A Little Alien Fun to Celebrate Men in Black 3 - #SEEMIB3 #CBias

With the kids being sick and the holidays last week, the whole family desperately needed a pick-me-up and a little silly fun. 

I pre-purchased Men in Black 3 at Walmart last month, and I had a blog post, 'Men in Black is Back! See How to Pre-Purchase #SEEMIB3 at Walmart' on how easy it was to set up a Vudu account. You can see that shopping trip in my Google+ album. We anxiously waited for the early digital viewing option that came with our pre-purchase. The movie comes out in stores 11/30, on DVD, Blue-Ray/DVD and Ultra Violet combo packs. Our physical disc will arrive at the same time so we can enjoy this movie again and again. But I have to admit it was a lot of fun to see it early. 

To get in the #SEEMIB3 mood, I got the kids involved with several fun projects and devoted an entire day to aliens. My kids love crafts and decorating cookies, so I made alien 'snot', we designed our own alien finger puppets, alien jigglers and created our own aliens on Biscoff flavored Rice Krispie Treats.

Alien 'Snot'

Remember back when we were kids, Nickelodeon covered it's kid shows with slime and 'Gak' was all the rage. Well, this is a homemade version - quite simple, but sure to gross out your kids. We nicknamed it Alien 'Snot' in honor of Men in Black and the countless times 'J' has been slimed by one alien or another.

Only 4 ingredients are needed for this easy recipe:

• 1 tsp. Borax
• 1 c. water

Dissolve the Borax in water. Set aside.

• 4 oz. (1/2 c.) Elmer's School Glue, Blue Gel, Clear or White
• 1/2 c. water
• Food coloring (2-3 drops)

In a mixing bowl with a whisk  combine the glue, water and food coloring. Mix well. Add the dissolved Borax and keep mixing. It might seem too loose, but will firm up as you mix it. Drain off excess water as needed, or add more in to dilute it. This is not meant to be consumed. Please watch small children closely since this contains Borax...and we don't want any glue-eaters either.

If feels and looks like Alien 'Snot'. Now who is the coolest Mom ever?

Alien Finger Puppets

My kids love designing things, so I let them help design their own alien finger puppets to use in their puppet theater. I love how inexpensive craft felt is at my local Walmart. I combined this with some other craft supplies I had around the house to create our one-of-a-kind aliens.

Armed with Wiggly eyes, embroidery thread, some pre-cut felt spiders and a hot glue gun, we were only limited by our imaginations. I made mine a more mainstream little green man, but the kids got really creative with directing my hot glue gun.

The results are great. And we have a puppet show planned for later this evening. The kids are going to be busy preparing all afternoon.

Little Green Men Jigglers

The I made some green, lime-flavored Jigglers, cut them out with Easter Egg cookie cutters and cut maraschino cherries for the eyes and sprinkled them with a little sanding sugar. So easy, but always a hit. Just follow the package directions for making Jigglers, then cut out with cutters or free cut with a sharp knife to get your desired shapes.

Decorated Rice Krispie Treats

Lastly, we decorated up some easy to make Rice Krispie Treats. I opted to go the easy route and found a pre-made tube of green frosting, sparkly blue frosting,  picked up some candy eyes and let the kids go to work.

 I think there are a few new alien ideas we may see in an upcoming Men in Black movie, don't you?

After all this fun, it was time to watch the actual Men in Black 3 movie and bonus features on Vudu. My account was all set up, it was just waiting patiently for me in 'my movies'. And right there on the left-hand of the screen it says, "You Own It".

And what did we think of the movie? Well, it was just as clever as the first two, funny and this one even made me cry! Okay, I'm pregnant, so commercials make me cry, but you will love the ending and insight into both "J" and "K" after this movie. The new characters were also fabulous. Borris 'The Animal' was the quintessential villain and I hope to see 'Griff' in another Men in Black movie in the future. My hats off to Josh Brolin for an amazing impression of a young Tommy Lee Jones. Truly, it gave me chills.

Overall, this a must-see movie if you haven't already, or a great one to enjoy again at home. And Vudu? Yes, it is my new favorite way to enjoy a good movie, especially new releases, at home.

Connect with Men in Black on Twitter and Facebook. Also check out the MIB3 Movie Page.


*Disclaimer - I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Sony #CBias #SocialFabric. All opinions and experiences are my own.

Men in Black is Back! See How to Pre-Purchase #SEEMIB3 at Walmart

Aliens are coming! And you have the chance to pre-order Men in Black 3 to watch a few days early with your family. This offer is only available at Walmart, so I grabbed my family, little aliens included, and headed to our local store to take advantage of #SEEMIB3.

I still love the first Men in Black Movie and the teaming up of Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones has been one of my all-time movie favorites. I didn't get a chance to watch the 3rd installment in the theater, so I can't wait to watch it at home.

Bonus: Get a FREE movie credit when you sign up for Vudu.

Do you have a Vudu account yet? No worries, it is easy and since it was my first time trying out the service, I will walk you through it. First you need to get a pre-purchase copy of Men in Black 3, only at Walmart.

We found both DVD and Blue-Ray/DVD copies in the electronic's section with the new releases. The movie isn't out yet, but you can purchase the pre-order box that comes with details on Vudu, registering for your digital copy as well as how to sign up for your physical DVD to be mailed to you on the release date.

You can see my entire shopping trip and account set-up in my Google+ album.

So I will be able to start viewing my digital copy on November 16th, while the movie doesn't hit store shelves until November 30th, 2012. Nice, right?

Buy - Redeem - Watch

Okay, with your pre-order box in hand you will find step by step instructions inside the case.

Vudu is a great new way to rent and purchase digital copies of your favorite movies and television shows. Available on several different platforms, just follow the instructions on the insert to redeem your movie purchase, set-up an account and even get free movie credits to start you out.

Step 1: From your computer, go to Vudu.com/mib3, as directed by the insert. Enter your unique redemption code and set up your mailing address for the DVD to be delivered.

Step 2: Set up your FREE Vudu and UltraViolet accounts. You can skip the payment information for now and decide later if you want to add a credit card for future movie rentals.

Step 3: Grab some popcorn, plan your viewing party and get set to watch Men in Black 3 on November 16th. The physical movie will arrive at your door a few days later.

Now be sure to set-up which devices you will be viewing your Vudu movies on. First we set up our Xbox 360. Vudu has step-by-step instructions for any devices you choose. I found Vudu under video apps, downloaded it and received a free movie credit for linking up the Xbox.

My husband even found that our HDTV was Vudu-enabled. We set that up as well, and guess what? More free movie credits! So even before we can start watching MIB3, we are going to start watching some of the other movies we missed in the theaters with vudu.com.

Connect with Men in Black on Twitter and Facebook.

Be sure to come back and check out the fabulous viewing party I am planning for this movie. I have food ideas, decorating tips and kids craft ideas to share.

*Disclaimer - I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Sony #CBias #SocialFabric. All opinions and experiences are my own.

Cinderella -So Many Ways to Celebrate Fairytale Magic #DisneyPrincessWMT

Did you get a chance to attend the Walmart Retailtainment Event on October 6th?

As I mentioned in my previous Cinderella post we made sure my daughter had the perfect dress and purchased supplies for our upcoming Princess Party - #DisneyPrincessWMT. You can see a recap of our Walmart shopping trip in my Google+ album. 

One October 6th we drove up to Eugene to buy our copy of the Cinderella Diamond Edition and see what fun was going on in the participating store. We found the table, marked with Cinderella balloons, near the middle of the store. There were cupcakes, hand-outs, Cinderella product displays and information on the Royal Ball Augmented Reality App 2.0. In fact most of the trigger points were right there next to the event table. I had fun trying it out with my family and the woman working the event. She had just downloaded the app herself and was curious to hear what I thought about it. My children were most excited about the coloring pages they received and the blue Cinderella ring that topped the cupcakes.

Both my husband and I downloaded the app to compare differences between the iPhone and Droid versions. They were similar, but he was able to unlock more new dresses at the dress shop by finding trigger points on the princess dresses display than I was.

In the app you are invited to The Royal Ball. There are 3 stops along the map, each has activities to do with your little princess to build excitement for the movie. We played around with the Princess Boutique stop at home. This part allowed my daughter to design her perfect outfit; dress, crown, necklace and shoes. Afterwards I had the option to take a picture of my daughter in her chosen outfit, save it, share it or print it at Walmart location.

Then at the Carriage Shop stop on the map it gave us the chance to take another picture, this time inside Cinderella's carriage. It also asked us to scan the front of the Cinderella Diamond Edition DVD revealing a 3-D picture of her carriage.

My daughter loved this! Okay, I did too. I love interactive packaging. 

The final stop on the map is the Royal Palace. Once you have selected your dress, and designed your carriage it is time to dance at the ball. Dance along with the app and other princesses by following the arrows and directions on the screen. My daughter enjoyed dancing all around our living room with it.

Now that we had our DVD, it was time to have our princess party. Luckily we had a list of lovely princesses to invite to our "ball".

I wanted to create a fun and magical party for all the princesses attending. I asked them all to come dressed in their favorite princess dresses, but just in case someone had nothing to wear (or needed a quick change) I offered up several outfits, crowns, rings and other princess-perfect accessories in a big dress up trunk near the entryway.

I tried to keep the decorations blue or white and created large tissue paper pom-poms to hang on the wall above our food table. The main table displayed the cookies, dips and fruit, while we had the sandwich bar along one counter in the kitchen.

I was happy to offer all the young ladies a wide variety of fresh fruit and vegetables. That seems to be a safe choice for little fingers and picky eaters. Since I wasn't planning on making cupcakes for this party, I decorated a cupcake tower to hold cupcake liners filled with grapes, instead. The tower was topped with a mini-pumpkin and the decorating set we were given during the Walmart in-store Retailtainment Event.

Of course we had to have sugar cookies for the party. I made a simple sugar cookie, my go-to recipe, with royal icing and cut-out both glass slippers and crowns. I opted for a light blue, in honor of Cinderella, periwinkle gel paste from Wilton. I also topped with silver sanding sugar, heart sprinkles and accented with thick white royal icing. What do you think?

I am currently in love with colored paper straws and found some in Cinderella blue and light grey stripes. Paired with Cinderella plates, cups, a blue tablecloth and star confetti from Walmart, it completed our princess table.

I am not sure we really needed Cinderella as an excuse to all get together and dress up. Little girls just love their princess dress-up clothes. I enjoy you can find them in any color and size.

I loved seeing all the little girls dressed up. One of the youngest girls even came decked out in a little flower girl dress and her mom dressed up as well!

Many of the girls had seen Cinderella before, but it was my daughter's first time to watch it. She loved it and I remembered how beautiful this movie really is for young children. So magical, so cute and nothing to scare them or give them nightmares later. I appreciate that since my son is easily frightened by movie villains.

It was such a lovely group of princesses, and one prince charming. Really, my son didn't mind.

So this is how we celebrated the return of Cinderella, how will you celebrate? Check how other families are celebrating at playnexplore.com.

You can connect with Disney on Twitter, Cinderella on Facebook and also like the Disney Princess Facebook page to stay in the loop.

*Disclaimer - I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Disney Consumer Products, Inc. #CBias #SocialFabric . All opinions and experiences are my own.

Decking Out a Princess and Planning the Perfect Cinderella Party - #DisneyPrincessWMT #CBias

There is a lot of excitement in our house this week. You might say we have gone a little princess crazy.

Disney's Cinderella Blu-Ray/DVD release is coming October 2nd (tomorrow!) and we can't wait. This 3-disc Diamond Edition is digitally remastered and comes at the perfect time to share with my daughter. Do you remember watching it as a child? Earlier this week I read the story to my 3-year old for the first time. She was captivated. I think she liked the part about the mice best.

In true Cinderella fashion, we got an invitation:

Now, of course we will be going. I am so excited to get my little girl all dressed up for the fun. While we are at the Walmart event I plan to pick up our copy of Cinderella.

 But, first I needed to head to Walmart to pick up a Cinderella dress and everything needed for the October 6th Retailtainment Event in select stores.  My daughter couldn't wait to go shopping. Walmart is also stocked with all shapes and sizes of Cinderella dolls and toys to spark a little girl's imagination.

And with a dress, crown and glass slippers, why not throw a party for all our friends? Invitations have already gone out and while at the store we also picked up some items for our party. With so many choices, it was easy to find everything from cups to plates and party favors with the Cinderella theme.

The hardest part was not grabbing everything! Here is my final cart. I still have some other items to pick up for the party, but this is a fabulous start. You can view my entire shopping trip in my Google+ album.

Want to join the Walmart event with your little princess? Check out the Walmart Disney page to find out if a store near you is participating in the #DisneyPrincessWMT.

So I am off to plan a princess party for my daughter and all her friends. I can't wait to share my party with all of you. I have some big ideas and hope I can pull it all off.  I also have a few more fun things up my sleeve to share, like photos from the Walmart in-store Retailtainment Event and the Royal Ball Augmented Reality 2.0 App. in my second post.

My little dancer is just warming up. We are just about ready for the ball.

Are you? See all the Cinderella fun at playnexplore.com.

You can connect with Disney on Twitter, Cinderella on Facebook and also like the Disney Princess Facebook page to stay in the loop.

*Disclaimer - I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Disney Consumer Products, Inc. #CBias #SocialFabric