Family Fun Night: Kung Fu Panda

You know how life can get so crazy, overwhelming and just plain busy? One of the things that I'm seriously dedicated to is making sure my family still gets in plenty of quality time during the week - not just the weekend. My husband and I want to be the kind of parents who play, really interact with and develop a healthy relationship with their children. Too often it seems easy to get caught up in just being around our children and taking care of them that we forget to really invest and nurture our relationship with them.

Yep, that's my rant for the day.

Anyhow, with that in mind, I wanted to share with y'all one of our family nights that we have coming up next week. This one is really simple, requires very little prep and is something a wide range of ages can enjoy.

Step #1 (optional)
Make an invitation with details about your fun family night and hand it out to all your family members - consider using this Chinese symbol for family on the invitations.

Also be sure to include a note about how all cell phones must be put on silent (not vibrate b/c it's still distracting) and ignored until the family night activities are over. This includes mom and dad's phones.

Step #2

Either make your own Chinese food for dinner (click here for my Sesame Chicken, Egg Rolls or Pineapple Chicken recipes) or pick up some at your favorite Chinese restaurant.

Challenge! Everyone at the table has to try eating their dinner with chopsticks for a few minutes - if you're anything like our family you'll get lots of laughs while you try to figure out your unfamiliar utensils; our daughter has way better chopstick skills than I do.

Step #3

Get your movie snacks/dessert ready. These little creme filled wafer cookies go perfectly with the movie (see Step #4) and can be found in Asian grocery stores, on Amazon and the Target near my house has been carrying them for months in their $1 section. They are pretty yummy and come in chocolate, vanilla and strawberry flavors.

Step #4

Eat your panda cookies while watching either Kung Fu Panda or Kung Fu Panda 2 together. My whole family thinks these movies are hilarious. If you don't own them, consider getting them through Netflix or your local library.

Step #5

After the movie, have the whole family show off their best kung fu moves...preferably on invisible opponents or set up some ground rules so nobody gets hurt.