"Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" Family Movie Night With Goodies From World Market #MovieLoversSweeps

2/25/2014

DISCLOSURE: I am a member of the World Market Trendsetter Tribe and I received gift cards to facilitate this post, however all opinions and experiences are my own.

Having several kids can be both a blessing and a curse. For example, if you have tons of chores that need to be done, multiple kids is definitely the way to go, but when it comes to going out and doing anything that requires spending money, less is best. Seriously, have you been to the movies lately?! If you have more than one kid, probably not. Everything is sooo expensive nowadays, it's usually just cheaper to grab a movie from the corner rental box thingy, grab a few snacks and chill at the house, which is exactly what we did last weekend. With a little help from the awesome food and drink section at World Market and these easy tips, you, too can have an awesome family movie night at home, where pajama pants are perfectly acceptable.

Tip 1: Location, Location, Location

Location is everything! You need to find a place that will accommodate all members of the family, comfortably. Throw some big pillows in the living room floor, make a palette with some old sleeping bags, veg out on the couch, anything goes as long as it's comfy and everyone can see.
There's nothing worse, on family movie night, than the one whiny jerk that's all like... "What just happened, I can't see?" or "What'd he say?", so make sure before pressing "Play", that everyone has an adequate vantage point.

Tip 2: Choose the Perfect Movie

This might be the number one thing that will make or break family movie night. There is a very fine balance when it comes to picking out the perfect movie, you have to factor in the age of the kids watching the movie... You wouldn't want to watch "The Smurfs" with a room full of teenagers or "Black Snake Moan" with your pre-schoolers. My advice, get everyone together a few days before the planned movie night, ask everyone to write down their 3 or 5 favorite, (Mom-approved) picks, add each title to a hat, let your favorite child draw out the movie... listen to the other kids gripe for 10 minutes, because their movie wasn't chosen, tell them to "Shut up, it's family movie night and you're gonna like it!", finish what you were doing, no big deal... See, I told you it was easy! For last week's movie night, we (I) chose "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2".

©Sony Pictures Animation

Tip 3: Snacks!

You really can't mess this up. Snacks are easy! When picking the perfect snacks, you want to replicate the movie theater experience, which means three things... Popcorn, candy and drinks.

Family Movie Night With World Market Goodies

I love these individual popcorn boxes, they work great for popcorn (or hand-fulls of candy too).

Yeah, yeah, I know candy isn't good for you, but it's Family Movie Night, you can let them slide, just this once. You don't want their fond memories of Family Movie Night to be marred by the fact that they had to eat broccoli and carrot sticks, do you?! DO YOU?! They already have enough crap to guilt you about, down the road, don't give them extra ammo... or feed them after midnight. (That was a "Gremlins" reference, for those of you born in this century, also a great choice for Family Movie Night)

These stackable canisters are perfect for storing and displaying assorted snacks and stuff.

For our "Cloudy 2" movie night, I went to World Market and grabbed all the goodies I could find, well not all of them, but most of them. I got several bags of popcorn, a few assorted candy treats, cookies, the obligatory box of Cracker Jacks and a few gourmet drinks. (See below for a full product list, with links)

I am a sucker for brightly colored drinks and World Market has tons of them to choose from.

While the popcorn, candy & drinks were definitely a huge hit, the star of the show, was the"Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" cookie dough cupcakes I made, using products from World Market. Words do them no justice, they were absolutely amazing. (click the link for full recipe)

We had a blast that evening, we never finished the movie, because poor Mom fell asleep, but the kids told me all the good parts I missed. I highly recommend putting aside the time to spend with your kids, trust me, they will be out of your house before you know it and you will be wishing you had these moments back.
Even if you're not an "entertain at home" kinda gal, you can still enjoy Family Movie Night, because family movie night is fun no matter where you spend it, at home or in the theater and World Market wants you to enjoy the movies for FREE when you win their Movie Lovers Sweepstakes.

Click to enter

From now until Friday March 7th, you can enter to WIN free movies for a year ($1600 Fandango gift card) + a $1000 World Market gift card. Imagine all the good stuff you could buy for your next family movie night!!! There will also be three runner up prizes of a $500 Fandango card + a $500 World Market gift card as well. What are you waiting for, enter the World Market Movie Lovers Sweepstakes today!!!