Confessions Of A Scrapaholic

Summer Movie Recap

With all of the moving/baby craziness this summer, I forgot to post about our Family Movie Nights! Granted, they weren't as elaborate as they have been in the past, but were still very fun.

I had such grand plans for Flushed Away movie night. It was scheduled to play at sunset on the beach at Lake Washington. Personally, I think that is even cooler than a drive-in (although I am looking for one of those too.) As luck would have it, after a gorgeous week of almost 90 degree weather, the day Flushed Away was scheduled to play it decided to downpour rain. Grrrrr. I was holding out hope until the last minute, but as cool as a beach movie sounded, sitting on wet sand in a drizzle sounded worse. So, we watched Flushed Away at home with Kelly's Dad. The impromptu treat? Gummy worms. Kind of sewer like, right? Although if you ever do plan to watch this for FMN at your house, I would recommend some slug like dessert. There are lots of slugs in the movie. Hilarious slugs. LOL!

I know what you are thinking. Why are we dressed like pirates to watch Jonah and the Whale? That is because I got Zoë all excited to watch The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything, and as it turns out, the movie wasn't being released to DVD until October. BUT the pirates are also main characters in Jonah so I think it worked out. Some gold wrapped chocolates as treats and we were set, although  when we watched The Pirates in October our treat will definitely be Cheetos Puffs (the pirates LOVE rootbeer and cheese curls.) We had to watch the movie upstairs in the playroom where our portable A/C unit was running. It was cooling the room to a balmy 85 degrees instead of the 90+ degrees in the rest of the house. Bleck.

Cars (or Movie Cars as my nephew Harry calls it) was our last FMN with just the three of us. It doesn't look terribly fancy but it was quite the special night. Kelly went to Matt's Gourmet Hotdogs (Zoë's very favorite restaurant) and picked up dinner for the movie...which she got to eat IN the family room. Hotdogs are definitely not my thing, but Kelly and Zoë were very happy campers. Add a racing flag and some race car tires (mini chocolate doughnuts) and you have one fun night. Seriously though, that movie is FOREVER long. Have you noticed that? It kept Zoë's attention but the end really drags on.

Last up (from last weekend) Nim's Island. Eden's first FMN. She was clearly enthralled with the movie as you can see. LOL! It took a bit of convincing to get Zoë to watch it, but we all liked the movie. I am actually going to go buy the DVD this weekend. It is darling. Of course, I am a bit neurotic when it comes to germs so Jody Foster's character was beyond funny to me. The treats? Little islands. :) I used dessert cakes as the base, tinted some Cool Whip blue, piped it around the island (using a ziploc bag) and reused the trees from our Madagascar FMN treats as a finishing touch. Those were definitely a big hit. 

There you have it! I am racking up quite the collection of FMN photos. I am itching to start scrapping them but I haven't quite decided on the format. I am leaning towards the same layout for each movie to create a coordinated look. Then there is the problem of a different number of photos for each movie. Hmmmm. If you are having FMN at your house, what are you planning to do with your photos?

Family Movie Night, Room Service Style

Things were so crazy last week that I completely forgot to tell you about our exodus to the hotel last weekend. It was so flipping hot in Seattle (90 degrees inside and out) that we checked into a hotel down the street. Our home away from home when it gets too hot or we are having renovations done. We suffered through on Saturday, but Sunday we threw in the towel. We went to the annual Strawberry Festival in the morning and it was already smokin' hot (our car said it was 87 degrees in the shade at 11:30am.) We dressed Zoë in her swimming suit so that she could enjoy the new water park at the festival, but it was malfunctioning and the water was coming out as a trickle. It was pitiful seeing 50+ kids in their suits all standing around the one water feature that was drizzling water. Zoë wasn't too bothered though because the festival had all sorts of bouncy houses. Her favorite was actually the balls. She used up most of her tickets there. Can you see how red her face already is from the heat? It was only 10:30am!

When we got home from the Strawberry Festival I booked a hotel room for us and we spent the rest of the day playing in the pool and enjoying their air conditioning. We got lucky and Horton Hears a Who was showing in the room, so we had spontaneous family movie night. Family Movie Night room service style if you will. It doesn't exactly coordinate with the movie per say, but it was really fun. And look, I figured out how to use the timer on our little Elph to take this family photo. Zoë's not exactly smiling, but I am just happy we are all in the shot. LOL!

When we got home on Monday I did some more maternity shopping. Two reasons: Capri pants are just not cool enough when it is 90 degrees outside, even when paired with a tank top. Two: Kel and I went on a date last Friday and I don't have anything even remotely dressy to wear. Did I tell you about our date nights? About two months ago Kelly decided that we should have a date night every other week until the baby arrives because we won't have much adult time once she arrives. Isn't that sweet?! So I needed something that would be date night appropriate and tummy friendly. I found some really cute items (thanks to my friend Gina who is also pregnant, just a week behind me). These dresses should be comfy and cool and I can dress them up with the necklaces and some cute shoes. I also bought some tank tops but that isn't nearly as interesting, you know?

I also updated my pregnancy journal today (two weeks in a row!) so click on over. We finally decided on a name for this sweet little baby girl. Speaking of which, here is another layout of the wee one using a page from the Twirl Piece-of-Cake Album.

Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting...

I completely forgot to post about our Family Movie Matinee last weekend! We changed up FMN a little bit and went to the theater to see Kung Fu Panda. It was super cute. Zoë sat through most of the movie, only insisting that she sit on my lap when "the mean kitty" was on the screen. Our accessories (the karate head band thingys and black outfits) are apparently not the kung fu style, more the karate kid style. There was not a single one worn in the movie. Oops. Who knew? And to answer your question, why yes, we did wear them to the theater. That's just the way we roll. LOL!

Sing with Me! "I Like to Move It, Move It. I Like to Move It, Move It. I Like to Move It, Move It. I Like to MOVE IT!"

We had a Madagascar themed family movie night on Saturday. We've had this movie forever, but Zoë has never really sat down and watched it, so viola! I have decided that unless there is a fantastic movie coming out, we are going to watch the DVDs from our collection for FMN. We have a ridiculous amount of DVDs at our house. I didn't realize quite how many until I put them all in the binders a couple weeks ago. I am also putting a freeze on DVD purchases. I can't even tell you how many movies we own that we have only watched one time. Ridiculous!

We all loved the movie. Zoë sat through 95% of the movie which is huge for her. She was more interested scootering around the house with her new Madagascar toys towards the end, but that's OK. Props included safari hats from the local party supply store and the toys from our fancy cupcakes.

I've got to say, they look cooler than most cupcakes I make, but mine definitely taste better. Of course, I have never been a fan of most grocery store bakery frosting (Costco being the exception.) The little characters have been Zoë's constant companions ever since watching the movie. They bathe with her, have come to IHOP with us, and they sleep with her. And all I had to do was pick it up at the store on Saturday afternoon. Twelve dollars well spent.

Did you know that Madagascar 2 is coming out this fall? I didn't until I was searching for a movie link for this post. It looks pretty cute. We may have to go see that in the theaters. I think next weekend we are going to go see this movie for family movie night. Kelly has been wanting to see it ever since we saw the trailer six months ago, and it will be Father's Day weekend after all...

I'll be back with more scrapbooking goodness later. Miss Zoë is waking up from her nap and there are some chocolate cupcakes on the counter that will be disappearing if I don't get upstairs fast. LOL!

Can You Guess?

What movie did we watch for Family Movie Night this week? Here's a hint.

Any guesses? How about one more clue.

If you said Finding Nemo, you would be correct. Zoë's new favorite evening activity is playing Go Fish with her Finding Nemo Go Fish Card Game. (Super fun if you have little ones. She plays with her cards facing up on the table so that we can help her.) Honestly, she watched about twenty minutes of the movie then wanted to go play her game, but that was fine with me. It was a Nemo themed evening...it's all good. And yes, we absolutely had fish sticks for dinner. Hehehe.

Do you like the cupcakes? They turned out so cute! (Truthfully though, the cupcake in the photograph is the only one with the seaweed. The fruit roll-ups were a huge pain to attach to the cupcakes.) I have a few tips for those of you that want to make these in the future. One: Buy the Betty Crocker Black Decorating Gel for the eyes of the fish and the White Decorating Gel for the bubbles. I used the gel for the eyes and it looked and worked 100x better than squeezing white frosting bubbles out of the ziplock bag like the book suggests.

I also wanted to share this handy little tidbit with you. Check with your local grocery store bakery about decorating cupcakes for you. I got the idea while Zoë and I were flipping through their book last week looking for princess birthday cakes. They have cakes for TONS of movies...Madagascar, Harry Potter, Cars. I asked the baker if they would be willing to decorate 6 theme cupcakes for me instead of creating a big cake and they said YES! So for $12.00 and with 24 hours notice they will whip up Family Movie Night treats for me. I consider it a bargain. I spend way more than that every time I go all out to make fancy cupcakes. And Zoë will have the little figurines to play with during and after the movie. Treats and props for $12.00?! You can't beat that.

* * * * *

Now for some scrapping talk. First, I used Dani Mogstad's new Deep Blue Sea kit to decorate my blog post above. If you buy the kit before June 6th you will also receive the coordinating accordion album FREE! I also picked up the Lil Grad kit by Melissa Bennet this weekend which I thought would be cute for Zoë's "School of Life" album that I am working on. It comes with a FREE coordinating album as well as long as you purchase the kit by June 6th. Can you say perfect preschool teacher gift?

I have gotten quite a few emails about the products I used in my Library of Memories. Here are the specifics...

• The albums that I use are "We R Memory Keepers" D-Ring 12x12 leather albums.
• I found the coordinating polka dot ribbon at Michael's and JoAnn's. They are a mix and match of different brands. The ribbon is tied directly to the metal label holder.
  
• I used 1 1/4" Avery metal rim tags for the spines and the interior section dividers (pictures coming soon.)
• I used a 1" circle punch to punch out the photos/labels for the inside of the metal tags, which I adhered with this awesome liquid glue (perfect for hybrid projects.)
• I attached the metal rim tags to the album spines with 1/8" thick foam dots

I think that is about it. If you come up with any other questions feel free to post a comment or send me an email. Before I go I have to share another layout. This one of Zoë's first time sledding. That was a fun day, not that it made me want to live in a place that snowed...

Credits coming soon

Two Incredible Movie Nights

Movie nights have become a big deal around our house. We look forward to them every Saturday. This week we tweaked the plans a bit and had movie night on Friday AND Sunday. Are we wild and crazy or what? (That would be sarcasm.) We are going to be in Spokane for Bloomsday next weekend, and California the following weekend, so we will be missing a few installments. Best make up for it now, right?

First up was Chicken Little. This movie happens to be a family favorite, but who says we have to watch new movies anyway? I think it is easier to plan movie night with movies that you have actually already seen. That is how I knew to buy glow sticks for everyone to wear. The pieces of sky cookies were a pretty obvious choice as treats and I had to throw in some chicken nuggets for dinner. My sense of humor is twisted like that. It's just the way I roll. Hehehe. My brother-in-law and his best friend were in town for the weekend and got to enjoy the festivities with us. I think I can safely say that they have never experienced movie night the way we do it at our house.

Next up, The Incredibles. This one was a spur of the moment decision on Sunday. It was kind of gloomy and rainy and I thought that would be an incredible way to spend the evening. (Oooh, I am clever!) I impressed myself actually. I came up with the accessories and treats in about five minutes. Not bad. I ordered a pepperoni pizza and asked them to put the pepperoni around the edges and make a lower case i in the center. They were pretty amused, and happily agreed to my request. While we waited for the pizza I made the masks and super hero emblems. Zoë had an absolute blast. She kept calling me Super Hero Mommy and Kel, Super Hero Daddy. She insisted that she be called Violet. It was just too cute. For dessert we had Super Hero Parfaits. Yummy! I thought that The Incredibles might be a bit too scary for Zoë (and there were parts that were) but she really enjoyed the movie.

One Doggone Cute Movie

Time for another Family Movie Night post. I've got to say, I have been having so much fun planning our F.M.N.'s. Thoughts of movies and possible props/treats are constantly running though my head. I'm sure I could be putting my brain power to better use, but it is what it is. :) Zoë and Kelly are really enjoying themselves too. Zoë talks all week about Family Movie Night. These regular family dates have become a highlight of our week. In case you couldn't guess from the title of the post, we watched 101 Dalmatians this week.

I had not seen this movie since I was little (neither had Kelly) so we were all eager to see this one. All I could really remember about the movie was that there were lots of dogs (duh) and that Cruella Deville wanted to make them into a coat. The treats were easy enough. Cookies shaped like dog biscuits, served in a doggie dish. Hehehe. The props were a bit of a challenge. Fur coats would have been lovely, especially considering the snow we've been having...but come on now, where am I going to find little fur coats? And what would I do with them after we watched the movie? Instead we went with character masks and coloring pages. (I taped popsicle sticks to the back of the character masks so that Zoë can play with them like puppets since having the eyes cut out kind of creeped us all out.)

So did anyone else have Family Movie Night this week? I would love to see what you did. Make sure and post a comment with a link to your blog so that I can check it out. :)

An Enchanting Movie Night

I have been waiting semi-patiently for Enchanted to come out on DVD ever since Zoë and I went to see it in the theater. It is an absolutely darling movie and I was dying to see how it ended. Why? Because about 45 minutes into the movie Zoë decided that she was bored and wanted to go home. Ack! I agreed because really, it would have just been unpleasant if I had forced her to stay in the theater. I was wondering if she would make it all the way through. She is more of a cartoon kind of girl. That being said, ever since we saw part of Enchanted in the theater Zoë has loved Giselle. She saved up her gold coins (she earns them for good behavior) to buy a Giselle doll, and has played with her everyday. I took that as a good sign.

Nana was here from Spokane and got to participate in movie night with us. Accessories were easy this time around. We have crowns and dress-up clothes galore and our house, although I did buy Kel and manly crown. No sense making him wear a tiara. He is a good sport and all, but come on now. That's just mean.

For treats we had Apple Dumplings which were fantastic. I got the recipe from a friend of mine and not only are they yummy they are super easy to make. Zoë rolled the apples up in the crescent roll dough all by herself. Here is the recipe. We give it two thumbs way up.

APPLE DUMPLINGS

2 Granny Smith apples
2 cans Pillsbury crescent rolls
2 sticks butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoons vanilla
cinnamon
1 small can Mountain Dew

1.  Peel and core apples. Cut apples into 8 slices each.

2.  Roll each apple slice in a crescent roll. Place in a 9 x 13 buttered pan.

3.  Melt butter, then add sugar and barely stir. Add vanilla, stir, and pour over apples. Pour Mountain Dew around the edges of the pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

We also enjoyed Virgin Appletinis, otherwise known as apple juice in sugar rimmed glasses. :) A note to parents of toddlers: They will get this everywhere. We switched Zoë to a princess sippy cup after she spilled apple juice everywhere. Oops.

Kelly and I really enjoyed the movie. Zoë, not so much. She told us she wanted to go to bed at the exact same spot she wanted to leave the movie theater. Ugh. Kelly was able to coax her into staying a bit longer with a hotdog but that only kept her there for about another twenty minutes and then she said she wanted to go to bed. All the while Nana was sleeping on the couch. Nice. So, like I said, Kelly and I liked the movie, but that was about it. Don't let that deter you though, it really is so cute. Zoë just prefers cartoons. I was going to try this movie for movie night next week, but I think instead I will go with this one.

Family Movie Night

A few months ago my friend Heather started Family Movie Night at her house. Not just regular movie night with popcorn, mind you. Movie night complete with coordinating treats and accessories. Well, that is right up my creative alley. Last Friday we jumped on the Family Movie Night band wagon and boy was it a hit!

Can you guess what we watched? If you said The Bee Movie the you would be correct. I thought this would be an easy movie since it had just been released, but do you think I could find a single bee related item anywhere? Um, no. That is OK though, I improvised. I bought some St. Patrick's Day antenna and chopped off the green shamrocks, strung some yellow ribbon through the wire, then super glued some black puff balls on the top. Viola! Instant bee antenna. We also had treats of honey sticks (also harder to find than I imagined...for anyone looking I found mine at Teavana) and Honey Nut Cheerios which we snacked on and strung on yellow ribbon to make necklaces.

It was a very fun night. One we will be repeating this Friday, probably with this movie. Now I just need to think of some fun coordinating treats. Hmmmm. What a fun new tradition. I see a themed scrapbook in my future...