How We Do: Family Date Night

Despicable Me is one of my family's favorite movies of all time. When I found out it was coming to the drive in, I immediately started planning a family date night. Although these can be as stressful as a family vacation, with 4 children plus a friend, the memories are well worth it. Of course, Despicable Me minions were the theme of the evening. Minimal prep went into this one. We picked the one night in July that the low was 56 degrees so we made sure we packed plenty of blankets. My kids and I made snacks. Throw in some lawn chairs and we were set.

The snacks were probably the most time consuming. We made minion cupcakes that I found on Pinterest and minion marshmallow kabobs.

For the cupcakes, all you need are Twinkies, candy eyes (in the cake decorating aisle at Walmart), cupcake box mix and all that goes into making those, blue icing, and icing to make the faces on the Twinkies. I got the icing pens from Wilton but they didn't make it too long before they stopped writing. So I'd recommend the tube icing that you can put a decorative tip on instead.

We cut the Twinkies in half and put the candy eyes on with the blue frosting, then made the faces with the icing pens. We made the cupcakes, let them cool, topped them with the icing, and put the Twinkie on top. FYI whipping the icing with the mixer prior to application to the cupcakes makes the icing fluffier and easier to spread.

With the kabobs, you need white almond bark, marshmallows, food coloring, and kabob sticks. I made a make shift double boiler by filling a pot half full with water and bringing it to a boil then putting the metal or glass bowl on top to melt the almond bark without burning it. We noticed it was getting thick so we thinned it with milk. We dipped each marshmallow half into a color and then put them in the freezer to make them harden quicker.

 After they are hardened, dip the other end and freeze again. Then string them on the kabob sticks and decorate. So they aren't perfect, but you get the idea. Hehe. It's the thought that counts right. They would make excellent Spongebob Kabobs as well!

Getting 7 people, 5 lawn chairs, blankets and pillows in a Dodge Journey is tricky but we managed. Loaded up for an hour drive to the drive in. We got there 2 hours early and stood in line at the concession stand for an hour, but it was worth it. We got 6 cheeseburgers, 3 hot dogs, 1 grilled cheese, a 12 in pizza, 4 bags of snack size chips, 5 -32 oz sodas and 2 waters for $42.00! Woot Woot!

To get in, anyone over 12 was $7.00. Pretty good deal! We had a great time. Half of us ended up falling asleep and we didn't get home till 1 am, but we had fun!