A Disney Mom's Thoughts: May 2016

Monday, May 30, 2016

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle #ChickFilAMomsDIY

As a member of the Chick Fil A Mom's Panel, we were given the opportunity to participate in a DIY project using a washed salad bowl from the new Spicy Southwest Salad. I had several ideas for the project such as an herb garden, a terrarium, or a bird feeder, but my boys had other plans so I let them decide how to reuse or recycle the salad bowl. Below are their ideas!

My seven year old immediately said we could use it as a snack bowl. We were watching Jungle Book as part of our 2016 New Year's Resolution and we added our Jungle Book snack mix to our Chick Fil A bowl. When I asked what else we could use it for he suggested a container to hold all of his Minecraft guys. It was a perfect fit for all his guys... I guess we don't need any more since there's no room in the holder now! :)

When I asked my three year old what we could use the bowl for, he suggested a crayon holder. I'm always telling him to pick up his crayons, so now they are all in one place. The next suggestion he had was a bed for his Disney Tsum Tsums. We need to eat more salad though since only 6 Tsum Tsums fit in one container and we have at least 20 Tsum Tsums at our house!

If you haven't had a chance to try the new Spicy Southwest Salad from Chick Fil A, I suggest you do. And then, save your container, wash it and find a new way to reuse or recycle your bowl. Have fun!

Saturday, May 7, 2016

Alice in Wonderland Family Movie Night | A Disney Mom's Thoughts

I have to be honest... Alice in Wonderland is not one of my favorites. While I love Alice, many of the other characters bother me. The White Rabbit is OK, but the silly, crazy, nonsensical, kookiness of the others gets on my last nerve. However, we had to watch this one to keep up with our 2016 Resolution to watch all the animated movies in order.

Alice in Wonderland was released on July 28, 1951. It was not the most popular movie, but people still remember it, talk about it, and enjoy meeting the characters at the Disney parks. There is a fabulous web site with all sorts of information about this movie, how Walt created it and my favorite: the goofs.

For our family movie night, we kept it pretty simple. I had intentionally saved some conversation hearts after Valentine's Day for this movie night. Those were obviously for the Queen of Hearts. In addition to the candy, we made "Eat Me" cookies (slice and back with piped icing), and Rice Krispy Treats to resemble the Queen's cards. We literally opened up the Rice Krispy Treats and used gel icing to make the hearts and Q's. There were several other things we could have done, but we kept it simple.

You can find more Alice in Wonderland ideas from my cousin's first birthday party or from a virtual baby shower we hosted. Another great idea from the Disney Family site is to make Golden Afternoon Flowers. If you're watching with an older group, you could always play a game of cards- spades being my favorite.

Thursday, May 5, 2016

Cinderella Family Movie Night | A Disney Mom's Thoughts

Last month, we had our second Princess Movie night as part of our Disney Resolution. I thought my boys were going to baulk at the idea of a princess night, but they didn't! We all enjoyed watching Cinderella and eating yummy snacks!

This movie was released on February 15, 1950. It's such a classic movie that it literally at the center of Walt Disney World! One of our favorite memories was eating at Cinderella castle and meeting Cinderella. Even though this is a girly, princess movie, my boys loved it. I think Gus, Jaq, and Lucifer helped with that!

For our movie night, we had 2 different snacks: pumpkin pretzels and magic wands. The wands were made with fruit on a bamboo skewers. You could use any fruit that you like, but top it off with a melon you can cut with a star cookie cutter! For the pumpkins, we melted vanilla wafers and added orange coloring. After we dipped the pretzels in the vanilla chocolate, we let them dry on wax paper and added a green M&M mini. These were definitely my favorite!

In addition to snacks and movie watching, families could play dress up as the characters or find coloring sheets. One activity you could do along with watching the movie is play the dress up game on Disney's web site or have the story read to you.