean seriously, 3 themed parties in one weekend? It was like a miracle around here!

    We had some leftover Root Beer and Cookies & Cream Ice Cream from Princess C’s party, so I started by whipping up some Root Beer Floats. Then I remembered seeing these licorice straws on my friend Kristin’s blog – Pinning With Purpose. So I snipped off the ends of licorice and popped them in with the floats. My kids are big on straws, so I knew they would be a hit.  The Cookies & Cream ice cream went over pretty well with the root beer – a fun variation to your normal vanilla.

    While I was putting together the floats, I had a bag of popcorn going in the microwave. We normally use our air popper, but sometimes a good old microwave bag is the way to go. I was aiming for quick and easy, but fun. Once that was ready, I served it up in our new movie reel tin (now decorating our movie shelf).  And what would conclude a movie night, better than a box of Swedish Fish?

    I put our snacks on my handy bed tray, and carried it down to our entertainment room (aka toy room).  Mark had the kids down there cleaning so we could enjoy our night without the mess. Once I made an appearance though, the cleaning stopped and the fun began!

    Oh, would you like to know what we watched? 

    Right now, until March 15th, in specially marked boxes of Big G cereal you can collect 4 DreamWorks Sampler DVD’s.  We were planning on watching all 4, but some tantrums ensued, and bedtime approached faster than we anticipated so we started with a family favorite – How To Train Your Dragon – and saved the rest for later.

    The Sampler DVDs contain 1-2 full spin off episodes from the popular movies How To Train Your Dragon, Kung Fu Panda, Shrek, and Madagascar. Each DVD also contains a sneak peek into DreamWorks new movie The Croods – coming to theaters March 22nd.

    Giveaway Time!
    It’s been awhile since I’ve had a giveaway for you. DreamWorks and General Mills would like to send one of my readers a Movie Night. What it includes
    – All 4 DVD Samplers
    – Movie Reel snack tin
    – The Croods: movie novelization
    – The Croods: Grub’s Survival Book
    This giveaway is only open to residents of the US
    All entries will be verified
    Enter using the Rafflecopter

    a Rafflecopter giveaway

    *I received some of the products mentioned here for free from DreamWorks and General Mills through MyBlogSpark. All opinions are my own.