Disney Family Night: 101 Dalmatians

One of the (many) things we're doing in preparation for our big trip to Disney World is to have a Disney Family Night about once a month until we leave . In short, we pick one of our favorite Disney movies and then create a themed night around it. It's a fun way to bridge the long wait!

James' (current) favorite Disney movie is 101 Dalmatians. He's really into puppies right now, and was ecstatic that we were going to spend a whole night focusing on puppies!

When I plan these nights I have four main "departments" in mind - food, decor, music, and activities. So, for decor, I try to lightly transform our kitchen/family room into that theme. I don't go ALL out, but just enough to give James a sense of being a part of the movie we're celebrating. He gets *SO* excited and filled with anticipation when he knows I'm decorating the kitchen, and I often catch him peeking through one of the windows to catch a preview! :)

For our 101 Dalmatians night, I printed off lots of little paw prints, cut them out, and taped them all over our kitchen & living room! I also arranged several of James' stuffed puppies in various places - hanging out of cabinets, sitting atop the counter - so it'd look like they were climbing all over everything. :)

I made some "puppy ears" for James. They seriously took me two minutes to make. I used one of my headbands, cut out two dalmatian ear-shaped pieces out of black felt and paper-clipped them to the headband. Easy peasy!

While dinner was cooking, we played a few games. One was "Find the Bone" - I bought (and later donated to our neighbor's dog) a real dog bone and hid it somewhere in the house. James put on his puppy ears to "listen for clues" on where to find it. I also printed off some activity sheets from here, and made a puzzle out of an image I found on Google Images. In an effort to add an educational twist to the night (I'm a teacher, what can I say?!), I created and printed out a little blurb about why dalmatians are fire dogs.

For dinner I tried to keep the movie's locale in mind - England. Here's what was on our menu:
:: Rolly's Chew Sticks (aka large pretzel rods)
:: Perdita's Pie (aka shepard's pie) - this is actually a long time favorite in our house. I know we don't make it quite the way the Brits do, though, and I'm sure it's very Americanized. It's super yummy - crumbled hamburger, gravy, and peas, topped with a thick layer of mashed potatoes and sprinkled with a bit of cheddar cheese.
:: Pongo's Punch (aka milk with tiny chocolate chips) - in the movie, the puppies are directed to a farm where they receive fresh milk. I was glad to be able to offer James milk with his meal and still keep in theme with the movie! :)
:: Lucky's Biscuits (aka bone shaped sugar cookies) - these were our dessert and were yum-may!
:: Patch's Pupcorn (aka popcorn) - we used the kind that has salt and pepper seasoning because it gave the popcorn a subtle dotted look. :) We enjoyed this halfway through the movie.

Click here to see our other Disney nights - more to come! Next up is Finding Nemo!

~Thank you for your comments!~