At Christmas we surprised the kids and told them that we were going to take them to DISNEY WORLD and UNIVERSAL ORLANDO this summer! Along with that surprise, we gifted the kids with a “Countdown to Disney” surprise. Every month leading up to our trip the kids are given a new invitation inviting them to a family dinner-and-a-movie night that is themed around a specific Disney World or Universal ride.
The Invitation:
In January we invited the kids to our first Countdown to Disney Night where we journeyed to Epcot with a Frozen Ever After dinner and a movie night.
The Plan:
I wanted to keep things fun and exciting for the kids (and our preteens who thankfully still love this stuff), but also low-stress for me. (Is there such a thing?) For me I decided to focus on three things:
- Dinner
- Simple Craft or Activity
- Dessert
I designed a 8.5×11 theme-night printable that let the kids know what was on the menu and what to expect for the craft or activity. If you would like to use our menu, you can download the menu for free HERE. **
Again, get your free Frozen Theme Night Menu – HERE. **
Decorations
Repurposed – The majority of our decorations were repurposed items from Christmas. We used sparkly Christmas tree decorations, a snowflake tree topper, sparkly snowflakes ornaments with ribbon tied around them for our napkin holders, and fake snow we had from Christmas (think of it like a giant cotton ball). I also had sparkly twig things that we threw in some jars too. You will be surprised what you can find if you hunt through some of your Christmas decorations.
Snowflakes -The night before our theme night I stayed up late with my husband James taping up dozens and dozens of beautiful sparkly snowflakes we happened to get during a half-off sale at Hobby Lobby. By the morning almost all of them had fallen off the ceiling, so it wasn’t quite the fun reveal I was hoping for. Haha. We ended up hanging up half of them about thirty minutes before the night started and enjoyed playing the game of “will a snowflake fall on me?” throughout the night. The kids had a fun time with it. I am guessing tape and textured ceilings don’t get along. For my bigger paper snowflakes I made I used push-pins which did great.
Icicles – I cut icicle shapes from a white plastic tablecloth and taped it along the ceiling line in our movie room. Don’t expect perfection here – its hard to cut clean neat lines from a cheap tablecloth, but its so high up there no one will even notice.
Backdrop – I taped up a blue plastic tablecloth and then strung fairy lights and snowflake ornaments tied together on a string on it as well.
Frozen Themed Food Ideas
Dinner
- Sven Salad (Garden salad)
- Troll Stones (We bought pre-made frozen italian meatballs we warmed up in a crockpot & served with country gravy – it was yummy!),
- Melted Snow (We went with quick/easy instant mashed potatoes)
- Olaf Noses (steamed carrots – our kids don’t like roasted but I bet that would be delish!)
Dessert
- Frozen Cake Balls
- Ice Blocks (Blue raspberry jello cut up in squares)
- Blue Candy (We found it in the gender reveal/baby aisle at Walmart)
Cake Ball Recipe:
Blend cake crumbs and frosting, roll into a ball and dip in candy melts.
Ingredients:
1 box of favorite cake mix & ingredients to make the cake
1 tub of pre-made frosting (you won’t use the entire thing)
Candy Melts or melting chocolate/almond bark
Sprinkles
Instructions
1. Bake cake in a 9×13 inch dish and let cool, then break cake apart until it turns into fine crumbs.
2. Stir in 1/2 cup of frosting and stir cake crumbs and frosting together. Add a little bit of frosting at a time until it forms into a dough consistency that you can roll into balls. Chill balls in fridge for half an hour. (We didn’t have time for this and they still turned out great)
3. Melt chocolate and dip balls in the chocolate. (We added some blue food coloring to our almond bark). Use a fork to dip and cover the cake ball, lift up out of melted chocolate and gently shake off the excess chocolate.
4. Place the coated balls on parchment paper and then sprinkle yummy sprinkles on the top before the chocolate hardens.
5. Store the cake balls in the refrigerator until ready to serve. These can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge for several days if necessary.
Can I make a suggestion? This is a fun (easy) dessert for kids to make. My kids loved making these.
Craft/Activity
Crystal Snow Flake Art
Ingredients:
- Dark craft paper
- Epsom salt & water
- basic paint brushes
Instructions:
- Mix together equal parts epsom salt and water in a bowl. (We started with 1/2 cup of each). Stir until well combined. (You can mix in blue food coloring to try it too!)
- Paint snow flake shapes on dark craft paper. When the paintings dry fun crystals show up from the epsom salt.
Tip – If you were like us and running a little later into the night (and bedtime, yikes) you can easily combine this craft while watching the movie as well.
End the night cuddling up on the couch, eating your desserts, and watching either Frozen 1 or 2 (or if you were like our family, we watched part of both)
Overall our first themed night counting down to our Disney World trip was a success. Stay tuned for our next Countdown to Disney coming soon.
**Disney owns the intellectual rights for the movie Frozen and its characters. This printable is meant to celebrate a fun family night and is for personal use only.
