Disclosure: This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #InsideOutEmotions #CollectiveBias

At least once a week I head to the store to get necessary grocery and toiletry items, and usually I pick one of my kids to go with me. Last week it was my youngest little guy, RoRo, and the store of choice was Walmart. While we were shopping, he noticed right away that there was a display getting set up for one of our favorite family movies that we saw in theaters just a few months ago. That’s right, Inside Out is now available to purchase as of November 3rd!

Oh, the excitement! It’s a rare occasion that our entire family makes it out to a movie theater together, so when we do we are sure that it’s a good one. Inside Out did not disappoint, in fact it was so much more than we even imagined! As my little ones bounced out of the theater discussing which emotion was each member of our family, my husband and I discussed our favorite parts of the movie with the older kids. We laughed at how each of us identified with different characters and why. Personally I loved Joy and Disgust, but for some reason my little ones think I’m Anger as well. It was a lot of fun sharing our thoughts on the movie and what parts we liked best, and in discussing it we discovered we wanted to see it again. Of course we knew once it came out on DVD we’d be purchasing it. That was a given.

When we discovered the movie on the shelves, we also discovered these adorable little toys. The Bing Bong character is musical, you just press his tie and he recites some of his best lines from the movie. He’s definitely one of my favorite characters, and not just because of the elephant face and the pink color, although those are what made me love him at first. We also found Joy, Fear and Anger, but had a difficult time finding Sadness and Disgust. I’m going to keep looking, but the sales associates say those seem to be the most popular characters. Go figure!

We decided to have a little movie watching party with the youngest boys and their cousins who hadn’t had a chance to see the movie yet. We even found a fun Inside Out throw blanket that’s perfect for curling up on the couch with, and it even covered all 4 boys!

Now, if you’re not familiar with the movie or don’t know what it’s about I can share with you the short version. The movie shows a little girl named Riley as she’s growing up and learning. She lives in Minnesota and plays hockey, and when she’s 11 her family moves to San Francisco. The movie highlights the emotions she feels, Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust. Bing Bong was her imaginary friend in her younger years. The story follows the story of Riley and her family, as well as the emotions and how they interact with one another and get more complicated as she gets older. There’s also these colored balls, where memories are stored. Each color is based on the emotion of that memory. Then we get into core memories and long term memory.. it’s all explained in the movie.

I really loved this movie a lot. There were parts that made me cry, because it reminded me of the changes my own kids have gone through. Seeing them so carefree and young, then moody and sad or angry or fearful and trying to navigate this world as they become more independent. Motherhood can be a bit of a bittersweet experience. My heart swells with pride when I see all that my children accomplish and learn, and the people they’ve become. There’s still those moments though, when you remember their first steps, or the first time they rode their bike. Every day was an adventure and it was such a thrill to see the world through their eyes.

Not only is the story exceptional, but the colors and imagination that goes into this story is just unreal. It’s the perfect movie for all ages because the younger kids love the colors, the fun shapes and funny characters and then the older kids identify with the story line. I just love a good family movie, and Inside Out was absolutely it for me this year.

What I love about this movie is that it also touches on unpleasant emotions that sometimes as a society we feel like we have to play down. We are always trying to look for the good in things, think of the positive and put on a smile. What we fail to remember is that you don’t grow that way. Growth is painful. It can be scary, it can be sad and sometimes you will be mad. It’s important to be in touch with those feelings as well.

This is what I think is an important lesson in this movie, that we aren’t just one dimensional people that smile and go through life. We’re going to have a wide range of feelings and emotions, sometimes in just a span of an hour. And that’s ok. It’s how we learn to balance them that helps us grow!

I really loved that my kids liked this movie. Being a family that has multiple boys, it’s important for me to help them through their feelings. I sometimes feel as though boys and young men are always expected to be strong and not to complain too much. They need to be resilient and courageous. But boys hurt too, just as much as girls. They have feelings, and can be sad or mad just like anyone else. That’s important for me when it comes to my sons, I want them to feel comfortable talking about their feelings and understanding why they feel the way they do. Of course they loved the Anger character, they would laugh when his anger would turn to rage, and they even identified the most with him. But they also saw Joy in their personalities as well as Fear, Disgust and Sadness.

Since our boys loved this movie so much, we decided to grab the Blu-Ray version since it also comes with a DVD. We have an SUV with a DVD player and TV in it, and this movie is perfect to play in the car during our longer trips while we keep the Blu-Ray version at home. We also invited their cousins over to watch with them, since they hadn’t gotten a chance to see it yet. I was super excited to prepare a fun movie night and talk about these different feelings with all these little boys, that I decided to create a little movie night fun with lots of exciting Inside Out theme party foods and snacks they could enjoy. They even had a great time helping me brainstorm different foods for each emotion and creating fun names for each item and their corresponding character.

We’ve pretty much had the movie on repeat since we purchased it, so when their cousins were over they watched the movie and snacked while I made all the goodies. We wanted to have a fun little set up and showcase each little toy with their food next to them. My boys had the great idea to get these cute mini chalkboard clips to write down the name of each food too!

First up was the sadness character. I decided chocolate donuts were in order, because I know a lot of people turn to chocolate when they’re sad. Also, Sadness’ glasses are big, round and brown, just like mine were as a child. Anyway, they reminded me of chocolate donuts. I had originally considered calling the donuts the circle of sadness, since that’s a key part in the movie, but RiRi enjoys funny puns so we came up with Donut-Be-Sad Chocolate Donuts. Ha! So punny! The photos really do the blue color no justice. They were a beautiful shade of royal blue, that I sprinkled with chocolate sprinkles as well as blue sprinkles, then dusted with blue glittery sprinkles to resemble the glittery sheen of Sadness’ hair. Not only were they too cute, but these donuts were delicious and moist.

For Joy we made these fun little cupcake liners filled with Pop of Joy Candied Popcorn. Basically we popped up some movie theater popcorn, added some yellow colored candy melts and candy covered chocolate with glittery sprinkles all over. That’s it! Super simple, very cute and so tasty. This was the perfect pairing for our girl, Joy.

The food we prepared to go with Fear has to be one of my favorites. My youngest, RoRo, loves deviled eggs. He’ll eat a dozen all to himself, and I decided they’d be the perfect pairing for Fear. He has those big round eyes and that little wire of hair, so I soaked hard-boiled eggs in a homemade pickled beet juice to get a beautiful purple-fuchsia tone, then added a little slice of olive that reminds me of Fear’s hounds-tooth vest and little wiry hair on the top of his head. The result is something I’ll definitely be making again, and they are so classy looking. We paired them with grapes for some healthier snacking options to balance out all the other sugary treats!

Speaking of sugar, in the movie the first scene that we see Anger really blow up is at due to a possible threat of no dessert for Riley. So it’s pretty much a given that I had to make something sweet for Anger’s character, and what would compliment him more than a red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting in fiery colors. I think it’s a perfect match, don’t you?

Bing Bong is my favorite character and these have always been one of my favorite cookies when I’d buy sweets at the grocery store. Soft and thick with that beautiful layer of frosting and the colorful sprinkles. I just knew I had to make these for Bing Bong. I think they go together nicely!

My idea for Disgust was also a no-brainer. Anything green is gross to little kids, especially if it’s a drink. So of course I had to make green smoothies that were really Not-So-Disgusting. A green striped straw and tied with a purple ribbon, we knew this had to be Disgust’s signature drink.

Each Recipe has a printable photo you can easily print on 5×7 paper, they’d be perfect to include on a package if you’re gifting or even as a stack next to your food display at your party!

We ended up having such a fun movie night in, we didn’t even mind that it was storming all weekend! We had a blast with our colorful food and learning more about feelings and which emotions everybody feels they identify most with. I’d call that a success!

Each Inside Out Theme Recipe has a PRINTABLE Recipe Card. Just click the photo and choose to print on your browser menu!

Who was your favorite Inside Out character? Did you identify with one more than the others?

Enjoy your own movie night in, and don’t forget to grab your copy of Inside Out on Blu-Ray or DVD and check out the toy section of Walmart for all your favorite characters!