We always make sure to take time out regularly for fun family nights. Pizza and movie nights are always a favourite, and are a really easy way to spend quality bonding time together with the family. The kids always look forward to these nights, and so do I!
This week for our family pizza night, we tried out our local Papa Johns Pizza. They have a new Quality Guarantee ensuring that all ingredients used on the pizza are 100% fresh which was reassuring to know, because low quality food could put a dampener on the evening. Luckily, the Papa Johns Pizza lived up to our expectations and we all enjoyed our pizzas.
For a family pizza night, we normally spread out a large picnic blanket over the living room floor and set everything out there like an indoor picnic. The kids love to do this, and it gives us all more space.
If we’re watching a new movie that we hadn’t seen before in the cinema, then it’s normally better to eat first and then concentrate on watching the movie but if it’s a favourite that has been seen before, then you can get away with watching and eating at the same time, since you know what happens and it doesn’t matter if you talk over some. This week we watched Planes 2 which we saw in the cinema and loved. Sometimes my sister joins us for our pizza nights too, and we have lots of favourite movies that we like to watch that we have seen so many times already!
For the food, it’s great that Papa Johns has a varied menu so we could get the kids their usual cheese and tomato pizza, but get something a little more exciting for ourselves. I chose the Greek pizza which has feta cheese, black olives, sliced tomatoes and sliced pepperoncini (this is a type of sweet pepper, mildly hot.)
I definitely noticed that the ingredients on this Greek pizza were very fresh, and I especially liked the olives. These are picked in Spain’s famous Herrera groves. It’s great to know that Papa Johns have taken pride in selecting these good quality ingredients for their pizza toppings, and there is a real difference between this and a pizza from one of the local non-branded cheaper pizza takeaways.
Papa Johns quality guarantee also extends to the basic pizza ingredients like the dough, cheese and tomatoes. Since day one, John Schnatter, the founder of Papa John’s pizza, insisted that the hand tossed dough needs to be 100% fresh and never frozen. Meanwhile, Californian vine-ripened tomatoes are used for the pizza’s tomato sauce. We did notice that the cheese and tomato pizza was fresher and less greasy than some other pizza takeaways that we have tried.
We always like to get some starters to share too. My boys love a few potato wedges with their pizza.
After watching the movie, to keep our family time going a little longer it’s always fun to get out a few games. Now that R is moving out of the toddler stage, all of the children are able to join in with more of the board games which is great and means that everyone can be fully included.
This week we played Skylanders Pop n Race which is a classic game, but with a Skylanders twist. Anything that ties into the kids current obsessions is always a hit so naturally this went down well.
For more family night game ideas you could also try some of these:
- Jungle Speed Safari Game
- Party Games: Limbo
- Disney Eye Found It Game
- Articulate and Articulate for Kids
- Bugs in the Kitchen
- Pumpaloons
Active games on xbox connect or Nintendo Wii are always lots of fun too. We like to play the dancing games – a good way to work up an appetite while waiting for your pizza to arrive!
Thanks to Papa Johns for supplying our pizza and entertainment for our night in, so that we could share our thoughts with you.
Anna Marikar, mum of four and seasoned blogger, has spent over a decade sharing her parenting journey and passion for kid-friendly crafts and free printables.
Her easy-to-follow craft ideas and practical parenting advice have transformed In The Playroom into a cherished resource for parents.
Sounds like a fun evening, I used to use Papa Johns a lot when I lived near one but there isn’t one in my hometown now sadly. We love a family pizza and movie night too.
Sounds like a great night and will be definitely trying it all out on a Friday or Saturday (when no rush to get up early), we normally just have the odd night were we switch off the tv and play a couple of games or cards and dominoes – definitely breaks up the week and the routine of just sitting in front of the tv every night
We tried Papa Jones for the first time last year – their pizzas are really tasty! We love pizza night in our house!