I’ve always been a Disney movie lover. Even in college, I preferred to watch the Disney movies and shows because they just felt good. Plus, the songs are catchy and the storyline is always a good lesson.
Disney’s movement toward live action remakes of their cartoon classics has only recently got my attention – particularly Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King and Aladdin. I just never really paid attention before… But when I heard Mulan would be next, my heart jumped! My favorite Disney movie on the big screen!
Mulan was initially intended to be released in March… but, Coronavirus; so they released it to Disney+ for an extra $29. Not a high cost when you consider how going to the movies pre-COVID would of cost us more. Besides, it’s been fun to watch Disney roll out these recent live action remakes, as they blend our favorite scenes and songs into a new twist, and we could all use that fun in our lives right now. This felt like a great opportunity to take a break from unpacking and to be a little extra!
If you know my type of extraness by now, you know I shoot for a good balance of time, effort and cost. Our menu for the evening involved ordering Chinese food from a local restaurant for dinner and a fun snack board for the movie. After dinner, my husband gave our son an impromptu lesson in using chopsticks. He didn’t do too bad!
I whipped up this delicious snack board made up of our favorite movie snacks and some of my typical wine snacks (salami, crackers, cheese). It was fun to balance the board with snacks my kiddo liked and snacks my husband and I would enjoy, too.
For a fun twist, I decided to make candy sushi and I was so glad I did! My husband was a big fan of them and said they were a good balance in sweetness (and he isn’t much of a candy person). I initially planned to make the Rice Krispies from scratch, but… why? I always have to remind myself that to keep up with the fun, I have to find shortcuts and make it easy to do. So, pre-packaged Rice Krispie treats to the rescue! And they were way better than homemade for the purpose of this snack.
Another fun twist for the evening: paper fortune cookies! I wanted so badly to have real fortune cookies, even though I learned that it’s not really common in Asian countries. My hunt for fortune cookies here in Okinawa came up empty… even the restaurant we ordered our takeout from didn’t have any! So, I attempted a crafty effort I found on Pinterest… origami fortune cookies! I slipped a hand written fortune cookie into each one and placed them on the snack board. After the movie, we each got to open one to read. My son seemed to really enjoy the idea and it was a great way to end the evening!
My Extra Mom Verdict? Themed movie nights are always a fun way to shake things up at home! Most of my time was spent attempting to make the paper fortune cookies – I was quickly reminded why I typically avoid most DIY projects, lol. Our menu was easy to do – Chinese takeout was a quick, easy dinner idea and didn’t cost much. Also, our snack board was cheap in cost, mostly made up of snacks we had at home and only took me 20mins to put together. Overall, it was a great way to celebrate my favorite Disney movie and a fun way to start off our Labor Day Weekend.