Suburban Soiree

Movie Night: Freebirds

Movie Night, ThanksgivingAmy WileyComment
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I feel like my finger is hovering on the trigger of a cannon of all things Christmas.  I'm almost ready to unleash the most wonderful time of the year at my house, but first a little Thanksgiving fun!

Freebirds is a really cute little movie that's perfect for November.  It offers plenty of laughs for both kids and adults.  Read about its content here.

I was tickled to spot these turkeys and they inspired my whole look for the table.  I LOVE the touches of pink!  I look forward to putting them out year after year.

Also, let's talk about how much mileage I'm getting out of these pumpkins.  They work September through November!

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I added these dinner napkins and put these under the glasses.  When I buy a pack of fun napkins for movie night I always use the extras throughout the following week for dinner and packing lunches for the kids.

The place cards are just the cutest. 

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For dinner, we are having enchiladas.  Because we just are.  If you wanted to play off the theme, you could do a toned-down thanksgiving-type meal or turkey/cranberry/dressing/cream cheese sandwiches.  The main character in this movie, Reggie, is a turkey who learns how to order pizza so you could do that too!

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If you haven't already, give this silly little movie a try!

Easy Mornings With Overnight Guests

Thanksgiving, Hosting, ChristmasAmy WileyComment

It's almost time for family and friends to start rolling into town for the holidays and that means many of us will be playing host to overnight guests.

I used to think I needed to get up, shower, and be completely presentable in time to pull a breakfast casserole out of the oven at the precise moment my guests ventured downstairs in the morning.  Well, that was exhausting.  I'm not a "get ready in 10 minutes" kind of girl.  I did NOT wake up like this.  Also, since we live in Colorado, when guests come from the East Coast they are on a schedule two hours ahead of us.  It just makes sense to let everyone get up at their leisure.  Time has taught me to make things easier on myself and so I'm passing my new method on to you.

We hosted a family member last week and I offered a "self serve" breakfast of muffins and scones.  

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It was so easy to just grab a few things at the store and presenting them nicely looks like you went to way more trouble than you actually did.  These napkins are too cute.  (If you're looking to make a quick buck, just print "y'all" on something and chances are I'll buy it.)

I grabbed these pretty little plates when I got the muffins.

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We have a coffee bar that is well-stocked at all times because that is just how we roll over here.  Guests can make themselves a cup of coffee or tea whenever they like.

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I also made a Christmas verison for you.  Just before Halloween I found these bowls at the Target Dollar Spot (which I guess they're calling Bullseye's Playground now) and I was ready to put away all the pumpkins and jump head-first into Christmas.  They're that cute.

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Target calls these candy bowls but I think they're perfect for cereal!

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A variety pack of mini bags is the perfect way to offer options without buying 14 big boxes of cereal.  Plus, I'm happy to let visiting kids have the sugary stuff they might not get to have at home.  Points for me.

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This canister holds spoons nicely.

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While some mornings call for an elaborate sit-down breakfast, the busy holiday season is the perfect time to say "help yourself at any time" to guests and steal a few more winks for yourself.

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Personally, I plan on keeping this set-up out throughout December.

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My family loves this bit from Jim Gaffigan about being a house guest... specifically the "nice of you to join us!" part:

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Movie Night: Red Riding Hood

Movie Night, HalloweenAmy Wiley2 Comments

Happy Halloween!  

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This movie night is inspired by our Halloween costumes.  My husband and I usually don't dress up, but this year we got a wild hair and joined the kids. We all play a role in our first true family theme, which is Little Red Riding Hood. 

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I thought this made such a cute theme.  I made a point to only use things we had on hand.  The red gingham tablecloth is round and normally goes on our outdoor table, so I did the old scrunch trick.  The round tree slices (not sure what to call them!) are from my daughter's first birthday party.  The little basket is part of her costume.

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The red plates are from my wedding registry and the white plates are part of some catering-type dishes I have from World Market.  I ordered this pretty pop-up book to commemoriate our costumes and frankly to brush up on the story.  Ha!

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You have to love that when I asked my husband if he had a small ax I could use for the table he offered me three choices.  He also dug into the Christmas decorations for me to get the little tree.

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The wolf is my kids' from Great Wolf Lodge.

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Ok let's talk about the movie itself.  I honestly didn't know if such a movie existed.  A search on Amazon gave me a few options, each with reviews that said, "Not for kids!"  I figure I'm probably not any more lenient than a random Amazon reviewer.  Who knows.  So I chose this version from 1988.  Y'all it was OLD and WEIRD.  Oh and it's a musical.  Plus Craig T. Nelson plays his own evil twin.  So there's that.

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The Big Bad Wolf is more like the Big Bad German Shepherd.  It was certainly not a cinematic masterpiece, but we are happy to expose our kids to things that are old-fashioned and not the latest and greatest.  To me it beats the "not for kids!" version any day.  We enjoyed it for what it was.

For dinner I pulled out one of my old tried-and-true Halloween tricks:  a Jack-o-lantern pizza from Papa Murphy's.  This says "I'm a fun mom" when really you are just a tired mom.  I added a salad.

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Dessert was pumpkin cheesecake from Trader Joe's.  TJ's is the secret to my success.

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I loved this movie night and my family did too.

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I hope you enjoy lots of treats and maybe even a few tricks today!