Beauty and the Beast Movie Night

Before we left for Disney, we had a movie night each weekend for the month leading up to our trip. We had a Lion King, Peter Pan, Toy Story, and Inside Out movie night. Now that we are back, I won't be doing one each weekend, for sure; but it's still fun to think of cute foods and crafts to do and then sit down and enjoy a movie together.

For tonight's movie night, I decided on my personal favorite, Beauty and the Beast. I didn't care if we watched the live action version or the cartoon version (I love them both!), so we let Nolan decide and he picked the one with "real people".

About a month ago, we painted a flower pot and had it fired for us to plant Nora's forget-me-not flowers. Since one of the icons of Beauty and the Beast is a flower (granted, a rose, but we'll just roll with it), I decided it would be the perfect time to plant Nora's flowers.

After we finished planting our flowers, we came in and worked on a DIY stained glass craft. They turned out super cute, but Nolan was into it for all of about 5 minutes and then Mama had to finish his. Oh, well. I could see this being something he would be more excited about as he gets older and learns more about patterns.

These were super simple and used things I already had at home! I took a sheet of clear contact paper, stuck some strips of black cardstock to it to make a design, then cut some tissue paper into little squares and we stuck those onto the contact paper. When the contact paper design was full, I applied another sheet of contact paper on, then cut off the excess.

In our hallway, I have a command hook that I use to display "holiday" themed handprint art Nolan has made throughout the years. This time of year, it's harder to keep something displayed because the holidays are farther apart. I've been wanting something "springy", so I figured I'd stay on my theme of flowers and we made a flower handprint canvas. Nolan LOVES painting his handprint...he got so excited when I told him we were going to paint!

I made us a LeFou's Brew (from Gaston's Tavern in Magic Kingdom at Disney World) and it was delicious! To make it, all of the recipes I found called for marshmallow syrup. I looked and looked and couldn't find any. I finally googled how to make marshmallow syrup, and turns out, it's super easy! I used this recipe for the drink.

To make the marshmallow syrup (if you don't have any luck finding it either):

Mix one cup sugar and one cup water and boil until sugar is dissolved.

Add 8 large marshmallows and keep on low heat until marshmallows are dissolved.

Pour through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl or glass and let cool. 

Use this syrup as directed in the LeFou's Brew recipe!

For dinner, we took some inspiration from the song "Be Our Guest" and had beef ragu and cheese souffle...Ok, really we had something that said it was Beef Ragu (I've never had it before and doubt I will again😳) and our "cheese souffle" was just cheesy bread. Haha! We also had rose apple pies and ice cream for dessert. Those were amazing! And pretty easy! 

To make rose apple pies:

I cut circles out of a pie crust, then put the circles into the bottom of a greased cupcake pan.

I sliced apples with my mandolin to get the thinnest and most even slices I could, then halved the slices so I had a flat side and a round side.

I sprinkled some lemon juice, cinnamon, and sugar on the apples and tossed them to coat, then microwaved them for about 30-45 seconds to soften them some. 

With the flat side down, I began putting them into the pie crusts and layering them one on top of the other. 

I brushed a little melted butter and some more cinnamon and sugar on top, then baked them for 30 minutes on 350 degrees. 

We watched the movie while we ate dinner and enjoyed it, of course! My favorite part is always when "Tale as Old as Time" comes on and Nolan lets me hold him and we dance together. 💙

Before bed, I put some finishing touches on the flower canvas and hung it in the hallway. Isn't it precious?!

Now to think of some ideas for our next movie night! Anyone have any suggestions?