Ryan got to choose the movie for today's Disney Movie Night and he decided to go with A Bug's Life. What a perfect choice to usher in Spring! This is such a cuite movie and I love the message that by working together you can overcome anything! Pretty much everyone was able to join us at one point or another for today's festivities. Even Liam was welcomed back from movie exile -- haha!
While we were waiting for everyone to get here, we decided to make some leaves from construction paper to hang from the light fixture above the table. Some of the leaves were good (Ashley and Sarah) and some were not so good (Melissa). I really think the decor added to the ambiance and is something we will definitely do from now on.
We also made some bug masks before the movie which was a lot of fun. I actually found the prinouts on the Terminix website. There were three different masks to choose from, a couple of antennae, and some accessories for your mask. Most of us ended up using pipe cleaners for antennae and we found that we had to glue our masks onto construction paper to make them a bit sturdier. I think if I had printed them out on card stock we would have been okay.
Here is Marlene's bug mask -- love the curly antennae!
Liam wasn't a fan of getting his picture taken with the bug mask his mom, Sarah, made for him. This was the best picture out of about 6 or 7 I tried to take.
Melissa chose to stay true to the Terminix options and used the antennae provided. Cute flower!
Chris had to work for most of the day, but when he did make it he decided to make a bug mask -- I think his bug had super hero powers, too!
Here is most of us with our bug masks. We lost Marlene, Sarah, and Liam along the way. Here is Chris, Ashley, Melissa, and Dianne.
Our timing got out of whack so we decided to have our meal before the movie since the kids were getting hungry -- okay the adults were hungry too! Our delicious meal consisted of:
Francis Bites made from halved strawberries with black candy piping for the bodies and blackberries for the heads.
Heimlich Kebobs which were grapes on a bamboo skewer with white and black candy piping for the face.
Ants on a Log -- we made these Reece friendly since he has a peanut allergy. We used celery, cottage cheese, and raisins. Yummo!
Leaves which was a salad greens and spinach mix
The Offering of course! We used dried cranberries and almonds to represent the food the ants were gatehring for the grasshoppers.
Rock Salad - Dianne's super delicious potato salad was a great Rock Salad!
Bug Juice
Poo Poo Platter which is from Ashley's favorite part of the movie. Steve and Bruce grilled some yummy burgers....mmmmm!
Dirt Cups for dessert -- each cup had chocolate pudding, crushed oreos, and 1 1/2 gummy worms. When Melissa was making these Bruce just couldn't help himself and ate some of the gummy worms -- hence 1 1/2 gummy worms each!
Here is the table set with the food -- with the exception of the Poo Poo Platter burgers -- they were still on the grill. The table cloth was an extra from our Lady and the Tramp night (notice the hearts at the bottom) but the red and white checkered top worked great for a picnic theme. We also used paper plates and plastic silverware to go with our picnic theme -- and easy cleanup.
After our meal we watched A Bug's Life and enjoyed a snack of PT Flea's Circus Mix which was popcorn, pretzel sticks, and candy corn.
After the movie Dianne brought Sarah and Liam home as he was tuckered out from playing all day. We had a lot of fun having both Sarah and Liam over and will definitely invite them again -- well at least until Liam is exiled from movie night again :) Marlene decided she was tuckered out too so she made her way home as well.
The rest of us made our caterpillar/butterfly craft. We started out gluing pompoms onto a wooden clothespin. We tried using Elmer's glue and that did work, but it took a while to dry and we are an impatient bunch so out came the hot glue gun! We decided that Bruce should probably be banned from using the hot glue gun because I swear every time he used it we would hear "Ow that's hot!" coming from that area!
Here is Ryan, Steve, Jess, and Reece working on building their caterpillars....soon they will be beautiful butterflies!
For the butterfly wings we used washable markers to color designs on a sheet of paper towel.
Here Ashley is finishing her caterpillar, Jess and Reece are working on their wings, and Bruce is....well I'm not too sure what Bruce is doing here!
Bruce finally decided to start coloring his wings -- pretty Vikings design Bruce!
When we were done coloring our designs on the paper towel we used a spray bottle to lightly mist water onto the paper towel which made the colors bleed together. We were definitely glad we still had the table cloth on as the colors also bled onto the table cloth.
Here are Steve's wings after being misted with water.
To speed up the drying time (like I said we are an impatient bunch) we brought out the hair dryer. The trick to not making your wings fly around the table was to dry them from straight up above. We found that the paper towel actually separated into two pieces while it was drying which was no big deal as we just used the top sheet for our wings -- I think it actually fit into the clothes pins better too!
Steve is demonstrating how to blow dry your wings with help from Ashley.
Finally our wings were dry and we could turn our caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly. You just scrunch the middle of the top and bottom toward the center and place that inside the clothespin. Some of us put magnets on the back of our clothespin so we could hang them on the fridge. Others hung their butterfly from the leaves we had hung up earlier. We decided that with all of the butterflies hanging above the table it reminded us of Easter Morning church services at Hawley Lutheran Church as they also hang butterflies from the ceiling. How fitting since we had our Disney Movie Night on the day before Easter.
Ashley and her butterfly -- love the little pompoms on the body!
Steve and his butterfly. He was the only one to use little pompoms for the eyes instead of googly eyes. I think it turned out really cool as his eyes seem to glow against the black head.
Ashley showing off her bug mask and butterfly -- cute!
Bruce, Melissa, and Ryan's butterflies on the fridge. By this point we realized we should use the pipecleaners for the antennae as well.
Jess's butterfly hanging from the leaf decor - pretty colors!
Steve's butterfly -- the green and yellow are NOT for the Green Bay Packers! They were for Steve's high school colors - hahaha!
Reece's cute butterfly. He had a lot of fun coloring the wings -- it turned out really good!
Ashley's super bright butterfly reminds me of Spring! I love it!!
Ryan, Bruce, and Melissa with their butterfly creations.
We also celebrated Jess's 33rd birthday. Technically she doesn't turn 33 until April 1st, but Jess and Reece are going to Minneapolis for the Twins home opener baseball game. Dianne made a yummy banana cream pie and lined it with Peeps. When all 33 candles were lit there were some concerns that the Peeps would go up in flames, but that catastrophe was avoided -- I think the fire department was on call though! Hahaha!
This was another successful Disney Movie Night! We are having such a blast getting together to watch the Disney movies and to make such wonderful memories with each other. Ashley had the pleasure of picking out the movie for next month. After much deliberation (much, much deliberation) she decided on Beauty and the Beast. I love, love, love that movie and cannot wait to see what we come up with for our meal and crafts!
On a side note lucky Ryan is leaving for a high school band and choir trip to Florida this Friday -- what a fitting send off to have the Disney Movie Night the weekend before he leaves. The band and choir is taking a charter bus to Florida and they will perform at the Disney Village. They will spend one day in each park and a day at Cocoa Beach before heading back. Maybe I can sneak into his suitcase :)
Until next time remember "It all started with a mouse"!
