A #DipDipHooray Grandparents Day! #CBias #SocialFabric

In the past we’ve always lived too far apart from my parents to really just drop in or get together often. Of course, we’d always connect for major holidays but those seem few and far between. However, last year we moved closer and had our second baby. So we had a blast yesterday celebrating Grandparents Day for the first time!

To prep for the day I took the kids over to Walmart. They LOVE getting out in this autumn weather. Having two little ones now {and the youngest with only four teeth}, our meals tend to be quick, easy, and kid-friendly. If we can manage to arrange our favorite frozen staples into fun meal solutions, then all the better. So for Grandparents Day I was planning to make what we {lovingly} call: Preschool Chicken Parmesan. I also needed to pick up a soft variety of french fry for our appetizer. If the kids were good; I was also planning on seeing if there was a new game that could involve Otis more then the standard card or board games.

Unfortunately, the store was a mad-house! If we didn’t have people coming over the next day, I would have left. We only bought 12 items and it took us nearly two hours! But as you can see in a recent post I made on Google+ {#DipDipHooray Grandparents Day!} that we found everything to make our family game night a success.

On my shopping list for the day?

• Tyson Chicken Nuggets
• Heinz Ketchup
• Ore Ida French Fries

And if possible, I wanted to check out the Hasbro Elefun preschool game. I’d seen in listed in a review online and thought it would be perfect for both the kids to enjoy. While hunting through the aisles, I also realized that getting ZooPals paper plates and cups would be ideal. The kids adore them and they really help with all the dips I had planned on using.

When Sunday came, we were off to a great start. The grandparents arrived in grand fashion and we were all eager to get the Ore Ida Golden Fries in the oven. Typically we really like the Golden Crinkle Fries but they’ve proven to get a tad too crispy for Otis right now. With four teeth and more on the way, his sore gums needed something a tad softer. Even just turning 1 year-old, he is all about feeding himself. Add in this cool plate for Heinz Ketchup? Totally a toddlers food dream come true! Plus, while the fries baked, we got our chance to try out our new Hasbro game, Elefun! To say it was a hit was an understatement.

Isabel LOVED the new game. She helped her Daddy put the Elefun unit together while Otis helped himself to our first nibbler course of the day. She was all smiles and I could barely get a picture in that wasn’t blurred by her leaping, laughing, and swinging her butterfly net to capture the rainbow of confetti raining down us. The game age is for 3+ and perfect for preschoolers like herself.

But no worries…I was right when I thought our toddler would enjoy it as well. He was enamored with waving his net and watching the colorful “butterflies” drift down around him. During this time I got online to check out the DipToPlay.com sweepstakes and game site. Its an awesome and interactive site that unlocks bonuses {such as online games} when you upload your product UPC codes from the Tyson, Ore-Ida, and Heinz goodies we bought for dinner.

We had a very easy time entering the DipToPlay Sweepstakes {I love a great contest!} and found the DipToPlay contest rules pretty straight forward as well. The only issues we had was unlocking the UPC codes. {It may have been due to the family sized bag of fries that we needed to purchase.} But it was time to start dinner so we simply hopped over to our main course.

And a main course it was! We had a bunch of goodies to collaborate a wonderful meal. The highlight of course was to combine using our Tyson Chicken Nuggets into our personal recipe creation: Preschool Chicken Parmesan. Sounds pretty spiffy right? In layman’s terms, we use the chicken nuggets layered over spaghetti to create a balanced meal. And the reason we prefer the Tyson brand is because they have a really great coating that stays textured while cooking. Its also a great way to begin teaching our 4 year-old daughter about eating more complete meals then the snacks that often come with being a Toddler.

And as you can see, we can create different plated options for each of our own tastes. The adults get a more traditional plate, while Otis gets his meal more finger friendly in a birds nest. Isabel is the dipping Princess; She likes her pasta plain and her nuggets to dip in the red sauce. Add in a huge cake for dessert and you had to roll us all away from the table.

So, despite an interesting shopping adventure and a few burnt nuggets; I think the day was a success. We’d even planned on watching a movie after dinner with more fries and a chili-cheesy Velveeta dip but were too full to even contemplate it. We had a great time and hope that you did too as you followed along with us during our day. In the end, we also got a great pic to commemorate our 2012 Grandparents Day as well.

Want to know more about the different products we used and awesome Hasbro Games sweepstakes? Then take a minute to check out the links below for more great ideas on how to have your own great Family Game Night!

Heinz Ketchup on Twitter & Facebook

Tyson Chicken on Twitter & Facebook

Hasbro Games: DipToPlay Sweepstakes

Roasted Disclosure: I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™,  Tyson and Heinz. However {and as always} all the opinions – thoughts – ideas – and reflections above are my own. #CBias #SocialFabric”