Dinner time fun!

That fort pic was my first time posting a picture! I just have to figure out how to get the text to appear under the picture. I will get it, I am making progress as a Rookie blogger. Maybe someday I will become a veteran!

Since I posted about how important it is to find time to eat together as a family ( and trust me I know it can be hard with such busy schedules), I thought I would include some fun dinner time ideas

#1 Mystery dinner – this is my kids favorite! I prepare dinner( usually a meal they are pretty familiar with), put the food on everyone’s plates, then cover the plates with a dish towel and set it at their place at the table. When everyone arrives, I go around the table and have each person close their eyes and feed them a bite from one of the items on their plate, everyone tries the same thing. Once everyone tries a bite, they can then guess what it was. The kids love it! I also put up a sheet on the kitchen door as I am preparing the dinner so no one can peek and see what I am making. It also adds to the mystery of the whole thing

#2 Backwards dinner- Serve dessert first, wear backwards clothes to dinner, turn the chair around backwards….etc You can get creative with this!

#3 Breakfast week – I serve breakfast foods for dinner all week. Pancake and sausage night is always the favorite

#4 Favorites week – I make each persons favorite meal one night during the week

#5 Green dinner – when the kids were learning their colors, I would serve different colored dinners. For example we had, green mashed potatoes, green milk, green beans, chicken with green chives, green onions etc on top and cupcakes with green frosting. Food coloring works wonders. The kids loved this, poor hubby had a little trouble eating the green mashed potatoes!

#6 Ice Cream for dinner – Ok I only do this once a year in the summer, but the kids really look forward to it, and it has become a fun tradition!

#7 Mommy’s Buffet – Actually this evolved as a great way to get rid of leftovers, but has become something everyone looks forward to. I put out all the leftovers on the counter buffet style, plus add a few of everyone’s favorites as extras ( something easy like hot dogs, cheese and crackers, yogurt) and let everyone go back to the buffet as often as they wish.

So gather the troops together this week and have a fun dinner TOGETHER!

Let me know your ideas for eating dinner together.

The coolest fort in the world

The Fort……here is SportTMan’s latest fort upgrade, the window comes from the neighbor’s trash, the “new” wood comes from an Amish barn that was torn down. It’s an eyesore to me, but to a 12 year old boy, it’s beautiful! Besides that I think 12 yo boys should have more opportunities to build cool forts and less opportunities for watching TV, using the computer, Nitendo DS, Wii etc……