Family Movie Theme Night - Cars 2

I'm so excited to tell you how fun my night with my little family was last night! Beware.. Super picture-heavy! Around here, we love Friday night movie nights. We pick up candy and treats, rent a movie, and veg out for the night. But you know what? Sometimes it's just the same ole' every time. Does your family ever get in a rut of what fun things to do at home? I know we do!
Yesterday at work, I was feeling like we needed a pick-me-up from the regular movie night at home. It didn't take much either! Cars 2 was the theme for the night, and let me just tell you what was on the menu.
We had some yummy "Mack's Mac-n-Cheese"
"Tow-Mater Taters"
"Dip-Sticks"
And of course, we had to wash it down with some "Fuel!"

Something so simple as adding labels and fun movie themed titles for your food makes such a difference to your boring movie night. It was fun letting Xander figure out which movie we were watching from the foods we were eating. Pretty sure it was the Tow-Mater Taters that gave it away.After our simple, but yummy, dinner, I had a little activity planned. Going along with the Cars theme, I found a template online for a blank license plate, and we all created our own vanity plates. No rules at all - just be creative and use your imagination.

My favorite part of Xander's plate is where he wrote "Hole <3 Xander." He said, "Look! It says Holly loves Xander." Oh how I love kids and their phonetic spelling!
I wasn't nearly as creative with my #1 Mama plate. And as you can see, I'm not nearly as talented with my drawing as I am with my kitchen skills. My drawing could probably pass as a 1st grader's creation.

I wasn't sure if Tiffani would be up for the little artsy project, but you know, she did just fine coming up with something fun. Just see for yourself.....
Either you get it or you don't.... Not going into explanations... I, personally, love her creativity HA!

Anyway - so after our craft, I made us a big bed on the family room floor with lots of pillows, blankets, and stuffed animals. We watched the first half of Cars 2 and then had an "Ice Cream Pit Stop!" (Thanks Sarah for the idea!)

One top of our Cookies and Cream, we had some "paint chips" and "gravel and sand".
Of course, no pit stop would be complete without some "Hot Tar!"
Xander was very pleased with his Pit Stop Sundae!
After our Pit Stop, we snuggled back up to finish the movie. Well, Xander finished. Tiffani and I, on the other hand, didn't make it to the end. We were out cold!
But what a fun night we had! It was a simple movie night, made fun and different with a few little labels and activities. I know it was nothing great - no fancy cooking, no fancy dessert - but the kids don't care about that. They just care about the experience and the time together as a family! Because you know, THAT is what it's all about!
What do you guys do to make a night at home special?

Mama's 3-Bean Chili

One of my favorite home-cooked meals to make (and eat!) is chili. I remember eating my mom's chili and loving her recipe. One evening in high school, I even decided that I wanted to be in charge of making dinner and decided to recreate my her chili recipe. I had everything all set out on the counter ready to get started. I read the first step of the recipe and realized... I have no idea how to chop an onion. I called my mom, as she was still at work at that time, asking her how to chop an onion. She must have done a good job of giving directions on chopping that onion because I still remember that batch of chili and was so proud of myself for being able to make something as good my mom's chili! For the record, I do now know how to chop an onion. It is definitely something I struggle with still for some reason, but for the most part, I manage to get the thing diced up alright.
Over the years, I have tried so many chili recipes. None of them quite match my mom's chili, so I kinda gave up on recreating that taste. Part of the reason could be that I don't eat meat, and most likely, the taste that's missing is the actual meat. But I didn't let that stop me. After all those recipes I kept testing out just didn't have that hearty home-cooked taste I was looking for, I decided to take matters into my own hands. One day, I just threw a bunch of stuff together on a whim and hoped for the best. Boy was it!
My little family sat down to dinner, and Tiffani asked me, "Is this a new recipe?" I told her their wasn't a recipe and that I just put things together that I thought would work. Since I had tried so many different recipes, I had a good sense of what was essential in a good chili. So Tiffani told me that it was the best chili I had made yet and that I needed to write it down right then if I could remember everything that I put in it. Luckily, I could.
I usually make this in a big soup-pot, where I heat the onions and soy crumbles (ground beef substitute) until the onions are transparent and the crumbles are thawed completely. Then at that point, I would add all the other ingredients and let simmer for at least 45 minutes (hour and a half at best!). But this time, I was feeling a little lazy, and that was just all too much work (of course, I'm joking), so I decided to make this in the crock pot. I wanted dinner to be ready as soon as I got home from work so we would have plenty of time to head over to Wheeler Farm Pumpkin Days afterwards. So without further ado, let me tell you just how easy this crock-pot vegetarian 3-bean chili is.

Mama's 3-Bean Chili

Ingredients
1/2 onion, diced
1 can black beans, rinsed
1 can chili ready beans, not rinsed
1 can great northern white beans, rinsed
1 can corn, drained
1 can tomato sauce
1 can diced tomatoes
1.5 cups vegetable stock
packet of chili mix
1 Tablespoon chili powder
1/2 Tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 package of soy crumbles* this time I used Quorn brand - Boca brand is also good
1 bay leaf

Since I was using the crockpot, literally all I did was dump everything in, stir it together, and set it on low for about 6 hours. It couldn't have been any easier!

When the chili is all finished simmering or stewing in the crockpot and you're ready to serve, don't forget to fish out the Bay Leaf! No one wants to eat that! In our family, we like to top our chili with a healthy dollop of sour cream and some shredded cheddar cheese. Crumble a few saltine crackers in there (or Cheese-It's if you're my 5 year old), and you have one yummy bowl of warm-you-from-the-inside chili!*Of course, this does not have to be a vegetarian chili. You can brown up some ground beef rather than the soy crumbles and toss that in instead. Your choice. My goal here is to be able to show you just how easy it is to change up a normally meat-packed meal into something family friendly and vegetarian. Yes, I may use a lot of convenience-type ingredients, but c'mon, I'm a full time working mom, and I don't have all the time in the world. I still want to be able to provide something healthful to put on the table every night though. I know that there are a lot of vegetarians out there who are having to cook for the meat-eating spouses and children, and lots of those family members don't really want to eat quinoa, nutritional yeast, and tofu scramble all that often, if at all. My hope is to be able to show fellow busy moms (and dads!) that meat is very versatile, and that it's not the end of the world for your taste buds if you want to cook a meatless meal or two.

Wheeler Farm Pumpkin Days

Tuesday night was such a fun evening for my little family! After a yummy chili dinner (which I'll be blogging about soon), we got all bundled up and headed down to Wheeler Farm for their Halloween festivities. During the summer, Xander's preschool took a field trip to Wheeler Farm to see all the animals. I remembered he loved it, and although we wouldn't be seeing any animals this time, I knew he'd enjoy everything else they had to offer.

As soon as we got there, the first thing we had to do was attempt the hay maze. Xander loves working on mazes in his workbooks, so I figured this would be right up his alley, and I was right. He hit lots of dead-ends, but he didn't get discouraged - he loved the challenge of finding his way through the maze. It was so fun that we did it twice! Tiffani and I even had a fun time skipping and dancing through the maze with Xander. I love that I can be my silly goofy self with my two favorite people in the world.



After the hay maze, we headed over to the wagon ride. It was pretty chilly so we snuggled close to stay warm. There weren't any animals or anything to see, but there were a lot of lights and a few Halloween decorations.

Once the rickety wagon ride was through, we headed back over to the pumpkin patch to find the perfect pumpkin to soon become a good ole' Jack! There were so many to choose from, but in the end all 3 of us found one that suited us the best.


After we were all finished and ready to head back home, we had a yummy fall treat waiting at home for us! We were all cold, so we had decided on some hot chocolate, and then on top of that, the pumpkin frozen yogurt we made the night before, was all ready to eat! I know, a little ironic to be eating an icy treat while trying to warm up... but hey, it sounded good to us! and it was! I wish I had gotten a picture of us eating our treats, but I'm pretty sure were all to busy gobbling up the goodness to even think about it.
All in all, it was such a fun night. Most nights, it's the same old routine. Have dinner, get some things done around the house, get Xander ready for bed, get myself ready for bed, be lazy for a little bit, and then go to bed as late as physically possible. So to have it switched up a little bit for a change was really good for us I think. I couldn't do it every night, and it was definitely thanks to my crock-pot because the chili was all ready for eating by the time I got home from work. I'm so happy to not be so tied down and busy with wedding planning! We can do more things on a whim and spend a lot more quality time together. That is what family is all about, and I love my little family and every minute I get to spend with them!