How to Have a Fun Family Game Night Pretzel Party with Snyder's of Hanover and Mattel Board Games

Thank you to Snyder's of Hanover and to Mattel for providing complimentary product samples to help us plan our event.  All opinions expressed are my own.

You've probably heard me complain before about how infrequently we get to plan a Family Game Night at our house.  When I was invited to plan a Family Game Night Pretzel Party with the help of Snyder's of Hanover pretzels and Mattel board games, how could I refuse?  After all, they did all the hard work for me.

Step 1.  Be sure you have a large assortment of pretzels.  You'll want to choose some old favorites (like the Snyder's of Hanover Peanut Butter Pretzel Sandwiches and the Honey Wheat Braids), some pretzel varieties that your family has never tried before (such as the Cheddar Cheese & Cracked Pepper Flavor Doubles or the Bacon Cheddar Pretzel Pieces), plus some plain pretzels for dipping.

Step 2.  Choose a variety of age-appropriate games.  We had received the Apples to Apples Party Box, which was for ages 12 and up, and the Uno Power Grab, which was slightly out of the age range of our twin kindergartners.  We ended up playing the Parrot Pile-Up Game followed by the Uno Card Game, both of which were the perfect age for our twins and their 9 year old big brother.

Step 3.  Make one or more of these super-easy marshmallow pretzel dips.

Step 4.  Invite your children to enjoy the pretzels and dip before you bring out the games.  This will allow you to get all the stickiness out of the way first.

Step 5.  Bring on the games!

We started with the Parrot Pile-Up Game because we had never heard of it before and the parrot on the box looked super-fun.  This game does not require any skills other than a steady hand, which put players of all ages on a pretty even playing field.

All you had to do was add a piece of cargo to the pile on the raft and push the raft with one finger only to its next stop without letting any cargo fall off the raft.  The higher the pile of cargo got, the more fun and laughter ensued.  Parrot Pile-Up was a surprisingly entertaining game for the whole family.  It turned out our 6 year old daughter had the steadiest hand out of everyone.  She won the game by getting rid of all her pieces of cargo first.

Next, we moved onto the Uno Card Game.  This is a great game for children ages 6 and up.  The players need only to be able to match numbers or colors with a few specialty cards thrown in.

Our daughter ended up winning this game too, so she got to sit back and watch the rest of the game while munching on more pretzels.  She just could not get enough of the Bacon Cheddar Pretzel Bits and the Honey Wheat Braids dipped in the chocolate marshmallow dip.

The rest of the game went on for quite some time until it was down to my husband and our 9 year old son.  There was quite a bit of good-natured ribbing going on between them.  It just made us all laugh watching them carry on the way they did.

I think we made some great memories that night.  If you'd like to plan your own Family Game Night Pretzel Party, start off by picking up some pretzels.  You can look for specially marked bags of Snyder's of Hanover pretzels that have a coupon for $1.00 off any Uno brand game.

Visit SnydersOfHanvoer.com and Mattel.com for more items to make your Family Game Night a fun and memorable one.

How to Plan a #DipDipHooray Family Game Night Dinner (#CBias)

I have always wanted to schedule a regular Hasbro Game Night for our family because spending time together and creating happy childhood memories is extremely important to me.  The problem is that our household is a less than leisurely one.  Our weekends are always filled with chores, errands, and events.  A typical weekday for our children would be school, homework, dinner, bath, and bedtime.  We also manage to squeeze taekwondo classes in there twice a week after school.

I am a little disappointed in myself for not putting my multi-tasking skills to work before now, but it only recently occurred to me that the solution for being too busy to fit in a Family Game Night regularly is to combine dinnertime with game time!  Our children are 5.5, 5.5, and 8.5 years old, so they have not yet reached the age when they will be missing family dinners for other activities.  I need to take advantage of the time we spend together during dinnertime now.

The first step to planning a Family Game Night Dinner would be to make sure you have several board games that can be played by the number of people in your family.  In our case, we needed a game that would allow at least 5 people to play at once.  I really only had a couple that were easy enough for our kindergartners to play, so I decided that I should pick up a new game when I went shopping for the other things I needed for dinner.

The next step would be to pick up some easy no-mess kid-friendly food for dinner.  Tyson Chicken Nuggets, Ore-Ida French Fries, and Heinz Ketchup for dipping seemed like the perfect meal solution.  They are all things I know my children love and the key to a fun Family Game Night Dinner is to have zero fussing about the food, so that we can focus on the fun!  This includes minimizing your time preparing dinner and cleaning up afterwards.  If you do not have a dishwasher, then go ahead and use paper plates and cups, so there will be more time for playing.  The only "extra" thing I did was sprinkle garlic salt and a little pepper on the fries before I put them in the oven.

I was able to find everything I needed in one shopping trip to Walmart, except for the extra fries.  I already had a partial bag of Golden Crinkle French Fries in the freezer, but wanted some extra in case what I had on hand was not enough.  I ended up picking up a bag of Hash Browns instead, but it turned out we did not even need them.

To get the fun started, ask your children to break the rule about not playing with their food by building something cool with their fries and chicken nuggets.  One of the adults will choose the winner, who will then be able to pick which game the family will be playing during dinner.

Our youngest son won the building contest!  He built several small things rather than trying to use all his food to build one structure.  My favorite concoction is his french fry sandwich, which used two chicken nuggets as the bread.

I was hoping our son would choose the new Pictureka game I had picked up, but he opted for the Star Wars Operation game instead.  I really did not mind his choice because I rule at Operation!  (What? No, none of this let the children win nonsense for me.)


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 #CBias #SocialFabric #DipDipHooray.  All opinions expressed are my own.