Remember the summer activity ideas I shared when summer began? Now that summer is winding down and school is in session for little miss Genevieve, I thought I'd share one easy family activity we love: game night. I grew up playing games. At one point we lived in Germany and had one channel in English. We would have gone crazy without other forms of entertainment. So we played games. Lots of games. Games every weekend. Games on weeknights. Games for days. I have the best memories of laughing, crying, and trying to quit all while marathon game playing. There was even a "if you quit, you can't play a game for 2 weeks" rule. I'm telling you guys, it was serious. ;) I'd really love to continue the game night tradition with our kids. Once school, sports, and activities start, it can be tough to fit bonding time in. The girls love playing games and I'm all for family time sans electronics. Here's how our little 'back to school' themed game night went down:
Food:
I combined dinner + snacks with our game playing. Combining the two saves time and makes dinner seem festive. The kids were thrilled to have snacks and treats on a school night. We served Ellio's Pizza as the main dish. Pizza often makes the menu during the busy back to school season. It's super convenient to swap a from-scratch meal for the ease of an all natural (Ellio's uses 100% real cheese and no artificial ingredients), low cost alternative. My husband used to eat Ellio's Pizza as a kid. I love that Ellio's has been around for a while and it's the same pizza he grew up with. Plus, it's super quick to pull together (just throw in the toaster oven for 12-14 minutes), which means it doesn't cut into our quality time together. Besides pizza, I served popcorn, mozzarella bites (gotta get some veggies in!), and brownies for dessert. Don't the mozzarella bites look like little apples? That was totally unintentional.





Games:
Our girls are still young so the games have to be to the point and quick. We love the classics- Hungry Hungry Hippo, Chutes and Ladders, and Candy Land.



Music:
We used Joe's phone and a Bluetooth speaker to throw on a kid-themed playlist and get the party started.

Decorations:
Of course decorations aren't totally necessary but I'm a sucker for a theme! Usually for game night we break out a game and play on the living room floor. But I wanted to make this game night a fun "You survived the first week of school!" party for Genevieve so I took 5 minutes (and about $5) and put out a few decorations. These included pencils in jars, apples as a centerpiece, a composition notebook, and a map I stole from their playroom.



A good old fashioned game night paired with Ellio's Pizza and yummy snacks makes for a good start to the week and a sweet way to say great job to our 1st grader! Do you play games with your kiddos? What's your favorite game night meal? Join the conversation--follow Ellio's on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram.

And, if you're now inspired to host your own game night, I have extra good news: Ellio's and Hasbro are partnering up for a special pizza + family game night giveaway. From now through November 30, pick up a specially marked Scrabble edition pizza box of Ellio's Pizza for a chance to win cool prizes from Ellio's and Hasbro! Visit Ellios.com for official rules.

This is a sponsored post on behalf of Dr. Oetker USA LLC. I received compensation for this post, however all opinions stated are my own.