Disney's Peter Pan Movie Night

Second star to the right and straight on 'til morning!  That's where we traveled to tonight with our Peter Pan movie night!

never never land

Our table took on the roll of Never Never Land (also known as Neverland or Never Land, based on my research, it's right all 3 ways).  It's made almost entirely out of scrap booking paper.  I printed out Peter Pan character clip art and stood them up throughout Neverland.  The fantastic Hangman's Tree was a craft I found here.  Skull Rock is an egg shaped foam, spray painted black.  The Indian Camp is more scrap booking paper wrapped around one of my cake stands.

and then there was food

I added the food right around Never Land (notice I've spelt it all 3 ways now?), since I thought our Pizza Ships would look nicely sailing the open "seas".  For tonight's craft, the kids colored all of the sails for our pizza boats.  Aren't they cute?

The sails and the kids, that is.

We also enjoyed Michael's Teddy Bears (Teddy Graham crackers), Injun Teepees, Fruit Kebob Skewers, Walk the Plank (sugar wafers), Ol' Codfish (goldfish crackers), Chocolate "Ship" Cookies, Pirate Punch (free printable label!) and Cannon Balls (Whoppers).

we can fly!  we can fly!

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Disney/Pixar The Incredibles Movie Night

Our third movie night was just incredible! *wink wink*  We celebrated with some superheroes tonight!  The Incredibles is one of our family's favorites.

dinner time

For decorations, I used some of the signage I had left over from Stephen's 5th Superhero Birthday Party.  I also made some Incredibles logo signs on my Cricut to hang with it.  Our centerpiece was an image of the family I found online, printed on cardstock and rigged to stand up.  I then put some comic strip "sound effect" signage around them.  The food signage I made is available here, for free, if you'd like to use it.

Dinner tonight was Super "Hero" Sandwiches, Elastigirl's Twisty Pasta Salad, Dash's Fast Fries, Violet's Disappearing Fruit Salad and we washed it down with Frozone's Milkshakes.

The kids hid their secret identities under some cardstock masks and cuffs.  You can print your own here.  (Our cuffs were made from paper towel tubes, that I painted black, but I suggest printing these since you can make them right on black cardstock and skip the painting step.)  The kids decorated their cuffs with foam stickers after dinner.

movie time

Over the dessert/movie snack table I used more of the left over signage from Stephen's 5th Superhero Birthday Party plus part of a mural I painted for his bedroom back when he thought superheroes were all that.  I knew it'd come in handy again some day.

For movie snacks we enjoyed Bomb Voyage's Peanut Butter Bombs (I stuck black licorice strings in them for the "fuse"), Underminer's Worms in Dirt, Omnidroids (mini Oreos), Cracker Jack-Jack and Syndrome's Sippers.

craft time

Tonight's craft was "Create your own superhero".  I printed out a blank body template and the kids colored them while they watched the movie.  Stephen's super power was super strength, like Mr. Incredible.  Sami's was invisibility, like Violet.

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Destination Disney - 2 Favorite Disney Memories

Week nine asks me to go back and find 2, just 2, of my favorite memories created in Walt Disney World.  This.  Is.  Hard.  The best I can do it narrow it down to my 2 most memorable trips.  Down memory lane we go....

My 30th birthday and first "on-site" stay! No one wants to turn 30.  At least no one I've ever met.  So when my 30th was approaching, I told hubby it was Disney or bust!  If I was leaving my 20s behind, it was happening in the most magical place on Earth.  If visiting WDW for your 30th (or any birthday for that matter!) isn't enough, I rang in my 30th at the Caribbean Beach Resort!  It was our first time staying on Disney property and it was amazing!  And so relaxing! To make the trip even more fun, my Mother (who was celebrating her 50th the following month!) and Step-Dad joined us! Guess she couldn't stand to see her baby girl celebrate a birthday without her. =)  We checked into our room and headed right out for fun.  When we returned, I found a floral arrangement from my Mom and Step-Dad wishing me a happy birthday.  Like that's not happening!  Seriously.

 
For the big day, I chose Chef Mickey's for breakfast, since I knew said Mouse would be in attendance.  My favorite!  I'd been to Chef Mickey's before.  I'd twisted my napkin in the air for all those other birthday's.  This time those napkins were for ME!  Well, me and the other 20 or so others that share my birthday.  But who cares about them, this was all about me!

   

Best.  Trip.  Ever.  That is, until.....

My kids first trip to Walt Disney World! Sharing Disney with my kids has been something I've done since day one.  In some instances (like when I bought Stephen's Mickey ears while I was still pregnant with him!), even pre-day one.  We'd decided that when Stephen was 5, we'd bring him to Disney World.  Of course, that was before Samantha came along, but we weren't going to bump him up to 7 just so she'd be 5, so she was just-turned 3 when we went.  It was A-MA-ZING!  They were just the right ages to experience the magic and appreciate every minute of it.  We told them about the trip as soon as it was booked.  When we hit the 100 day mark, I made a countdown chain but added a couple extra days to it.  The morning we were to leave, the kids thought we still had a few days to go.  When they got up, they found a box on the table marked: To Stephen and Sami. When they opened it, a Mickey balloon popped out with a note attached, "Come See Me!" it read.  They were a little too stunned to be excited... yet.  It sunk in when they saw their  suitcases though!

The morning we rode the ferry over to the Magic Kingdom, my belly was full of butterflies.  I was so excited.  I was about to show them what it was all about.  We got into the park before it opened because we had a Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boutique appointment.  I ran ahead a bit so I could get their first impressions when they saw Cinderella's Castle.  That 5 year wait was so worth it!

We had the best time.  This trip was almost a year ago to the day, but the kids still ask to go back all the time.  Little do they know, we're going back next month!  After our 6 month countdown, I thought a "morning of" announcement would be less stressful for them this time.  =)  Here are a few more of my favorite memories from our trip.

Stephen (aka Sam Gunskull) after visiting
The Pirate's League.  He got so many
comments on his makeup.  One teenager
even thought the "cut" on his cheek was real.

Sami's "paparazzi" photo from the Bibbidi-

Bobbidi-Boutique.  I love Stephen's face,

to the right of Sami.

One of my favorites!  Stephen's being a wild animal, I'm playing scared and Sami's crying. It all looks staged, but really Sami's just mad that we stopped for a photo-op. She wanted go IN the park!  NOW!

  

Wasn't that fun?!  Check out previous lists - Top 10 Disney Attractions, 9 Favorite Disney Characters, 8 Favorite "Lands", 7 Things to do OUTSIDE of the Parks, 6 Favorite Restaurants, 5 Favorite Snacks, 4 Favorite Souvenirs, 3 Favorite Resorts

And be sure to check back next week for our family's Favorite Disney Park

Disney's Aladdin Movie Night

Movie night number two, during our countdown to Walt Disney World, was Aladdin.  This is one of my very favorite Disney movies so planning this night was like a wish come true.  Pun intended! 

The kids put on their Abu hats and sat down to dinner.

dinner time

For dinner we enjoyed Ali Ababawa kebobs, couscous, Jafar's "so twisted" fries, "stolen" bread and butter and Genie juice (blue Kool-aid).  The Genie lamp in my centerpiece can be found at any party/costume shop and it runs about $5.  The "magic carpet" table runner I have is actually a Pashmina scarf I found at my local AC Moore craft store.  I got that for $5 as well.

Their beards are so twisted!

movie time

For dessert and movie snacks we had baklava, Raja cookies (sugar cookies with chocolate icing stripes), minaret meringues (meringues with a yellow M&M on top), Cave of Wonder delights (gold foiled candy), Abu's mini monkey bread, Iago's cracker snack mix (Cheez-It snack mix), Jasmine's gems (Ring Pops) and hummus & pitas.  Something I didn't make, but would have been a good addition was date & pistachio bars.

I made Jasmine's palace by cutting scrapbooking paper into columns and ovals, then filling in with purple here and there.

   

   

 

craft time

For our craft, we made magic carpets from felt.  I cut fringes on the ends and they decorated them with puff paint.

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