Dinner and a Movie: Creating a Toy Story Inspired Theme

"To Infinity....And Beyond!" Our favorite Buzz Lightyear quote from the Disney-Pixar movie "Toy Story", it was also the theme of our third family movie night. As a follow-up to an Up themed night and a Cars themed night, we are starting to stretch out our imagination "muscles" and really go all out in theming. Our movie nights include a dinner based on characters and scenes in our chosen movie, a few movie themed activities together, and the finale is watching the movie as a family. So, (drumroll please), here are some suggestions for dinner menus, decorations and activities based on the "Toy Story" theme- from our family to yours.

The Dinner Menu: Since "Toy Story" is one of our family's all-time favorite movies, we felt a little pressure to make this movie night a hit. We spent a little extra time working on the menu this week with a goal of keeping it simple, fun and inexpensive, and it really paid off! We served: Buzz Lightyear Punch (aka lime green Hawaiian Punch), homemade "Pizza Planet Pineapple and Pepperoni Pizzas", Sid's Caesar Salad, Jessie's Jello Cups, Andy's Applesauce, Woody's Macaroni & Cheese (you can pick up Toy Story themed Kraft mac & cheese at your local grocery stores), and Green Alien Cupcakes. For the pizzas, we bought premade pizza dough. After rolling the dough out, we cut out small individual pizzas in the shape of rocket ships in homage to Buzz Lightyear. The kids not only loved the shapes, they loved "decorating" their own pizza with their favorite toppings. For dessert, we decorated our cupcakes based on the suggestions found on the Disney Family website here; we chose to decorate using only icing, so they were very easy to make, and they were adorable!

Decorations: The decorations were relatively easy for the "Toy Story" theme; as fans of the movie, my son already had Buzz Lightyear and Woody stuffed figures, so we put those on the table with the food for dinner. We also had small plastic figures that we had purchased from the Disney Store. The centerpiece on the dinner table was a plastic Buzz and Woody piggy bank that we had picked up on our last trip to Disney World, and a Mr. Potato Head that we decorated with Disney themed pieces. I also found some sheriff badges in the party section at our local Walmart; I used them for decorations, and used Buzz Lightyear colors of blue and green in our tablecloth, plates and napkins.

Activities: For activities, we printed out some coloring pages here for the kids to work on while my husband and I cleaned up after dinner. Throughout the night, we all took turns wearing one of the sheriff badges that we got for decorations- the person wearing the badge got to act as "sheriff" during that time. This was especially fun for the kids, because they had a sense of power during their moments as sheriff; the bonus was that this was the most well-behaved movie night yet! Some of our other activities were in making the meal itself; normally I make dinner, and then bring the rest of the family in once it's ready. This time, we involved the kids in making the pizzas, and then in decorating the cupcakes before we ate them. I found that we gained the unexpected in doing this; although it may have created a bigger mess to clean up afterwards, I found myself standing back sometimes and watching in awe at how capable my kids were in doing these tasks themselves. I got to watch them dissolve into giggles as they caught each other sneaking bites of cheese while they decorated their pizzas, and observed their quiet concentration in placing the pepperonis in precise locations. I had a learning moment myself in watching this process- that my kids are much more capable than what I give them credit for sometimes. In this moment, it reaffirmed the reason for doing these movie nights with my family; to spend time with my kids while they are just that....kids.

Movie Time: In keeping tradition with our previous movie nights, we piled blankets and pillows on the floor so we could all snuggle up to watch the movie together. We ended up choosing to watch Toy Story, but we had such a good time, that we followed up the next day (since it rained all day long) and watched Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3.

In looking back at our "Toy Story" night, I see that it was more than just dinner and movie for us- it was time to spend together sharing some laughs, and it showed me just how fast my kids are growing up. In the week after this movie night, my husband and I made a decision; our goal is to plan two Disney related "Dinner and a Movie" nights each month for the next year. At the end of that year, if we are financially able, we are hoping to take the kids on a surprise trip to Disney World. We have realized that this family time together is precious, and we are hoping to take advantage of every second.