Countdown to Disney {FFMN-Finding Nemo}

It's Friday night, and that means Friday Family Movie Night as a countdown to our family vacation to Disney World!  Tonight, we are watching Finding Nemo.  Our Nemo themed meal is:

The kids really loved the menu that I had created for the refridgerator.  C kept pointing to it and saying, "Mahmo."  B loves Finding Nemo, but he finds the SCUBA divers during the scene where Nemo is 'fishnapped' kinda scary.  So, he 'hides' in the play room during that part of the movie and then comes back to watch the rest.  That silly boy!

Here are the eats.  This meal was actually much more of a hit than I had anticipated.  The kids really liked the shrimp (which is just the frozen Sea Pack brand popcorn shrimp).  And as you can see from C's face below, the Doritos were clearly a hit!

The best part of the meal (to me, at least) was the Sea Turtle Cheesecakes.  These are really yummy, and I have made them plain several times and served them with canned cherry pie filling.  This night was an experiment.  The basic recipe comes from the cookbook my school sold as a fund raiser when I was in elementary school.  But, as is my modus operandi, I alter things to fit me.  So here is MY version of Cheesecake Cupcakes:

2 8-oz pkgs. cream cheese, softened

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

3/4 c. sugar

Cream together with electric mixer.  Place cupcake liners in muffin pan and put a Double Stuffed Oreo in the bottom of each liner.  Scoop filling over the Oreos until each cup is about 3/4 full.  Bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes.  Cool and chill in refridgerator until ready to serve.  Makes 18 cupcakes.

To make them "turtle" cheesecakes, you need pecans, chocolate sauce, and caramel.  I used caramel ice cream topping, Hershey hot fudge, and pecan halves from my in-laws pecan trees.  I arranged the pecans in a way that I thought looked turtle-ish by using a pecan half as a head and pecan pieces as front flippers and a tail.  Momentarily, I thought that maybe I should have put back flippers on them too, but when I tried, it just didn't look right.  And judging from B's face, they were a hit as well.

The kids really enjoyed the fun, family evening.  B has been talking about what we ate that night for days and has been asking about my plans for other movies as well.  I am so glad he is enjoying it.  Seeing these sweet faces makes the extra effort SO worth it.