A Halloween Themed Family Movie Night

Our family enjoyed a Halloween themed movie night at home watching the Tim Burton flick FRANKENWEENIE.  This stop-motion-animated film that was theatrically released in 2012 is a parody of Mary Shelly's novel Frankenstein and the 1931 horror movie based upon the book.  The plot of the movie involves a boy named Victor who after his beloved dog Sparky dies uses the power of electricity to resurrect the pup.  When his classmates learn about what he has done they blackmail him into reanimating their deceased pets too with results which end up creating mayhem throughout the town.  Frankenweenie was filmed in black and white to give a classic horror picture vibe to it.  The film, which is rated PG for its thematic elements involving death and scary images, has an 87% Fresh Approval Rating with Rotten Tomatoes. 

We started off our Halloween themed day by enjoying a free trick-or-treat event hosted by some of the businesses in a downtown area near our house.  When our kids arrive home from that event we had some fun activities for them to do to keep them entertained until it was time for us to put on the blu-ray.  First off we has some fun blasting ghosts with a fun toy by Fotorama that you can pick up from Walmart called The Visions of Johnny the Skull.  This is a really fun and affordable electronic game that will be a hit with kids and kids-at-heart which is perfect for Halloween.

The premise of the game is that the skull spins around randomly projecting images of ghosts throughout the room.  You need to be a ghostbuster and zap those pesky ghosts with your ray gun.  Each time your ray gun hits its target it tallies your score and the score board is remarkably accurate.  Each player takes a turn and whoever eliminates the most ghosts is the winner!

 

The Visions of Johnny the Skull worked without a hitch!  We just threw in some batteries in the skull (4 AA) and in the ray gun (3 AAA) and it was ready to go!  The game features some spooky sound-effects to enhance the experience but the highlight is that the skull does a great job of spinning around and illuminating the ghosts on the ceiling and walls around the room in a manner that the player has to be whirling around the room as well to catch his or her targets.  The game has 3 skill levels with each one increasing the randomization of where the ghosts land and how fast they appear and disappear.  I was really impressed at how well the skull projected the images and made the game challenging for players.  Plus the way the ray gun was able to synchronize with the images projected on the walls and accurately tally "hits" was very impressive.  My kids really had a blast playing this game! I'd really encourage you to check out this Fotorama Johnny the Skull game especially if you are going to be hosting any Halloween extravaganzas with a bunch of your children's friends at your place.

My kids also had some fun playing with some Halloween themed Wooly Willy magnetic drawing boards from Patch Products.  My daughter had a Wacky Witch to match her costume and my son played around with a Cool Ghoul.  At $1.50 these are great to pick up just for your own kids or to use for party favors, classroom handouts or instead of candy for trick or treaters.  Since we have to be on guard around candy and other edible treats because of our kids' food allergies we always appreciate fun items that can be given out in lieu of sweets.  These Wooly Willy magnetic drawing activities really captured my kids imagination and attention throughout the night.

The kids  did one more activity before they changed out of their costumes and we put the movie into the dvd player.  My wife had picked up some Paint Your Own Sun Catchers for a $1 each and the kids showed off their artistic side.  Art class is my son's favorite part of school so he really liked us incorporating this craft into our Halloween themed Family Movie Night.

 

So you can't have a Family Movie Night without snacks!  Instead of popcorn we went with a more Halloween inspired treat: Cheetos skeletons!!!

Plus we made up some of A Geek Daddy's famous Jack-O-Lantern Jigglers.  Click here for more information about this treat from A Geek Daddy's Spooky Snack Lab. Cheers!!!

Finally it was movie time!!!  We'd had a fun day of Halloween activities and snacks, maybe a few too many things were going on because I found both my kids snuggled next to me on the couch fast asleep about half way through the movie.  So up to bed they went with visions of pumpkins, ghosts and witches dancing in their heads.  No nightmares that evening though just them waking me up very early in the morning to ask dad where he had hidden their trick-or-treat candy.

Happy Halloween everyone!!!  If you are considering your own Family Movie Night watching Frankenweenie enjoy these downloadable activity sheets and character masks you can print out:


**Disclaimer: Some of the featured products in this post were provided to A Geek Daddy for free for the blog to review.  Opinions are my own **

Family Game Night: CHRONO BOMB!

** A Geek Daddy received a complimentary Chrono Bomb! game courtesy of Patch Products for this review **

Now that school's back in session for our kids, we're getting back into the routine of making Friday's a FAMILY FUN NIGHT where we either spend the evening playing games or watching a movie together.  It's a time devoted to chilling out from the stresses of the week and to enjoy some bonding time together. For our first Family Fun Night of the school year, we had a fun secret agent themed time playing the game Chrono Bomb! from Patch Products and watched the movie Spy Kids for a good time.

Chrono Bomb! is a game where you have to make your way through a "laser field" to defuse a bomb before its timer ticks down to zero and goes boom!  You create the laser field using 27.5-feet of string weaving it through clamps to create an obstacle course to crawl and hurdle through to get to the bomb.  In addition to the timer clicking down, if you bump against the string once or twice it knocks off more time from the clock and a third time sets off the bomb - kaboom!   Race through the maze without setting off the bomb to see who can defuse it the quickest.



For some extra challenge to the game you can mix in some playing cards to the course.  Picking up the cards spread throughout the laser field before you are allowed to defuse the bomb can add another level of difficulty to the game.  There is also a free app that can be used with playing the game to provide some interesting twists to the action.

While the game may look a bit tricky to put together it really was easy to assemble.  Place the included clamps around your designated play space, roll out the string through an easy to use spinner device, which makes it easy for both laying out your laser field maze and putting it away, and throw three AAA batteries in the bomb to activate the timer and you are ready to go.   The sensor that connects the string to the bomb's timer worked really well for us and my kids were frequently frustrated when they brushed up against a string and the timer sped up or the bomb blew up...which is a big part of the fun of the game!  Knowing that touching the string would really impact the game really added to the thrill level of Chrono Bomb! and kept the kids honest about how they approached going through the maze.


Chrono Bomb! brought out our inner 007 in this secret agent themed game.   It was a nice change of pace to spend the evening playing something different from a board game or video game during our Family Fun Night.  It was pretty funny to see some of the positions and moves players have to distort themselves in to get through the maze.  Plus it got to be pretty competitive going head to head racing to get the best times.  I have to say my kid's size was an advantage in crawling through and slipping around the "laser beams" and my daughter ended up the Chrono Bomb! champion for the night.

This game gets A Geek Daddy nod of approval because it has players both engage in aerobic feats and focus on thinking about how they are going to accomplish a task.  It is something unique to play that can easily be set up inside and entertains kids while keeping them active.  Chrono Bomb! is perfect for keeping kids amused on a rainy day, having their friends over on a winter afternoon or enjoying time together on a family fun night.  Play over and over again by constantly building new courses to challenge players to achieve the best time.

Chrono Bomb! is recommend for ages 7+.  For more information, visit www.patchproducts.com/p/chrono-bomb